What’s it gonna take?
When the newsfeed and broadcasts get flooded with images and stories of violence, oppression, injustice and pollution…do you ever think to yourself… “What’s it gonna take?”
What’s it gonna take for us to change our ways? To realize, once and for all, that this culture of disconnection and disrespect is a dead end street…to wake up to the fact that we are running out of time and space and resources and grace for this blatantly brutal way of life…to not only realize these truths but to allow them to change our collective course of action.
I see momentary flare ups of outrage, compassion, inspiration and despair filtering through our posts and comments. Our emotions stirred by a sickness that feels too big to heal. Some of us would rather ignore it…some joke about drinking it away…having our kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames…some of us scramble to fill out all the different petitions and stay informed about all of the issues…and some of us send our prayers for healing into the vastness. But the thread running through it all is this listless sense of hopelessness and disconnection.
A sinking feeling inside of powerlessness. A feeling that the system is just too big and has too much momentum…that it’s got us by the balls. It’s had us since the day we were born, taken away from our mamas in sterile hospitals, put into plastic boxes, preventing the natural nurturing that our DNA expected and severing our bond with the natural world…It’s got us in our wallets, in our government, on our dinner plates, in our schedules, in our children’s schooling…it’s even got us in our own minds and bodies as we wrestle with addiction, doubt, fear and anxiety. It’s enough to make us just wanna give in and give up. But…
Genuine change is being called for. And WE are the ones being called.
It’s true…you and me…those of us who are blessed with the wherewithal and freedom to even reflect on this situation…those of us who have the emotional capacity to feel the outrage and grief…those of us who can see right through the lies…those of us who are smart enough and curious enough to dig down to the roots of this culture madness…those of us who are creative enough to reweave a new culture through our personal thoughts, actions and deeds…to start with ourselves and our families and establish innovative and positive new ways of being in the world.
It’s time for us to flip the script on this whole story and rewrite it from beginning to end. It’s time to unplug from the circuits of destruction and root into the cycle of regeneration. It’s time to turn away from violence and cruelty and cultivate peace. It’s time to reconnect with our true wild natural selves and give them permission to reach for the light of the sun. It’s time to stop waiting for permission and liberation to be handed down by big government and instead grant ourselves the freedom that we (and our ancestors) have so long been fighting for.
What it’s going to take is a radical transformation of our culture…from the inside out.
And that means it has to start with US. There’s no way around it. All the wisdom of our elders, from the native prophesies to the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi show us that this change has to start from within. That we need to be the change we wish to see in the world. That only through our own deeds and actions will we be able to make the world green again. That we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
If we want to see justice, freedom and ecological sanity in our world we’ll have to pour our hearts and hands into co-creating a culture that actually supports these values. We’ll have to renounce that old story of hopelessness and reclaim our personal and collective power. We’ll have to untangle the dysfunctional patterns, beliefs and behaviors that define this version of culture and take personal responsibility for what we choose and create with our words and actions, in our relationships and purchases, with our time and inspiration. And, most importantly, we’ll have to come together in mutual support as a human family.
Coming together to weave a new web…
When push comes to shove, evolutionarily speaking, cooperation and ingenuity always win out over competition and preserving the status quo. The organisms that survive are the ones who learn to adapt to the changing circumstances and cooperate with their fellow organisms. As we rapidly approach the brick wall of total systems collapse I feel this primal yearning inside of me screaming out to connect…to collaborate…to share and learn from each other…to get creative and explore our capacity for change and come together in a web of mutual support.
We have many things to unlearn and relearn…many wounds to heal and patterns to retool… many systems to recreate and habits to outgrow. As we help each other examine and transform the many threads of our cultural reality we can reweave the web of a new culture together. Empowering each other through connection will create a groundswell of transformation that can merge with all of the other life-loving grassroots movements that are arising across the globe at this time of great change.
In order for this transformation to effectively serve the highest wellbeing of all, it has to start way down at the taproot of our personal experience and grow, holistically and comprehensively, through all the branches of our collective reality.
I certainly don’t have all the answers and I don’t imagine anyone else does either but…I trust that we’ll find our way together as we collectively dive into this powerful, living exploration.
Join in on the conversation that will transform our culture from the inside out at…
