Category: Global change

Waves

Waves have always existed on this planet, in Nature and as part of the human trajectory. So many different waves, so many different colors. Today, a shimmering iridescent blue; tomorrow, perhaps a rainbow. Diverse people flowing together from every direction. We feel joy at the unfolding, hope in the possibilities. Dawn emerging over the ocean, peacock feathers, butterflies, sunflowers…. This is not a political party or belief system. This is the inclusive wave that connects us all through time and space, a seamless expression of love and compassion, which can only arise when separation falls to the wayside.

Yes, we currently live individual lives in different bodies, but before that we were all light, indivisible. No opposites or polarities. Before birth and after death, there is oneness. Can we open to it now as well? When we set aside the illusion of birth/death, oneness is revealed as a continuous Presence. Beyond the complicated systems humans have created, there is only stillness, peace. Take a deep breath and you are there. Everywhere all at once, no beginning or end. This is what wise souls throughout the ages have spoken of, and we have only to pause and breathe to realize it at the deepest level.

We are entering that Pause now (also called the Great Shift). One by one, people are dropping the stories they have been told all their lives and entering the present moment, in which their minds and hearts meet around the globe and form a garland of color and light. A garland that is both ephemeral and eternal. It is a shift in conscious awareness. Ultimately, each human being becomes one with infinity, which envelopes all lifetimes and Being itself.

Humans originally formed beliefs and opinions to explain the universe and protect themselves from fear of uncertainty and “others.” Those systems of thought, based on artificial separations (us/them), are currently dissolving or imploding, and we are discovering that the world around us contains emerging seeds of harmony and unity. Together, we are learning the truth of connection, which transcends words and language and even fear. Seen from our hearts and souls, there is only the Oneness that infuses the cosmos with love.

In Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves, one of her main characters expresses an inability to distinguish his life from the lives of others around him. Perhaps we too are reaching that sense of merging—that we many are all one and were never really separate. Global awakening to what has been called the universal soul. Or waves in an infinite ocean.

Clear the Fear!

I’ve become increasingly aware of how fear rules the airwaves and the collective mindset these days. So many people are terrified of “others,” as well as all that they can’t control in their lives. The media (both programming and advertising) feeds on and amplifies those fears. The mainstream news focuses on war, shootings, political fighting, disasters. Crime-solving drama series, filled with violence and gun battles, proliferate. Drug companies advertise medications to treat various conditions (including anxiety and depression), at the same time listing dangerous potential drug side effects (stroke, suicidal thoughts…). Interspersed among all the rest are promos for films with horror or terror themes. The ads alone can give you nightmares! 

These frightening images and stories stick to our brains and fill us with fear and hopelessness. Isn’t it time to turn our backs on this noisy onslaught of negativity and look to our own hearts for a more positive way to live life? Turn off the TV and computer, put down your cell phone, and take a walk outside in a park or nature sanctuary. Find your inner balance among the trees and flowers. Listen to birdsong and the sweet silence that surrounds you. Look at the sky, morning, noon, or night, for inspiration and a deep sense of something greater guiding the universe. 

What if the cosmos unfolds independently of our longing for control? What if it’s on its own trajectory? A vast, constantly changing kaleidoscope of colors and light, an infinite matrix within which our souls live diverse human lives on Earth. What if everything we see and experience is part of a divinely orchestrated pattern that we have yet to fully perceive? Human life may be our entry point to wisdom and awareness as we pass through fear, recognizing it for the illusion it is, and step into the “peace beyond understanding” described by the great sages throughout time. Perhaps we are on exactly the right path to finally see the love and light that has always lived within all of us.

Granted these are intense times with many challenges, including public and private tragedies, but don’t let fear freeze you and make you incapable of standing up for the integrity of your own life and life itself. Remember that ancient wise teachers have foreseen this era of tumultuous transition and rebirth. We are not here to destroy ourselves or one another. We are here to recognize fully the blessing that each of us is—and the blessing that our Earth home is. Feel connection with your neighbors. Beneath the surface of all the turmoil and headlines that seem to crowd our daily lives, something else is occurring: the emergence of love instead of hate, cohesion instead of friction, open hands instead of closed fists. It won’t happen overnight, but it’s closer than you think.

