Part 2: When You Get Hit By Life, Ask “What’s the Counterpunch?”

Counter Your Resignation, Cynicism, & Despair

"Everything is coming together while everything is falling apart." - Unknown

We're all in the middle of an unprecedented fork in the road: will we crash and burn or will enough of us advance together to steer the ship toward a great future for everyone?

Many, many people around the world are working to create that great future. It's all still forming and there's a lot of uncertainty, but that simply shows us there's also lots of opportunity.

In our own unique ways, we can contribute to that opportunity and work together to build something new-to plant the seeds and cultivate what is now emerging.

I've been researching both the bad news and the good news and I'd like to share the best remedies and approaches with you. (Spoiler alert: I used to be a hopeless romantic. But life cured me of that. Now I am a hopeful romantic. 😬 )

Let's keep the work going-work that doesn't fragment our lives so completely between:

1. 1. the personal and political (understanding that everything has a political angle, i.e., power dynamics between individuals and groups),

 

1. 1. between the tried and true and the creative and new,

 

1. 1. and doesn't apologize for focusing either inward or outward in an effort to balance the opposites in #1 or #2.

 

Formal Rhubarb is run by a guy with some life experience and strong opinions, but who also admits he's still making it up as he goes along. Improvisation and change doesn't scare me as much anymore as it used to, and I invite you to join me-we'll ALL be making it up as we go along!

Formal Rhubarb is not afraid to take risks or go out on the edge, isn't scared to express an opinion, not shy about preaching once in a while, and not apologetic for taking a stand. How about you?

Formal Rhubarb is a place where, instead of being just a passive recipient of information and advice, you are given opportunities to also create it and offer something to others ("Bringing Medicine Back to the Tribe.").

Formal Rhubarb is for you if, despite not knowing exactly what to expect, you are intrigued and perhaps excited by what I'm proposing and by what's been said so far on the "About" page and in "Part 1"…This is for you if you're inspired not so much by the pointing finger, but what the finger is pointing to…(to paraphrase a well-known Zen saying).

So:

On the one hand, Formal Rhubarb (as a concept, a landing place, and as tangible products of our imaginations) isn't set in stone.

On the other hand, it won't lose its core. If you like what you've read about the foundation of Formal Rhubarb so far, you won't be surprised by future changes in its "upper floors." Not only that, you'll discover that identifying with Formal Rhubarb goes beyond what you see here and you can take it to whatever you might be doing now or in the future whether in art, business, social service, parenting and family life, spirituality, science, political activism...you name it.

Formal Rhubarb is not a cookie cutter approach devoid of enthusiasm. Formal Rhubarb is responsive and ready…champing at the bit to get going. (Or is that "chomping"?! 😉 )

Formal Rhubarb is a cool place to find what you're looking for...and it would be great to have your help to make that happen.

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."―Max Planck

Sign up for glimpses into something inside yourself that transcends how you see things.

Sign up for glimpses into something outside yourself that transcends how most people see things.

Join to learn and to teach, for inspiration and to inspire, to express your genius and develop your craft, and to assist others to express and develop theirs.

Join and help Formal Rhubarb assist you and everyone in our community-we'll all help each other while the world catches up.

Thank you for visiting!

I invite you to subscribe to my free newsletter [see below] that includes original and hand-picked resources to inspire, inform, and, yes, even entertain you.

And art, music, poetry, myth, humor--plenty of room for those, too!

Anyway, who knows how this all will turn out? I'm making it up as I go along.

How about you? Want to come along for the ride?

Sign up for my newsletter and use the comments below or send me an email answering questions like these:

• • What are your frustrations with trying to start or finish something you've been putting off?

 

• • What are the aspirations you're working toward--that "something big" you're up to? What are the roadblocks you keep bumping into?

 

• • What are your nagging, unanswered questions about this "committing the crime of your own uniqueness" stuff?

 

For more on the Formal Rhubarb philosophy and approach, please see:

Part 1: Roll Up for the Magical Mystery Tour of Your Soul

Part 3: The Formal Rhubarb Difference that Makes a Difference

Part 4: Bringing Medicine Back to the Tribe

Part 5: No Book Has Just One Chapter: Re-Author Your Life & Make a Difference

Making It Up As I Go Along

Why Things Are So Messed Up