Living the life you should be living, less time taking, more time giving

It was a year ago today that I had a Conversation with a Seal, picked up the book The Responsible Company, thought to myself "I may not be living the life I should be living, that I should be spending less time taking, and more time giving", and launched this is idea to create PuraKai. 

Over the course of the last year there have been many disappointments, dead ends, false hopes, and many times flat out frustration that had me on the verge of giving up and relenting to the status quo, maybe I just wasn't meant to be a Socially Responsible entrepreneur, maybe earning a living as a business owner and feeding my family was good enough. After all there's much less friction and tension when you resonate with the drum beat of the majority and relent to the status quo. 

But there was something in my heart, and no matter the obstacle I wanted to see this idea through, and honestly I understood the idea viscerally, but I couldn't picture it in my mind, it was like knowing you had a dream, but having no recollection of it, thinking you could touch something tangible, but finding it was an illusion. 

The mind is such a great tool, open it, nourish it, be courageous, and it opens passages to endless possibilities. Close it, live in fear, and your mind will box you in and put up walls of concrete. I can do it, no I can't, I can do it, no I can't, this was the dance with my mind, but I summoned the courage and continued the journey. 

At first glance creating a clothing company doesn't appear to be too terrible difficult, an exceptionally challenging intellectual pursuit, or one that involves much introspective thought of your connectedness to the Universe, but in actuality it's all of those things and more. What I've found is that the soil, the plants that we grow for clothing, and our connection to them, is an old story. As Charles Eisenstein says "We're going through a transition in our basic understanding of what's real, in our story of the world".

One of the most profound examples of this new story is the documentary What Plants Talk About, this is an absolute must watch. Another example is fifteen-year-old Jack Andraka, who in June of last year won the world's largest high school science competition for his development of a new, cheap and accurate test for detecting pancreatic cancer, what he accomplished is absolutely stunning.  

At the end of his talk Eisenstein talks about "being in service to something larger than yourself... as the formula for accomplishing the impossible, for stepping into the flow of synchronicity. You don't know how to get from here to there, but that thing larger than yourself does, and it arranges these synchroncities, being at the right place at the right time, being in flow... usually when you experience that your world has kind of fallen apart, and you're in this state of uncertainty, and then all of a sudden things start to flow and they start to work... What is this thing that unifies all of these things that we're committed to? Let's call it the more beautiful world that our hearts know is possible."

And that was what I've been searching for the past year, a beautiful world that my heart knew was possible. Not a compromised version, not a watered down version, but a version of this business that I knew was possible in my heart, even though I didn't know how to get from here to there.

The state of uncertainty was a learning experience required for me to ensure PuraKai was not about me, to ensure it was about being of service to the oceans, lakes, rivers and streams, and to be of service to my daughter by providing her the knowledge she requires to become an independent, self sufficient, socially responsible business woman.

I believe that is the reason synchronicity has arranged for the right people to help at the right time, and allowed PuraKai to become the fledgling company that it has become. So many wonderful people have taken their precious time to offer words of encouragement, backed our Kickstarter project, gone above and beyond the call of duty of a friendship or a business relationship, they've all delivered more than they've promised. There is something special about being involved in a business that has an ability not to just make money, but has the ability to effect positive change in the world.

I wanted to personally thank all the wonderful people that have helped with PuraKai over the last year. A year after starting this journey the most important lesson I've learned is that "living the life you should be living, spending less time taking, and more time giving." is a worthy pursuit, and it is ok to think and dream of a more beautiful world that our hearts know is possible. So if you're thinking about taking a leap of faith, don't wait, provided you're being of service to others you just take the first step, you don't need to know how to get from here to there, just follow your heart and just see what happens.