The Too Good and True - an Introduction

About two years ago, I created a collage with the words "Always Settle for More: more joy, more grace, more laughter, more faith, more wings where there were wounds." And this piece of art started me thinking about where and how I'd settled for less. What were my self-imposed barriers? Limitations?

I took this question to the partners and employees of Duirwaigh at one of our weekly round table meetings. After a few weeks of contemplating our beliefs of limitation and lack, we decided to form a club, known as the Too Good and True Tribe, or the TGNT. Our club would meet once a week to swap stories about experiences, people and ideas we thought too good to be true, but were true indeed. Our theory was that by focusing upon life's deliciousness, we would draw it to us. Collectively, we decided to raise the bar of our expectations.

Soon we began giving imaginary awards to people who were TGNT and special labels to identify places, things and events as TGNT. A superb meal eaten in delicious company in a beautiful place would bear the label TGNT. The arrival of unexpected money in the mail would win the award TGNT. And when we met a publisher interested in our products who was colorful, wise, friendly, authentic, integrity-driven and who also had a knack for business and marketing? Well, he of course was offered a sash that read TGNT.

Since moving to Taos, our weekly meetings have disbanded, but we still call each other with reports of TGNT encounters. With the creation of Duirwaigh Studios, we've set our TGNT sights on providing enchantment and enlightenment for all those who cross our threshold. We envision inspiration and joy for millions, and a whole community filled with hearts empowered by the Too Good and True.

We're not just a tribe, we're an adventure! We're a whole new kind of human, being in the world. As we raise our vibration of expectation, we realize the TGNT lives inside us, and has the capacity to (r)evolutionize our individual lives as well as life on this planet. Once Upon a Time really is here and now, and we intend to live our fairy tale to the fullest.


The Too Good and True Archetype

There's a new kind of character emerging onto the world's stage today, a new archetype, if you will. The particular social, spiritual and psychological demands of the 20th and 21st centuries have given rise to a new breed of human, being. We've all been warned of trusting things that appear to be too good to be true. If it's completely wonderful, if it's better than best, watch out! Suspect it. Doubt. But this new character knows how to walk the Too Good while dancing with the True. She need not forsake one for the other. The either/or dimension has passed from her experience, as she welcomes in the era of yes/and.

Our new being is a conglomerate of archetypes belonging to millenniums past and those that emerged as recently as the 20th century. He is, in a word, outrageous and defies many of the boundaries set upon him by other generations, including his own. To welcome him into your life is to allow yourself to become a dancer of dichotomies, making room on the soul's dance floor for the sacred and the profane. There, Sense and Nonsense bow to their partner, Contemplation and Wild Abandon promenade, Spirituality and Sexuality do-si-do.

Now, if you were born in the western hemisphere before 1960, (and to some extent the following will be true for you regardless of when you were born) you were likely taught there were very distinct lines between good and bad, acceptable and non acceptable behavior. Women had specific personal and professional roles, as did men. Holy places were buildings and holy people (typically men) were to be found in those buildings. Rock and roll, cult films and fringe literature would eventually make a hero of the rebel, and the lines would begin to blur between right and wrong, protagonist and antagonist. For many of us, even those of us who have witnessed the tearing down of those mores, it's still a stretch to consider that all archetypes are meant to live together in harmony. Can you imagine that inside the Dali Lama there is a Kid Rock who prances around in tight leather pants and a Liberace-style feathered boa? How conceivable is it that inside Charles Manson there lurks the heart of a monk--say, Ghandi? We tend to think that ego and spirit cannot occupy the same space, and that as we grow and mature, one should be prized over the other. I'm here to say that this isn't so, that we're meant to include and celebrate all our inner archetypes, holding them in loving balance. As animals on a carousel are often varied and unpredictable, so, to, the characters that comprise our human psyches, yet the carousel goes round and round, each offering a unique experience for the rider.

