I have been following an interesting legacy story, featured in this issue, for some time. I had no idea until this past weekend that it would so profoundly impact me, though. We’ve been talking in the 7 Steps to Creating Your Legacy program about how legacy follows from your values – because what you value is what you are passionate about. So many of us are driven by unmet needs, which makes it difficult to even remember what we value, let alone act on that.

This is especially true in times of need, which there’s a lot of these days as the media will not let us forget. And where there’s a lot of need there are a lot more people working to overcome it, exercising their values of caring, concern and compassion – for self and others. I’d love it if the media reported on more of that. But then, I’m the one who still wants to start GNN, the Good News Network and have my own cable channel filled with good and inspiring news and tips. For now, I exercise that desire with the Legacy Journal, and hope it fills a bit of that void.

Among my values are family, integrity, health and wellness (a component of integrity), elimination of waste, environmental protection and preservation of natural spaces (components of integrity, health and wellness!) My legacy is being built on those values. Our legacy story this month does, too, so I’m not only happy to share it, I’m happy I got to be a part of it.

Oh, and the garden is in – or at least started! Here in the sub-tropics October means planting tomatoes, ramping up the community gardens and subscribing to an organic buying club to get those things we can’t grow ourselves without chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The compost we’ve been cooking all summer is ready (did I really used to throw away that rich organic matter?). And the deteriorating clay pots we reclaimed (our summer art project), are now coming to good re-use! The photo is our start: tomatoes, pole beans, snap peas and a volunteer cantaloupe that started in the compost bin. The greens and herb seeds aren’t quite up yet...more to come.

Fantasy Fest – Key West’s version of Mardi Gras with its numerous events benefiting AIDS Help – is right around the corner, as is Halloween. These dates kick off the vibrant winter season in the Florida Keys. With all my heart, I hope things are well where you are – and if they are troubled in anyway, that you can find a way to count your blessings everyday. Since what you appreciate, appreciates, that will bring you closer to more and more of what you love. 

Cheers,


Dolly

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In any exploration of your own legacy, you have to start with integrity – that is, wholeness, honestly being who you truly are. “Know thyself” as Socrates said. Complete things uncompleted, or gently let them go if they don’t fully resonate with you. Stop tolerating; clear out your physical, mental and emotional space, so you can truly embrace all aspects of your life and want what you have, rather than being focused on getting what you want, or just getting more, more, more – a compulsion driven by a sense of lack and scarcity rather than fullness.

How to do all that? Much of it starts with choosing your attitude, one of the few things each of us has total control over.

Start by exercising gratitude for the good things in your life – and, as Lynne Twist instructs, what you appreciate, will appreciate. By doing so, you’ll get clear on what has meaning for you, what you love, what you’re drawn to, inspired by, excited about. You’re getting closer to identifying your values. Knowing what they are, and living from that place, allows you to experience more and more of what you truly care about and value – beyond the glass half full, to a true cup runneth over experience.

Try the I-N-W-V Model. Life becomes much simpler when you put your Integrity first, your Needs second, your Wants third and then keep your focus on you Values.

"WANTS third?" you might ask. "But I've waited so long to do what I want!" you might say. “I strive and strive to have what I truly want! Isn’t that what I’m entitled to in this life?”

Actually, it's not what you think. It's worse. This is to suggest that you do only what you want to do, all of the time. So what about steps 1 and 2? The I-N-W-V Model explains:

Integrity (I) Do what's right for your physical and emotional well-being. Choose to be 100% responsible for what happens in all aspects of life that you touch. Accept that the physical universe never lies. Patch up any and all cracks in your life and energy. Notice your attitude and choose a better one. Yes, you can.

Needs (N) Needs are not personal, but they are yours to handle. As Abraham Maslow demonstrates, physical needs – the levels of physiological and safety in his hierarchy – can be met relatively easily in western societies. This is especially true, when mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of our well-being (our integrity) are given some focus. And these, too, depend on choices.

Virtually all emotional needs are permanently satisfiable, and doing so goes a long way to helping address physical needs. Decide how much you truly need and what is sufficient – learn what is ‘enough’ for you. Just like perfect is the enemy of done, more is the enemy of enough. Find out what is enough for you, what is more than enough, a little extra in case you need it – then get that; and be full, satisfied, content and feel assured you have plenty, enough. Satisfying needs is a skill, which, when learned, will free up about 50% of your waking hours to devote elsewhere.

Wants (W) When your integrity and needs are handled, you're left with your wants. Your wants diminish or simplify, and are much more easily met as you handle your integrity and needs. Why do people find it a challenge to shelve the wants in order to take care of the integrity and needs first? Several reasons:

• Striving for what we want gives us energy.
• Sometimes, humans are driven by their egos.
• Without satisfied wants, some people think life is not worth living.
• The media creates wants to keep people buying.
• Satisfying integrity and needs first hasn't yet occurred to the person.

