Bless You Beautiful Artisan

This is for all you creative and courageous wild ones bringing your big heart, your beautiful gifts, and your embodied soul into the world that desperately needs you.

I see you. We see you. Keep showing up. Persist. Go to the forest, go to the cave, go to the sacred river for nourishment and renewal, but keep coming back, bigger and more powerful than ever. I know you will, because that’s what you’re meant to do. We need you. We build each other up because The Great Turning needs it.

Here’s a little reminder from Bill Plotkin:

“You’re attempting to bring mystery, wildness, deep imagination, and praise of the sacred (the natural) to a society obsessed with security, comfort, material wealth, and the ownership of things. The culture you live in consists mostly of commodities and objects, while all things you encounter are entities and subjects.

As an Artisan in an egocentric world, you have no guarantee that society will welcome your gifts. It’s possible that people will look upon your innovations or your original voice as odd, irrelevant, or crazy, or perhaps as subversive or immoral. Or you might do your work in complete obscurity and frustration, at least for a while.

In an egocentric society its easier to become discouraged in the always difficult work of creative innovation, beause its easier to convince yourself that no one cares about what you have to offer.

But this is just a strategy of the Loyal Soldier, who is still attempting to keep you safe by making you feel small. Thank him or her for his/her kind intentions, and stay on your course. The fact is, in an egoentric world, your soul gifts are needed EVEN MORE than in a healthy one.

Remember that self-doubt is as self-centered as self-inflation. Your obligation is to reach as deeply as you can and offer your unique and authentic gifts as bravely and beautifully as you’re able.

From the Artisan in the Wild Orchard chapter in Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World