While we all contain a carousel of archetypes within us, accepting some and banishing others, the emerging Too Good and the True allows all her inner archetypes a place on the wheel. She embraces her motley crew and remains unapologetic about their presence. Though there are literally hundreds of archetypes within her, these are some of the most prominent:


THE ARTIST
It should go without saying that this new being marches to the tune of her own drummer, tambourinist, and cellist. There is nothing new in that notion, we've had that archetype since time began. It's called The Artist. What's new here, though, for our emerging character, is that life becomes her art. Though she may indulge in the fine or performing arts, she recognizes her life as a canvas, using at various times, bold, sweeping strokes in bright primary colors and soft, intricate wisps in pastels the color of breath. The artist's key word is CREATIVITY and she uses her creative force--whether she's creating a party, a carpool or a painting--for the highest good of her self and others. She understands her role as a Creatrix--that her very thoughts shape and color her reality--and in this way she is aligned with her Creator, her Highest Self, her soul. She is open to inspiration in all its guises: pleasure, pain, beauty, suffering, hope and disillusion, allowing life's experiences to fuel her artistic expression.

The artist understands that her creativity is a dance, and that it will sometimes be a sacred dance and it will sometimes be a survival dance. The survival dance is the movement we all take to work with What Is. We use our creativity in the service of surviving: we raise our kids, we pay our mortgage, we brush our teeth and accomplish the needs in front of us. The sacred dance is the movement we engage in the name of passion. We use our creativity not to survive, but to thrive: we paint to express beauty, we write to ease a burden, we sing or sculpt or weave because it brings us joy. The artist knows that these two dances are ongoing throughout her life, often mutually exclusive of each other, but her ultimate goal is the merging of the two. Her aim is to support herself and her world with her passion, so that she can live the words of Frederick Buechner: "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."


COWBOY/MAVERICK

mav⋅er⋅ick –noun
1. an unbranded calf, cow, or steer
2. a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates.

She's unbranded, because no single brand will do for her. She's defined her own style, one that suits her exclusively. A maverick does not go out of her way to buck the system, but if it bucks against her, she'll sit tall in the saddle. She knows how to balance working solo out on the range with riding into town for saloon-time fun. Unafraid of a little dust on their boots, happy to wear fringe, prepared for a wild ride, cowboys sport a sense of independence, strength, and grit. They possess a willingness to wander, to seek and roam, taking care of what appears along their path.

A cowboy's time in nature and solitude builds a distinct strength. She draws no distinction between the nature around her and that within her, so she easily defines and lives her own truth. It is this grounding that forges the courage essential for blazing her own trail. The Maverick's key word is INDIVIDUALITY and she prizes this essential nature the way she esteems the unique life of each tree and bush, each horse, each buck and steer.


GYPSY BOHEMIAN
He's a wanderer, called by the gyspy spirits to the wilds of both inner and outer nature. He travels where the wind--El Duende, Spirit--takes him. As a bohemian, he is a rhapsodist, living for truth, beauty, freedom, but above all love. The Gypsy aligns his soul with poetry and art (the unique expressions of his heart) rather than cave to the forces that would have him line up in the matrix. He willingly lives outside of the matrix illusion, yet plays in it any time he chooses. Gypsies and Bohemians understand the wild. Their key word is FREEDOM. In their travels and revelries, they have experienced all of nature's moods and can easily express their souls in whispers as well as howls. They are a rage and a poem, a lullabye and a barter. But ultimately, they're revolutionaries prepared to defend the soul's freedom and the heart's creativity.

MONK
The monk dedicates her life to soul and spirit union. Marrying her deepest emotions and experiences with meaning, purpose, and consciousness, she seeks to establish presence in her life. She is actively engaged in the Art of Allowing, the practice of honoring What Is Happening Right Now. Most people are afraid to practice this artform, for fear that allowing is equal to agreement, and if one agrees with What Is, one will be forever stuck in less than appealing circumstances. The Monk knows that just the opposite is true. She subscribes to the addage "what we resist persists", for what we give our energy to grows and multiplies. Therefore, she embraces What Is, trusting that "this too shall pass." The energy normally absorbed by resistance is then channeled into visions, dreams and actions to manifest the change she'd like to see in herself and the world.

