Dearest Reader,

Thank you for tuning into my first blog post as B the Light Consulting.  As a corporate executive, turned nonprofit CEO, turned consultant and regenerative farmer, I have been called time and time again to step into the light more. I have been asked to share the insights, lessons learned, and wisdom that flow through me, yet I was a bit hesitant for many reasons. Now with more space and a conviction to answer that call, I intend to write to you once a month. In these blogs, I will share two seemingly unrelated topics that have provided me with deep insight, curiosity, and learning recently. So here we go, blog #1:

You have all likely heard the concept “survival of the fittest”. This phrase, like so many things, has been chopped up, dumbed down and completely misinterpreted to advance a consumer agenda. Charles Darwin’s work has been bastardized to advance and support the narrative that humans are selfish and competitive and that is what has enabled us to survive.

What Darwin’s work really showed is that “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” This means that the species who are most fit to adapt are the ones who will survive and that through natures’ collaboration and partnership, the greatest evolutionary leaps were made.

Since Darwin published his work in 1859, his words have been used as an excuse for competitive, cruel and selfish human behavior. As such, we now have just under 200 years of telling each other ‘oh well humans are competing to survive’ so it is ok. Oh well ‘boys will be boys.’ ‘Competition is healthy and the fittest will win.’ Generation after generation of humans groomed to see ourselves as superior beings who need to compete with each other to survive, to be better, to keep up with the Joneses. Now don’t get me wrong, competition is not all bad. Rather it is the narrative of a win-lose scenario. “If they win that means I lose, so I need to do everything I can to win”, even if it costs another. What a different world we would have if everyone strived for win-win-win outcomes. It’s possible, we have just developed a mainstream human narrative that natural outcomes have to be win-lose based on poor interpretations of Darwin’s work. 

What if we all stop using the term “survival of the fittest” to justify terrible acts? What if competition was replaced by collaboration? What if we all were governed by the simple fact that turbulence is expected, it is how we get through it that matters? I think the workplace, and thus the world, would be a different place and human nature would stop being used as an excuse for cruelty.

As I tune into the world around me, really deeply tune in, I see so much beauty and love overshadowed by so much darkness. For some reason, the dark side of human nature is what is getting mass consciousness to pay attention and buy more $hit that no one really needs. I see a world in constant flux and becoming less and less stable with more and more attempts for humans to control everything. Spreadsheets, quarterly reports, annual audits, strategic plans are all a feeble attempt of a species trying to make sense of an ever-changing world and to control it so it fits into the consumer agenda. 

Like Darwin’s work really says, those who can adapt will evolve and survive. I was with the Alliance for Collective Action for nine glorious and hard years (six as the CEO). I grew and learned and contributed to so much work that I will always be proud of, and the organization will always be in my heart. Yet I needed to adapt, I needed to change because the light inside of me was dwindling but I did not see it, I just kept pushing on harder. Ask any leader what it is like at the top- no matter the organization and they will have story after story of how they have been tested again and again. It was like the universe kept knocking at the door telling me “time to adapt” and I would reply “not yet, I just need to get through this last xyz (fill in the blank) and then I will”. The more I tuned this call for change out, the louder the knock became until I simply could not ignore it.

The final knock was so loud, so unbearably painful that I am not yet able to put it in writing. Suffice to say someone near and dear to me sacrificed the unthinkable before I woke up. It was that day that I knew I needed to adapt or I would not survive. My husband and I had accomplished all the pillars of ‘society success’, yet our quality of life was diminishing. Something big had to change. We kept saying this to each other for a few years, emboldened by the conversation but would wake up the next day and get back on the hamster wheel considering our dreams as this ‘far-off land’ we will maybe get to once “xyz” is done.

I was not sure what I would do next, but the phrase “turbulence is expected, it’s how you get through it that matters” kept playing in my head. I sat with the question for a while, lived it and breathed it: “What do you want to be next?” not “do next” mind you “be next”.  After days and weeks of meditating on this, the answer came like a flash “I want to be the light”!

From there, the ideas and concepts came so fast I could barely keep up. I launched my consultancy ‘B the Light’, designed a plan to travel the world with my family developing a deep relationship with land, community, and place all through concepts of regeneration and healing. Healing for me, for my family, and for the communities who have welcomed us to be with them. 

I will share more about our ‘Big Adventure’ as our kids call it in the months ahead. For now, I wanted to let you all know that B the Light Consulting is illuminated and we have officially moved to the farm! More on that next month!