 |
|
|
|
We shall not cease from exploration,
And the end of all our exploring,
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot
|
|
|
A personal welcome letter from Fifth World Lifeway founder, Terry Woodward
Thank you for giving of your time and attention to visit here. Often the About Us website page is written from a third person perspective. I want to write this one from first person because this project is personal, our connections and relationships are personal and it all matters.
I didn't start off in life with the intention of learning how to live in harmony with Nature or to learn how to build and live in Community but now, at mid-life, as I look back I can see that this is what I've always been doing.
This Fifth World Lifeway website Community project represents the coming together of all of the patterns, ponderings, experience and inquiry that I can muster to share with you in hopes that you will join me in looking at how together we can create ways of sovereign, integral living - Fifth World Lifeways that affirm all life so we can live masterfully with beauty, ease and grace and leave a living cultural legacy for our children that we can be proud of.
My ancestral roots are primarily European immigrant although my great-great grandmother was a Seminole Native American maiden according to my late grandfather. I've always had a strong affinity with the Native American culture beginning when I was very young. There is something spiritual and practical there that just resonates with the core of my being.
My precious wife and partner Luda was born in Russia and grew up on the island of Sahkalin. We've been married for about eight years now. It's been a real growth experience for both of us learning how to combine and integrate two cultures and two languages and I wouldn't trade that experience for the world. There is such richness in the uniting of diverse backgrounds and cultural experiences. I believe this to be one of the greatest treasures of humankind and it is the purpose of this Fifth World Lifeway website.
Our Clear and Present Responsibility
The Hopi have a prophecy stone in their guardianship. This tablet shows probable futures for Humankind. In the beginning there is just one path – a path of harmony with Nature. As the path progresses Humankind takes a turn away from Nature toward Materialism and the path splits. The pathway drawn for Materialism ends. It is not sustainable.
Etched on the stone is a connecting line showing a last chance to return again to the pathway in balance with Nature. We stand at that line in this moment. We will either choose to destroy ourselves together with the Natural world or choose to humble ourselves and return to the respectful way of living in harmony with Nature and with each other.
What will we choose?
I choose to Live and Serve...
I choose to heed the call of Spirit…
I choose to walk the path with Nature…
Life Lessons In Preparation For Service
I believe that each of us incarnates on this Earth with a Sacred work to do. Our challenge is to observe the signposts, seek Higher Guidance, understand our role and then get on with the Work.
As a child, I had a deep love for learning and a desire to help others. Devout, religious parents along with growing up on a farm contributed to an early appreciation for Nature and a seeking for higher Truth. This seeking was to take many exploratory paths over 40 odd years as one path after another was selected, tried and then subsequently discarded.
What makes a Hu(man)? These words following have the ring of truth about them…
'When heaven is about to confer a great office upon a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes him to poverty and confounds all his undertakings. THEN it is seen if he is ready.' - Zen Proverb
Our society has many answers for the question ‘What makes a Man’, most oriented along the lines of physical beauty and/or material success.
To me, what makes a Hu(man) are the many lessons of Love that each of us experiences and grows from. Often these lessons are painful. What is learned enhances the true inner form or character of the Man unveiling integrity and producing wisdom. These qualities are eternal.
Some Lessons of Love Experienced…
From devout religious parents I learned what it is to be devoted to a Higher Ideal at all times and at all costs. I also learned about exclusivity and judgment. It took a lot of subsequent life lessons to realize that ALL IS ONE.
From Mother, who was a school teacher for many years, I learned how to see life as one big curiosity to explore and learn from - learned to push forward to persist in discovery - learned to take time to stop off along the path to see the places of preservation of culture and history.
From Father I learned how to seek to draw from the wellspring of that which is within us and sustains us - learned to communicate without words. Learned to see and appreciate the sacred beauty seen in all things, from the wobbly steps of the newborn lamb to the unfolding grace of the tender corn plant to the tranquility of casting the line into the stillness of the trout pool.
From the farm I learned what Nature feels like in all her Glory - learned what good honest labor feels like - learned ingenuity and creativity - learned the helpfulness of labor saving devices - yet also saw what price these tools demanded.
From Grandfather I learned what financial giving means and what the flow of abundance means. At his funeral, speaker after speaker came forward to tell how he had helped them. The current owners of his Newspaper business were penniless laborers who asked for work. He said – I’ll give you work. They said we don’t have a car to get to work. He gave them a car. He believed in them. They carry on and multiply his legacy and his memory.
From Grandmother I learned what selfless service means. Grandmother had five sons yet never tired of the cooking, milking the cows, baking, giving gifts and thoughtful cards to others. Her greatest frustration after having her stroke that paralyzed part of her body was not her condition but the way it hampered her ability to give to others.
From experience in attending a private religious grade school school that my family helped to found I observed what it’s like to learn together in small groups and learned of the difficulties and challenges of operating on small budgets. From high school Math teacher I experienced the sheer joy of learning, as the doors of mathematics and logic were unchained with nurturing attention, teaching and encouragement.
From University schooling in Electronics Engineering Technology, a year of religious studies, a year of MBA School and now classes in ecoPsychology I learned what it’s like to apply sustained effort to complete a patterned system of learning. I learned of the variety of viewpoints, biases and opinions - learned that the real geniuses were the ones with the Inspirational breakthroughs not those who can memorize and recall facts.
From varied employment and entrepreneurial ventures in Engineering and Business I learned how our system of Capitalism and Materialism works and doesn’t work. I learned how to synthesize and analyze - learned how to build and sustain relationships - learned how to build systems.
From marriages (on the third one now) I learned what it’s like to depend on someone and have someone depend on you. I learned what a joy it is to bring new lives into the world and nurture and sacrificially care for them - learned that there is an alternative view available to Love that is inclusive – learned that judgment of others and separation is painful. I learned through divorce that Love is attractive and not coercive. One cannot manipulate and control others – even if thinking it is ‘for their own good’. I learned about loss and experienced that there is meaning in the axiom ‘what we sow, we reap.’
From Spiritual transformation in 2003 I learned that ALL IS ONE - that Love is all there is. I learned that what we hold tightly in our belief system will faithfully manifest for us - learned that we are more than our physical body and that our reality is much, much more than it seems - that we all have a purpose and a work to do here - that my specific purpose is to learn how to form and serve in Community in it’s many forms including this online Community - Fifth World Lifeway.
Inviting You to Join Me
I'm personally inviting you to join me (it's free) in seeking to find the answers for the question: "How then shall we live?"
I've organized the material of the website in four basic areas of exploration "Being", "Learning", "Living" and "Sharing" that I think can help address this question. I've added a knowledge storehouse Wiki where we can organize and share our cultural treasures so each of us can honor and multiply the gifts of our ancestors.
In this website I've tried to share with you what I've discovered so far with 40 some years of poking about on this glorious blue-green jewel we call home. It's a work in process. I don't offer you all the answers but hopefully with the material you can find here I'll help you to ask some of the right questions so you too can embrace your dream, your passion and take up the most important work that only you can do.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves;
banish the word 'struggle'
from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done
in a sacred way and in celebration.
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
- Hopi Elder-