In the Blink of an Eye
     29/03/2007 Kevan Smith – Wyong Shire Council

My position as a CDW with WSC is one of working not just within and to but with and for people in the many neighbourhoods and communities throughout the Shire of Wyong. 

What I like to call: “w n j w-in & t b w & f” people. 

The skills to be transformative and not just transmissive come from being in-tune with my heart and what I would want IF it was my own street, neighbourhood, community group, gov-org or ngo that I depend on to help my world work for me.  I must state that this can be dangerous if not done with intuitive caution for we all see our worlds through our own filters.  What I want for my world (or: “w I w 4 m w”) may not be anywhere near what the person and/or group I am engaged with want for their world…. But it is a good start to feel my own heart and my own world – this is what drives me to “get up every morning”.

Every time I meet with people I need to not only understand but FEEL that what I am saying will be taken in and interpreted by them through their own life filters.  As a Transformer I must not only remember but FEEL that people are always tuned in to the most popular and powerful radio station in the world – WII FM.    That is: “What’s In It For Me”.   I must make sure I am tuned in to them - to their radio stations.  What I say and do will be seen by others as to how can that help them; how can that affect their worlds.

I have a son, he is now 9 years old.  An eye-blink ago he was just starting school and a second before that he was born.  Such is our internal vision of our children’s lives as is our internal vision of our own lives………..and so is our engagement with this planet on both a micro level and macro level.   In the blink of an eye my world has changed from boyhood dreams and passions to (much older) manhood dreams of what can be done or (more sadly) could have been done “...if only”.

As I drop a piece of paper because I am texting a friend while rushing to my next appointment I may think “….it’ll blow away” and get back to my txt conversation.  That paper, like the butterfly wing in the Amazon, IS the most important thing I could have done at THAT moment.  It is THAT paper that will change the world in which I live and my child HAS to grow up in.  It is THAT paper that will bring down world economies and nations; and change my child’s world from a beautiful green and blue planet to a solar wind ravished, waterless ball of rock.  

Dramatic?.........yes!           Vital?.........equally yes!

Because what I feel for my world flows through to what I feel (and act) for the worlds I work with; this is the same as what I drop on the ground today flows through to what my planet will be like in a blink of the eye.

If we transmit we show folk how much we know (or more importantly DON’T KNOW) but when, from our hearts, we transform we change the world to be the world we want our children and grandchildren to live in!