The Monk's key word is PRESENCE, and while she is free to create a complex outer life, she keeps her inner life very simple: meditation, contemplation, and consciousness are her core values. Monks know about communing with the self, the divine and with sisterhood. Their best friend is solitude, which affords them the spaciousness to contemplate the essence within each being. They understand the God-spark resides in each of us and strive to keep the flames smoldering, not just in rapturous moments, but within the thousand little breaths a day that ask for awareness.


CIRCUS RING LEADER
He's a walking circus. The clown, the fool, the acrobat, the trick rider, he includes them all, each one offering their finest talents in service of play. He is a riot of stimulus: color, movement, music, celebration, energy, humor. In praise of thrills and chills, he encourages everyone to dare, to dream and to live out loud. He knows that physical life is precious and uncertain, so he plays with the moments he's given, using the facets of life's challenges to entertain, amuse and cavort. Clowns know about wearing two different colored shoes and polka dot socks. The highwire walkers know about grace and agility under pressure. The animal tamers know about boldness and daring. The Ring Leader unites them all and begs us to let go of our conceived and conventional realities.

His key words are WILD INCLUSION and PLAY. Wild Inclusion is a conscious action to honor the value all facets of life, to embrace the inner freakshow--even the dark and monstrous characters. Carl Jung called the ugly side of human consciousness "the shadow" and claimed that these forces were not inherently bad, but natural tendencies that are unfavored, rejected and therefore often out of balance. While most humans try to hide or avoid their shadow, and certainly reject it in others within a society, The Ringleader knows that each quality and circumstance in a human life has merit and that further, each has a contribution. The freaks, the misfits, the monsters are all welcome in the Ringleader's inner circus. Showing divine love and compassion, Ringleaders know that wild inclusion makes for a truly dynamic show, as forces of both dark and light come together in a spectacle worthy of packed-stadium-applause.


ROCK STAR CHILD
She's a rock star, and as such she knows how to strut. She's got it and by heavens she knows how to flaunt it. She knows who she is and as a result has tremendous power. Unafraid of being seen and exposed, she celebrates her strengths and talents. In her being is an understanding that just because she's got "it" doesn't mean there is less for others. On the contrary, because she's got "it", her very presence awakens and stirs the "it" power in others. She's a glitter-glam parade, sparklers and fireworks, embodied.

The Rock Star, within the context of The Too Good and True, is all about alignment with, and possession of, greatness. Whether or not she has uncovered her particular "calling" in life (her sacred dance) is beside the point. She has found her soul/sole purpose just by discovering and owning the fact she's an amazing, multidimensional, never-to-be-repeated-one-of-a-kind miraculous invention, and that's what sets the boots to dancing and the knees to prancing. She is entitled to all life's riches and she knows it.

The Rock Star's key word is ENTITLEMENT, and she is very closely associated with The Child archetype. Both know they are entitled: they but ask and are given what they need. Children (especially very young ones) do not have to earn, to strive, to achieve. They cry, they are fed, changed, attended. They are held close and closely adored. When they grow a bit and are old enough to hit the playground their chant is "Look at me! Look what I can do!" They are unabashedly proud of their very being and what they can direct their beingness to do. Their doing comes straight out of their being, and in this way, they live for the moment. They unapologetically worship the pleasure god in all its guises. Unafraid of possessing their joy, they make fantastic explorers, adventurers, celebrants.


MYSTIC
Emblazoned with spiritual passion, the Mystic understands what it is to be swept away by the indefinable, the ineffable. He is rapturous in the arms of The Beloved, be it addressed as God, Life, Love, The Universe,The Muse. His is the language of surrender. And he needn't search for The Beloved in the church, temple or ashram. He simply closes the eyes of his mind and opens the eyes of his heart.

Mystics are open vessels, continually seeking--and finding--The Divine in all things. Be it a flower, a river, a slice of pie, a difficult neighbor or a high rise building, mystics are keenly interested in the animating force that causes and inhabits life. They are characterized by their sense of wonder, and trust that asking for, and then allowing (removing any conscious or subconscious resistance), a direct experience with the Divine is all that is needed for rapture, bliss. Like The Monk, Mystics practice presence, which allows them to attend to life's details moment by moment. But unlike The Monk, The Mystic's key words are PASSION and SURRENDER, for they live in anticipation of a direct experience of blissful union with The Divine. Their souls are like fire, as they dance, lover-to-lover, with the essence of life.


