I have always enjoyed this title of Peter Matthiessen’s book, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, as it evokes my life here in Hawaii.  Three weeks ago I took a ManKind Project workshop, Leadership Training #2, in Maui, which for me was all about  how I could play (create, connect, lead) more effectively. I left with three important takeaways:

• I don’t pickup burdens in my life: my life is about play and I only want to do what is joyful.
• I seek relationships in which I can be vulnerable, intimate and transparent.
• I have a renewed appreciation for Puna, with its rural, simple pleasures, as the optimal environment for me to play with and experience uplift with others.

Let me explain further: The first night of the workshop we were instructed  to pickup an implement that was supposed to represent what we saw as a burden in our leadership. I chose an industrial tripod.

I later explained that the tripod represented my willingness to assemble what is necessary to be assembled and always to shine my light of what I see going on. In fact, this particular tripod is used for MKP initiation weekends, to hold an electric flood light as a source of illumination. We were instructed to have this implement within 3′ of us at all times, day and night, during the weekend. Initially I did as instructed and then later that night I realized that I made a decision last year never to pickup burdens and only to engage in activities in which I add value and enjoy.

At that time I decided to resign from a position on the board of directors of the Puna Community Medical Center because I believed that I was not bringing value to the PCMC and I was not enjoying myself. The position had become a burden. This is not a commentary on the PCMC, which plays a vital role in uplifting medical care in Puna. It is only a reflection about my belief about how I wanted to exercise my leadership. I served out my one-year term and then stepped down.

Furthermore, at this workshop I experienced that when I play it safe, I don’t thrive. This is certainly one reason why I decided to move to Hawaii. My life in New York had become too comfortable. I wanted to live more on the edge. Yet even here in Hawaii, routine can easily set in and I need constantly to  sharpen my edge. Participating in my I-Group provides me with a group of men who have my back and to whom I am accountable. In my I-Group it is imperative for me to show up, Authentic, Honest and Open (AHO!). A good example of this was Monday’s I-Group two weeks ago, where I supported a newly initiated man who had volunteered to facilitate the group. He wanted to talk about sexuality, as he felt it was a most important topic that we had not been addressing. Together we came up with the following questions that each man could address during the different rounds of the evening:

Sensei Question: Since our last meeting, how have you been taking care of your sexual needs?

Lover Round:

• How playful are you?

• How do you experience yourself as a sexual being?

Warrior Round:

• Regarding yourself as a sexual being, what are you most fearful of?

• What do you want us least to know about your sexual life?

Magician Round: What do you see as your sexual shadow?

King Round: How do you bless yourself as a sexual being?

As a result of this sharing I experienced that the group had reached a deeper level of openness and intimacy. We were playing in the fields of the Lord. Men in our group do soul work, by which I mean they become clearer on who they are, how they want to show up in life, and more mindful about their shadows, or what they hide, repress or deny about themselves.

For me, my current leadership in my community has been about working with others to uplift and expand opportunities. Many of my previous blog entries have focused on aspects of this work: 1) Education: serving as a tutor and Academic Success and Literacy Coach at Kua O Ka La Public Charter school,

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Graduation ceremony at Kua O Ka La this May.

and working with a planning team to create a new school in Puna, the Heartsong School. 2) Men’s Work: serving as my I-Group representative and elder on annual New Warrior Training Adventures of MKP,

chairing the World Elder Gathering that will take place here in Puna in October 2015;

mentoring in the Boys to Men program;

and mentoring Young Warriors, men, age 18-35 and initiated in the Mankind Project. 3) Culture: creating the Puna Museum, which is an outgrowth of the Puna Mastermind Community that I founded.

What sustains me in these activities is that they represent different opportunities to play, to see how I can engage with others to bring more joy, happiness, opportunity to our own lives and to those around us. There is an element of the unknown; I don’t know what the final outcome will be. I know I am being stretched beyond my current capacities. I have an opportunity to be spontaneous, creative, and think anew. This is all in alignment with my New Way of Being that  came out of my workshop experience in Maui.

A note to my readers: I apologize for the lack of blogs since December and I hope to make-up for this   by writing several blogs over the summer. Here are some anticipated topics that will continue the theme of At Play in the Fields of the Lord–

Playing with dear friends in Puna:

Playing at home:

Playing on Big Island:

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Recent activity at Kilauea

A hui hou! (See you around)