This afternoon I turned away from my computer and walked outdoors just as the sun was slipping toward the horizon. I paused as a dragonfly landed on my foot and moved its wings silently, reflecting the light. In a tree nearby, a chickadee was calling “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” as it made its way through the branches. Bluejays flew from oak tree to oak tree, gathering acorns for the winter. Moments like these center my heart in the spacious stillness of all Being everywhere. Any lingering fears of the day fall away, and I am reminded once again that Life is bringing me, and every one of us, Home. Free and clear.

For the People

Howard Zinn is one of my heroes. History professor and political activist, he is the author of the groundbreaking A People’s History of the United States, published in 1980. For me, it was a welcome antidote to old textbooks that interpreted events through the eyes of those with power, money, and status. It is truly a “people’s history.” Zinn’s brilliant retelling includes the hidden histories and viewpoints of so many of those left out of traditional history books: Native Americans, African Americans, immigrants, women, civil rights and antiwar activists, striking workers. It has profoundly affected countless individuals over the decades (and was even mentioned in the film Good Will Hunting).

Now there is a new Zinn biography by Dave Zirin: The People’s Historian, The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn. Howard died in 2010 at the age of 87, still actively speaking and teaching, often touring with Zirin who assisted him as on-stage interviewer. I didn’t realize how much I missed Howard Zinn until I read this biography. His presence leaps from the page and engages you, just as he did as a teacher, speaker, and writer throughout his life. The magic of Howard Zinn was in the living legacy of his thinking and activism, which has inspired generation after generation of students in the classroom as well as those who read his books or heard him speak in person.

I heard Howard “live” several times in Boston and Western Massachusetts. His teaching background at Spelman College and Boston University, as well as his civil rights and antiwar activism, made him an outstanding anecdotal speaker. His comments were both incisive and informative, telling history from his own life as well as the lives of so many excluded from the accepted American narrative. He was not dogmatic. It was basic human sharing, which included positive, hopeful descriptions of those who stood up for their rights. I came away from his talks moved and encouraged about the possibilities for change and true freedom in this country. As did so many others. My partner Anne decided to use A People’s History to engage and inspire her students in a 1980s program for former high school dropouts (it worked!).

Howard Zinn is present within the hearts and minds of all those whose lives he touched in and out of the classroom. His dedication to person-to-person, non-hierarchical involvement in community and in all parts of life inspired the same in others. His words and understated sense of humor made the so-called impossible seem not only possible but the only “sensible” path. Read Dave Zirin’s biography to learn about (or be reminded of) the courageous, compassionate life of Howard Zinn. His voice, consistently “for the people,” is one we need to hear again and again, especially at this time in human history.
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• Another excellent book by Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. There is also a documentary about him by the same title (narrated by Matt Damon). Ask for his books in libraries and bookstores if you don’t see them so that they continue to be available.

Suffs: Keep Marching!

Earlier this week, I watched the inspiring Broadway musical Suffs for the third time (once live in Boston; twice on PBS, New York show filmed). With both compassion and humor, Suffs focuses on the lives of the suffragists who fought for (and won) women’s right to vote in the years 1913–1920 (a 72-year struggle begun in 1848 at Seneca). This is classic women’s herstory, including the first women’s suffrage march on Washington in 1913 and later hunger strikes by imprisoned activists. All the characters are real people, movingly and powerfully portrayed: Alice Paul, Ida B. Wells, Lucy Burns, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Church Terrell, Inez Milholland, Doris Stevens, Ruza Wenclawska…. Several of the women’s names and life stories were unfamiliar to me, even though I had been deeply involved in the women’s movement in the 1970s (when the last scene of Suffs takes place).

I first encountered contemporary feminism when I took a class on the subject in 1971 at San Diego State University. In 1973, I enrolled in the Feminist Studies program at Goddard-Cambridge Graduate School, specifically Women’s Literature. We were a small group of eight women, reading many “lost” women authors, whose work we had to find in used bookstores or library archives. We were living on the cusp of the creation of women’s presses that reprinted these out-of-print, little-known works by women. It was an exciting time to be entering the feminist movement because new women’s groups, periodicals, and publishers were appearing all the time.

