In this blog post, BLOOM founder Olubode introduces five questions we can ask each other that are meant to inspire awareness of our natural powers-- to center, inspire and celebrate them.

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Recently, in a group that I am part of, one of the members asked, “How do we hold each other lovingly accountable?” I have seldom heard the questions asked so purely. Accountability is something that we tend to approach with horror – a sense that somehow we will be embarrassed and shamed in the process. But this question was asked in a small group of men who really love each other, so it sat differently, and took me into a space of wondering.

This is my thoughtful response.

There is already known ways to help to hold each other accountable for the goals and intentions that we have spoken. 

They include:

— Reminding each other of what we said, 

— Asking how the progress is going? 

— Inquiring into what has been...

Friends,

Today, I caught myself reading about the war in Ukraine and weeping…

I wept not just about this war. I wept for all our wars– born of misunderstandings and mis-communication.  I wept from the hopelessness and sadness I feel about this particular time in our human evolution. 

I am okay with feeling these feelings. 

Feeling hopeless does not negate the possibility of change.  For me hopelessness is the product of the memory of my desire for change–for something new. 

It is my desire, being born.

These days I have a careful vigilance around my emotional life. We are in an environment of mis-information, where the need for money, to be right and have power over others too often shapes one’s truth away from what we know is possible. 

The wars we wage with each other and ourselves, are rooted in our instinct to survive, at any cost. 

I know survival well.  

When I turned 60, 3 years ago it seemed as though all...

Dear One,

It would seem, if the news is to be believed, we are “running out of options.”  Among them are the options to make peace, to work together towards equity and justice, to save the planet, and to create new cultural narratives that free us all. 

Too often we have been painted into a worldview, where life seems to be shrinking rather than expanding. Too often, we hear about what’s failing rather than what is succeeding. 

Today’s RISE is about what we at BLOOM call “BOLD MOVES.” Simply said, these are moves that align with who you are, what you can do, and what you have. 

Making a BOLD MOVE, runs counter to the dystopian narrative that sees things as falling apart. 

To keep moving forward, towards that which you deeply desire is a revolutionary act.  To do so subscribes to the realization that desire is stronger than fear; that fear is the product of our desires coming into being… that fear is not the...