But the I-N-W-V Model goes like this: Shelve all wants, indefinitely. Spend the time to fully restore the integrity of WHO YOU REALLY ARE. Identify and get your needs met – fully, more than what you think is enough, with a reserve – so it truly is enough. You won't want much anymore and what you do want, you will get more easily. Then you can focus on what you VALUE, and things really open up – both in terms of who you are and what you do.

Try on the model. You might like it.

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Journalists across four continents have now called it “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history” as citizens in 181 nations staged actions on International Day of Climate Action, October 24th, to demand a quicker response to climate change. The New York Times covered it on the front page. In Times Square people watched images of this movement flood in from every corner of the world on jumbo-tron screens. More than 5200 separate events were held around the globe. The news got more impressions than any other story in the world this past weekend.

This explosion of rallies, events and other activities all occurring within one 24 hour revolution of the earth, will be remembered by many, has and will make a big difference on the planet, will be sustained for some time to come – and will be built on going forward. Truly legacies each and every one, inspired by one individual’s amazing legacy.

It started with a book. U.S. author Bill McKibben, has written a number of books in his career on topics reflecting his values – ranging from economics to nature to local communities to genetic engineering and family. He was also the author who twenty years ago now, in 1989, wrote the first book to alert the general public to the threat of global warming, called The End of Nature. We have come to know the phenomenon as a far more wide-ranging complex set of issues now called global climate change. So, McKibben followed with a book about what people can do about it, called Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community, published in 2007. But knowing that writing books would not be enough, he then created another legacy project, the movement that exploded on Saturday, October 24, 2009.

To get there, along with a team of university friends he created www.350.org, an organization powered by an international team and growing crew of international youth organizers. The program, and Web site of the same name, is an international climate change campaign, named for a statistic: 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide. That’s the upper limit of CO2 in the atmosphere scientists say is safe for humanity. That’s you and me, our families, and your kids and grandkids, since I don’t have any of those (but am concerned for yours).

Of course carbon dioxide is but one of several greenhouse gases that is excessive in earth’s atmosphere, including methane, tetrafluoromethane, hexafluoroethane, sulfur hexafluoride, and others. But carbon dioxide, resulting from a seeming unstoppable burning of fossil fuels, is currently at 387 ppm...and climbing. Industry innovations and investments, and conservation efforts thus far, including government incentives for production of clean, renewable energy technologies (or rather lack thereof), demonstrate little to reverse that trend. (Ever wonder why we have so many health problems?)

October 24th, was an exquisitely coordinated International Day of Climate Action, urging those interested – and concerned – to call for a strong climate treaty that meets the 350 target – in advance of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December of 2009.

And they answered the call, loud and clear.

The Day of Climate Action began at dawn Saturday in New Zealand, swept around the world as the sun rose. Events were held from high up in the Himalayan mountains to underwater off of the Maldives islands and elsewhere – 300 actions took place in China, with huge gatherings in India and Australia. Fifteen thousand people rallied in the streets of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, and activists used crushed rock to make a giant sign on an Afghan mountainside easily visible from Kabul twenty kilometers away. All the actions focused on that number: 350, the most carbon dioxide the atmosphere can safely hold, and the desire to get us back there.

Photos and videos – tangible evidence of the individual legacies of those participating from around the world – have been submitted to the 350.org site and are amazing to say the least. Others are on the related Flickr photo site. My favorites are the photos from places “foreign” to me – the Middle East, Asia and Africa – where people with proud, smiling faces, creatively making signs for “350” and urging action to reverse climate change trends – looked just like our little group here in the Florida Keys. Talk about a “we’re-all one-and-we’re-all-in-this-together” experience – I have been glued to the site all weekend, periodically getting ‘goose bumps’ and teary-eyed at the inspiration of it all. Not to mention stirred to action as this all bumps up against values I hold dear.

Here at home, the environmental organization I help direct, Sanctuary Friends Foundation of the Florida Keys, came together with another, Green Living and Energy Education, as a “blue and green coalition.” We jointly promoted an event at our Key West Eco-Discovery Center to show two educational films about the effects of climate change. Together, we carried the message “Save our Islands and our Reefs! Reduce emissions now! 350”! A small group of the participants stayed on after for a picture we posted on 350.org to add the support of our own little legacy project – which will develop into a series of additional environmental films

“These are the kinds of crowds that turn out for rock stars or charismatic politicians, but instead they are rallying around a scientific data point,” said Bill McKibben said in a press release. “They’re asking our leaders to lead – to pay attention to scientific reality, not political convenience.”