What can we create that has potential beyond our wildest dreams? 

What might we build or nurture that can create care and wellbeing for multiple generations? 

These aren't new questions - we can look to The Seven Generations Principle, created by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy or the League of Five Nations as an important model of embedding these questions into decision making. 

I'm also inspired by Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents which I read recently, reflecting on the main character, Lauren Oya Olamina, and her conviction that the most important part of her Earthseed theology is the Destiny, the longer term vision "to take root among the stars."  

Lauren explains the importance of this aim saying that it "forces us to learn while we’re here on Earth, for the people it encourages us to become. It’s important for the unity and purpose that it gives us here on Earth. And in the future, it offers us a kind of species adulthood and species immortality when we scatter to the stars.” In having something collective to work towards, we are less likely to be the cause of harm to others.

Similarly, when we exist in uncertainty, urgency, and stress, it can be easy to focus on oneself or our own family - which doesn't mean we're doing harm, but it does mean we can lose our sense of a larger purpose. It makes sense for survival, right? 

But when we feel most isolated and scared individually, these are the moments that it becomes particularly necessary to expand our visions for the good of all, many generations into the future. 

Let's talk about how to find your north star and why it matters:

Scientists estimate that there are 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. We can see only a few thousand of them in the night sky with our own eyes - depending on where you live. 

Stars capture our imagination, but one in particular has guided human beings in the Northern Hemisphere throughout the ages - The North Star or Polaris. From escaping bondage north on the Underground Railroad, to sailors who found their direction from it at sea, this star has helped us find our way since at least the 5th century CE when Macedonian writer and historian Stobaeus described the star as 'always visible' (Space Answers).  

The North Star, or Polaris, shines brightly and consistently from the same place - above the North Pole, and is easy to find by following the end of the ladle in The Big Dipper constellation.

The North Star is a guide, a constant, and we know it better than we may realize. 

Here’s why it matters: I’m always enchanted by a dark night sky. My attention darts between constellations, flickers of stars further away than I can imagine, shooting stars, and even airplanes and satellites. I look for constellations that I vaguely remember, giving up when I can’t quite make them out. 

The North Star is a powerful metaphor for your own life purpose and intention. We are all pulled in many directions, following curiosity, expectations of others and our societies, and the requirements and responsibilities that keep us from our purpose. 

The result is that we spend our lives doing, following the currents of the expectations of others and not truly trusting ourselves or following the direction that will help us shine our brightest and make the most positive impact possible in the world. 

If you have that ONE guiding North Star that is your moral, purpose, and directional compass, you can return to it any time to check in and redirect to ensure you’re on the right path. 

Find your North Star:

First, find somewhere comfortable and quiet to be still for a few minutes.

Star by picturing the night sky. You may want to close your eyes and even lay down. 

Gathering all of the insights and work you have already done in your life to this moment, reflect on these questions:

1. What am I seeking out of life?
2. What is it that I’ve been following all along? 
3. When do I know I’m on the right track? 
4. If I accomplish my wildest dreams, what will be the larger positive ripple effects for others? For my community? For this world?

Now it’s time to let the intuitive part of you lead:

1. Gather supplies. You’ll need paper, a pencil, colored pencils, crayons, paint, or any supplies you have available and feel inspired to use for creating art. 
2. Find a quiet place to flow - you don’t have to be an artist to do this. Just allow what comes to you to drop onto your page. It may be your own night sky art, a simple constellation of stars with diagrams of what each represents for you, a specific place, or something abstract. THERE ARE NO WRONG ANSWERS! 
3. This is your invitation to make your own North Star. Perhaps it’s part of a constellation with 3-5 other stars that make up parts of your purpose, with your North Star as the core of your purpose. 
4. Hang it up somewhere visible, on your refrigerator, next to your desk, or keep it in a notebook you look at regularly. 
5. After a week, notice what, if anything, has changed about your decision making and goals.