The Heart to Lead Hot

It is poetically notable that as I begin to write this review, there is just a hint of dawn seeping into the darkened sky. As I watch this ordinary, yet magical phenomenon, the revolution of celestial bodies is imperceptible, but the effects are clearly visible—and I know that within a short period of time the transmutation will be both dramatic and illuminating.

The Heart to Lead is a documentary that metaphorically tells a similar story. It shows intimate narratives from grass roots women, emerging into the evolutionary light of their highest truths on the journey of self-discovery. The effects of their/our transformation individually and collectively are—and will be—nothing short of extraordinary. This film is not a call to action but a celebration of the ways that increasing numbers of women (you might even call it a revolution) are following an innate and deliberate path of personal change and social action. And it is an alliance and movement that is conceived through the heart—an awakening to love and a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Leadership, and the heart to lead, is not a social posture or position but an inevitable outcome when we allow heart-knowing to shape how we perceive, what we intend, and how we act. Watching this film is an inspiring call to bear witness to each other, to our society, to our Earth home, to feminine wisdom, to the liberation of self-recognition, and to the future that heart-awakened leadership heralds. My only regret is that the film ended all too soon.

From the micro to the macro, in all living systems, there exists a feedback system that continually engages self-regulation in order to maintain or return to a state of balance: we call this process homeostasis. The notion of Women as Allies for the Greater Good (the film’s subtitle), is humanity’s homeostatic process in action, a coming together of the one and the many, to heal and regenerate.

As so often happens, nature provides the best metaphor for describing the affairs of the human condition: when there is darkness, light is sure to follow. Or as young Einstein said when he was a student: there is no darkness, only an absence of light. The Heart to Lead is brilliant—shine on!

Bonus: A companion guidebook to the film “includes rich journaling and discussion questions that support women and their circle of friends as they embrace and integrate the ideas and practices in the film.”