Spring Break, Earth Day, A Whole New World!
Friends! Mead Drinkers! Human Bee-ings!
What a wonderful, wild and transformational time we live in, eh?
I am moved to say that minus the virus, I sort of like this #CovidLife.
It seems slower, more intentional, more peaceful and more beautiful.
Now, I don’t like the disparity that different populations of our societies are experiencing. And I wish that the calamities caused by the affects of the virus and the resulting economic dysfunction were removed from our world. But, I do like the idea that we can have the time to care for one another and the earth more.
I love the fact that over the course of a couple of weeks we totally changed the way our communities and world operate.
I love the face that the skies are cleaner. That the birds are singing louder. That wildlife is showing up in unexpected and urban places.
It gives me hope that we can remake the world into a more caring, healthy and beautiful place.
How do we do that? Well, it comes down to choice.
Allow me a story to illustrate my point.
When I was younger, I was in the Navy. I signed up to learn and serve and see the world. It was a deeply moving, formative experience. I saw parts of the world I had read about and parts of the world that I never could have imagined. Souks in Bahrain, where depending on what nationality you were you were basically assigned a slot in the monarchy mediated economy.
Islands in Central America where village life was totally dependent on nature and the local military existed almost as an outside force from a different reality.
Transits off the coast of Iran, where masked men with missiles on their shoulders drove straight at our ship, testing our responses, so we could keep the Straits of Hormuz open and unmined, allowing 40% of the world’s oil to flow, keeping the wheels of the global economy turning.
Patrols off the horn of Africa, where young men thought the best thing they could do was become pirates, risking life and limb to hijack huge commodity tankers, hoping to ransom their prizes back to the transnational corporations that owned them for large bounties.
All of these realities still exist in our shared world today, and for those of us lucky enough to read this email, we are probably well insulated from the risk, exposure, uncertainty and vulnerability that are a daily part of living in those realities.
As our normalcy has been disrupted, we have grappled with many things. Feelings of fear, anxiety, insecurity and existential unboundedness have washed over me in different waves. And I believe I am not alone.
My insulated world where I get to create and share something I love with the world everyday has been destabilized. The reality around me has shaken and shifted. And now there is a sense that it may be gearing up to return back to a version close to what it was. There is a sense for me of routine engagement with the broader world that may sweep me and my reality up in the momentum and trajectory of a world where human suffering and ambivalence are experienced in equal and balancing measure.
But that doesn’t have to be. And in fact, I don’t want it to be. As alluring as that return to normal feels on one level, with its known expectations, relationships and patterns, I don’t want it. I don’t want to go back to blindly living in willful/maxed out ignorance of the billions of realities where human life is fraught with risk, uncertainty and powerlessness in all of its forms.
To illustrate my point in an abstract, non-material way using the spiritual poetic language of philosophers and spiritualists, I want a world where an unborn soul, being faced with the opportunity to incarnate onto this earth, faces a grab bag of all the different “lots” in life. They are reaching into the bag holding the whole spectrum of wheres and to which family that soul will take human form, and in that just world, they are not afraid. There is no risk of having to be a pirate or a martyr if they don’t want to. They can grow up safe and healthy, empowered and free. They can grow up able to share their gifts with the world joyfully.
That is a world filled with choice.
And building it begins with us. Today.
What thoughts do we choose? What words do we choose? What actions?
Where will we spend our time, our energy, our talents?
What will we contribute to in the spending?
If we are overwhelmed, and find ourselves looking at choices we don’t like, can we slow down and choose to get more time? Food and safety are often thought of as things that force choices. But we can fast from food. We can find safety in each moment by being present and aware, choosing the words and actions that create safety, security and peace for ourselves and those we love.
We can choose, moment by moment, whether the life we want to experience ourselves and share with others is a thing of empowerment and choice or not.
And how do we do that in a public way, without commodifying it? Without cheapening it?
Carol Sanford, the author of The Regenerative Business and The Regenerative Life, talks about finding your essence, and matching it with the essence of others, so that you are constantly creating offerings in the moment together that are unique and present to the reality you share in that moment. In that exchange, there is no commodification, because each offering, each moment is unique and impossible to reproduce and commodify.
Accordingly, Golden Coast Mead will be moving forward in that Spirit. Our Mission is to Light Up your Life, Regenerate the Earth and Create Abundance. We will offer things that cannot be reproduced, creating moments with you that will never be replicated.
We will make these experiences accessible and easy to adapt to your own life. And it starts with this week.
Spring Break
That’s right. Here in Southern California, the sun is out, the breeze is blowing. It is the time of year that we get a reprieve, a blast of freedom to enjoy the beauty of nature and our connection with each other.
Accordingly, we have crafted an offering that is light, tart, and fun to quaff. Whether you’re lucky enough to have a backyard pool to dive into, or you will be playing zoom games with friends, we recommend that you give our Spring Break Mead a try. It is made from California Orange Blossom Honey, Palomar Mountain Spring Water, Dragon Fruit and Pomegranate. It’s lighter than our usual offerings at 7% abv. It is made for easy drinking and refreshment. Perfect for Spring Break.
Earth Day
This week of course, is Earth Day. We are hopeful that everyday going forward after this reality warp called Covid-19 is Earth Day. We encourage you to take stock of the choices you make, in thoughts, words and actions, and start to run the question, how does this affect the systems my reality is nested in? How does my choice filter up in this butterfly effect world to creating and sharing a world defined by choice, empowerment and justice? Joy, beauty and abundance?
I hope we can match our essence, creating and sharing excellent meads joyfully, with yours, to help make your reality, and the great reality we all share, more beautiful, abundant and ever regenerating.
It is all possible, if we choose it.
Lots of Love,
Frank