Like me, you've likely heard the platitude "everything happens for a reason."

Often trotted out as wisdom in the aftermath of a frustrating, bewildering, or even traumatic event, the words are meant to sooth through suggesting there is a higher power guiding our paths. Call it God, Karma, or something else, we are at the mercy of our fates. 

The problem with this orientation: it does not ask others to take responsibility for their actions, for they are simply playing out their predestined role.  Nor does it offer agency over your own life, for how could you avoid a script that was written just for you? 

It's true that we are born into the momentum of a vast cultural inertia. We are conditioned and caught in the intentional and unintended consequences of millions that came before. And almost all of us our bound to the civilization machine in one way or another.

How then, is it possible to break free of our bonds and write a new story?  

Not by rushing into the next technological solution. Not by shaming masses of "sheeple" (as they're often derisively named) into the streets. And not by abandoning the whole mess in favour of stocking beans and bullets. 

Instead, we must learn to listen, again.

The signs are everywhere. In the cry of the raven as he soars overhead. In the burst of children's laughter just as you finish your thought. In the chance encounter with that lonely stranger, who speaks just the right word at the right moment. 

“Everything that happens to you is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your own life and be taught by it." ~ Polly B. Berends

The way forward for each of us is a microcosm of the whole. As we listen, and dare to be shaped by what we hear, we make tentative strides toward a new outcome, the next spiral in fractal of life.  

Dare and step toward the music you hear, however measured or far away. 

Ian MacKenzie
Salish Sea, Canada



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TORONTO - SEPT 18 - HEALING OF LOVE

I'm excited to offer my popular workshop "Healing of Love: Sex, Partnership and the Village" for the first time in Toronto.  Whatever your relationship form, monogamy, polyamory or beyond, the role of community is integral to any healthy partnership – how might we cultivate communities of trust to support the freedom to love without fear?

»  RSVP on Facebook
»  Register your spot (Limited to 40 seats!)



SCATTERLINGS: SHORT FILM

"Where does wildness still reside in language?" Last year, I had the good fortune of interviewing author and mythologist Dr. Martin Shaw. In support of his upcoming North American tour,I edited this short featuring his new book "Scatterlings." 

»  Watch Scatterlings (3:02) on Facebook or Youtube
»  View upcoming tour dates

FALL TOUR DATES

BOOK IAN FOR SPEAKING

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