The SHREW
Is related to The Mother, who's related to The Wolf, who's related to Wild Woman. There is no taming here. With her keen sight (intuition) she can spot danger at a thousand paces and send up appropriate warning signals. With her powerful nose(discernment), she can smell bullshit a mile off, and she'll have none of it. Equal parts spunk and spine, The Shrew is a boundary-keeper, a protector of that which is sacred. She is the one who draws and enforces the lines that shan't be crossed. Shrewd and calculating and sharp as a razor blade, she unapologetically defends her ground. Cross her lines and you will bleed.

The Shrew insists on authenticity and it is for this reason she is often perceived as tough or prickly. Those who possess integrity and sincerity of soul needn't fear her, but those with ulterior motives will find her truth-telling demeanor thorny. She asserts that regrets about yesterday and worries about tomorrow are a waste of life's resources, so she stands boldly in the center of her present. Most importantly, The Shrew believes "No" is a complete sentence and uses it often in support of her health and happiness. The Shrew's key word is DISCERNMENT and she flagrantly uses those powers to protect and defend.


THE HEALER
He understand the wound is a door and, having walked through the portals of his own pain and suffering, he is able to assist others in their crossing. Rather than focusing his efforts on what needs to be fixed, the Healer prizes what's right, what's good and lovable about each person or situation. By seeing the wounded as whole and complete, and by helping them see themselves as the radiant creators they are, the healer fosters wholeness and well being, helping to return the wounded to their natural state of empowered equilibrium. Knowing that what you resist persists, The Healer practices acceptance, encouraging himself and others to first acknowledge and accept their suffering before shifting to a more harmonious state.

Healers know about restoration, patience and guidance. They honor their ancestors, devoting one ear to those who have gone before while keeping one ear tuned toward intuition. The Healer understands that the power of story is essential in any healing process, be it physical, emotional or mental. The stories we tell ourselves and others weave the fabric of our emotional life, and our emotions create or our ease and dis-ease. Therefore, The Healer is continuously looking for, validating and sharing stories of the best self, the remembered self, in all its magical origins. The key word for The Healer is CLARITY, for it is his vision that allows him to see the wholeness and perfection inherent in each person, relationship and circumstance.


LOVER
The Lover and The Mystic are closely related. Both speak the language of passionate surrender, but while The Mystic seeks direct experience with The Divine, The Lover seeks relation with an "other": an embodied person, place, thing or experience. Sensuality, sexuality, and adoration define The Lover, as she seeks relationship with herself through communion with another. Ecstasy is born each time The Lover shares her innermost self with the object of her desires. New dimensions take form and unfold as she embraces and expresses her affections.

The Lover's key word is COMMUNION, for she knows that love is a balance between giving and receiving, asking and allowing. Fostering a sense of self-love and trust, The Lover easily creates and enjoys intimacy, for there is nothing to hide, to fear, to withhold. In union with herself or a beloved, she is a creatrix of tangible joy, and understands her unique contribution to the world. For in the moment she experiences deep joy, a portion of suffering is removed from the world.


The Too Good and True in Action

While every human being is host to large cast of characters, these are the few standing at the forefront of The Too Good and True. Like an orchestra, each has its part to play, and by including all, the sound of our lives becomes full and rich, a symphony in harmony.

We of the TGNT know no limits except the ones we impose upon ourselves. We stand at the gates of the millennium, part wild revel yell, part contemplative sigh. Part razzle dazzle, part dusty blue jeans. Part topsy turvy carnival, part soulful simplicity. We are each a living menagerie, drawn to each other in these challenging times to create our heaven while grounded on earth, playing the music of our lives to the chords of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, but above all, Love.

With a REVEL yell, we cry MORE MORE MORE!!!

Always settle for more,

Angi

(r)Evolve with us! Take the TGNT oath.

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