I spent a deeply stirring week at the Ojai Foundation this past October with Joanna Macy, trainers from the Pachamama Alliance and a gang of beautiful, conscious folks who have dedicated their lives to a creating sustainable and just future for all. I’m still in the midst of integrating what I experienced and deciding how I wish share the blessings I received. One bit I can share right now is the Beauty Way.
The Ojai Foundation adopted the practice and shares it with all those who visit. Having the chance to live it for a week had a tacit yet significant influence on me, helping to shift my priorities to include the “how” as well as the “what”. Another way to say it might be a greater emphasis on being in addition to doing. I have since been endeavoring to bring The Beauty Way more fully into my life. Here it is:
The beauty way is an awareness of the effect I leave on community, space, people and land.
The beauty way is the freedom to voice choice.
The beauty way is encouraging these practices.
The beauty way is encouraging these relationships.
The beauty way is a feeling of being resolved upon entering and leaving a space.
The beauty way is present in actions.
The beauty way is the effect of space on people.
The beauty way is an awareness of cause and effect.
The beauty way is a holistic, energetic point of view, beyond neat and meticulous placement of objects.
The beauty way is bringing consciousness to details.
The beauty way is awareness.
The beauty way is engaging with, rather than traveling through, space.
The beauty way is modeling, rather than teaching, the beauty way.
Living the beauty way is in some ways equivalent to living Council.
The beauty way is being energetically clean.
The beauty way is being relationally clean.
The beauty way is actively engaging in psychological, emotional and spiritual process.
From the Ojai Foundation