The New Green Economy

The call to claim our purpose usually sounds at a somewhat inconvenient moment. Sometimes we hear whispers years before we're ready to acknowledge them, let alone begin taking the steps necessary to create a new reality. And while the call can come at any life stage, there's something special about the thirties, when our inner voice tends to start asking, "Is this all there is?"

Recently I've been privileged to meet two vibrant, self-aware women, both 35, who have started heart-centered, Earth-based, health-conscious businesses. In each instance, a health crossroads precipitated the call (as is true in my own life).

Erinn Williams, founder of RawEnergyandLife Foods, which manufactures a scrumptious "Rawkin Raw" chocolate packed with superfoods and antioxidants, from Goji berries to Maca to spirulina, read John Robbins' landmark book, Diet for a New America in her early twenties, and was galvanized to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle. She says, "That's when I first really became aware of how the world today is locked into a vicious cycle of unhealthy foods, preservatives, chemicals, high stress jobs and drugs taken to 'cover up' the symptoms. I decided to start looking for the true path to health, compassion, and care for the earth."

Eight years later she met a raw foodist, read another book (this time on the raw food diet), underwent a fast, and has been "100 percent raw vegan ever since."

"Once I began taking my own health seriously, I become committed to helping others understand their own true path to health. I started Raw Energy and Life because I wanted to bring people more healthy options, and I am passionate about the healing properties of vegan raw foods. My vision is to help people prevent and combat disease, to live in health and wellness, and to help preserve the Earth's resources by teaching people about how their food choices affect the environment."

Gaia Earthworks creator Ericka Lundberg shares a similarly life-altering experience. A few years before launching her handcrafted line of pure personal care products for body, pets and home, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After an initial bout with traditional treatment accomplished little more than making her seriously ill and helping to "defeat her attitude," Ericka looked inward and made a decision that propelled her life forward with fresh perspective. She chose to look to the Earth for what she put in and on her body. Today she is well, and well on her way.

From that healing effort sprang her company motto, "Free Yourself" and the philosophy behind Gaia Earthworks, which is dedicated to helping people create "chemical independence." Committed to social and environmental responsibility, the company uses recycled products in everything from paper to packaging, and is designated by PETA as cruelty-free.

"We're dedicated to a natural lifestyle through how we live, how we run our organization and through helping others empower themselves to realize the feeling of freedom and wellness involved in breaking free of a chemically dependent lifestyle," says Ericka.

While illness is not a prerequisite for discovering your mission, here in the West it's often the catalyst for many people, who would otherwise continue on autopilot until the pain of remaining where they are finally overpowered inertia — and the fear of change. Now that we've entered the birth canal of the most immense shift in consciousness humanity has ever known, it's more important than ever that each of us step up to the plate in our own lives, because no one else can provide exactly what you offer, in the way you offer it.

Modern dance pioneer Martha Graham expresses it best: "There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. The world will not have it.

"It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. There is only a divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

Just as Erinn and Ericka found their healing métier in what we place in and on our bodies, how we express ourselves is the foundation stone of culture. The same energy that finds a sad substitute in gang membership and nuclear bravado, when given a voice and nourished into true power, can e/merge (energy/emotion merge) into breathtaking murals, collaborative vision, and the infectious sense of fun that arises from spending your days doing what feeds your soul.

All forms of the arts are key now: whether you sing, paint, dance, play an instrument, write poetry or music, act on stage or screen, create spoken-word performances, conduct Earth-based ceremony, mime, sculpt in wood or clay or metal or sand … whatever your art form, you can become an integral contributor to profound planetary healing.

As poet David Whyte (who has bridged boundaries by introducing poetry into corporate boardrooms) says, "The rest of creation is waiting, breathless, for you to take your place."

We all need your unique gifts. Will you say yes?