Several members of our graduate group, myself included, became editors/writers for the Boston feminist magazine Second Wave, as well as the Women & Literature Collective, who published an annotated bibliography of international women writers. Women’s distribution networks, bookstores, and print conferences became gateways for sharing feminist thought and creativity. Health centers and shelters for homeless or battered women were forming. In addition, most of us were active in local and national marches for women’s rights and human rights (ERA, LGBTQ, anti-racism, pro-unions).

Looking back, I see it as a time of great hope and optimism about the future. A few of us had been peace and civil rights activists in the 1960s, and we brought that positive view of the possibilities for change with us. Whatever our backgrounds, we knew there was still a long way to go to achieve full equal rights for all women. There were conflicts and disagreements about direction and focus, even as we tried hard to work together.

One of the most interesting parts of Suffs is that such conflicts also arose in the suffragist movement. And there were those, younger or older, who thought they knew best how to proceed. Cary Chapman Catt and Alice Paul were equally determined in their individual visions for the future. As was Ida B. Wells, who stood strongly for the necessity of addressing racism and working for the rights of all people.

Watching Suffs, I could see the long view of a century of change, continuing to this day. None of us are the same people we were earlier in our lives. The suffragists lived intensely focused lives as strong women dedicated to creating a better world for women, moving forward step by step, even in the face of obstacles, misunderstandings, and impatience. The feminists of the 70s and 80s were similar in our strength and dedication despite challenges. Today, whatever we call ourselves (or perhaps we have discarded labels entirely), we continue to hold the vision of a more equal, inclusive, and peaceful world in our hearts. And, as the final song in Suffs, expresses this, we “keep marching, keep marching….”
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Note: Suffs will be free to view on YouTube and PBS through the end of July:  https://www.pbs.org/video/suffs-efgkiq/. After that date, you need to join PBS Passport to view it. Definitely worth seeing—writing, music, and acting all outstanding!
**Photos above are from the 2017 Women’s March, Boston, Massachusetts.


There Is No “Other”

Humans have invented all kinds of concepts and labels to distance themselves from one another and convince themselves they are somehow special or better. We view the world through artificial lenses such as race, religion, species, gender, sexual preference, age, nationality, politics; we see “other” everywhere we look. And, historically, not others to be accepted and embraced, but others to be avoided or ostracized, often to the point of war and genocide. Underneath it all is fear: fear of survival, fear that we, and our belief systems, will die while others survive. Ultimately, it’s denial of the impermanence of life. 

Throughout the decades, people have built statues, monuments, roads, bridges, and starred sidewalks, all with human names, to create the illusion of permanence, immortality. We get lost in identification with our own physical form and attachment to all the transitory forms that surround us. The human mind wants to believe it can make a permanent impression on the world and somehow survive the life/death trajectory. Everything seen as “other” becomes a threat to that desperate survival need.  Yet, we are all going to die eventually. No exceptions. Neither fame, wealth, nor power will keep the door from closing. Mother Earth herself may not survive in her present form. The universe is eternally fluid, and at the soul level so are we.

Sooner or later, we all return to the same infinite energy source from which we emerged. This Source goes by many names: Spirit, Soul, God, Light, Infinite Consciousness. Within it, there is no “other.” There is nothing but seamless Presence, Oneness. And actually, that Oneness is what exists here on Earth as well, behind the veil of form. Perhaps we came here, in these particular lifetimes, to realize that and fully live it now, as all differences become obviously insubstantial and dissolve everywhere around us. We begin to see that we will leave this life without any part of our physical form, including opinions, beliefs, likes/dislikes. In that awareness, there is no separation or polarity. When the illusion of “other” falls away, compassion and love emerge, and the full light of Source energy shines through us all.

This is the journey for every one of us alive at this time. To stop looking at others as wrong or right, better or less, likable or unlikable, but instead just another human version of ourselves, trying to understand life and mortality. To be fully human is to accept it all and let it all go—into the infinite Presence that makes up all things. There is no “other”; there is only each and all of us, together as One.