we are the artists…and we are the art

Like many others coming through during this time, I feel an enormous responsibility to live my life in a way that emanates a deep reverence and love for our planet. Often at the fore, in both my mind and heart space, is awareness of the role that we’ve played, and continue to play, in shifting her—our Earth—as well as ourselves, as part of her, out of balance.

There were a couple of years, during the late ’90’s, when I recall it being somewhat routine to experience soft stretches of tearful exhales over feeling small and desperate for change. I remember one conversation, in particular, with a dear friend handling much of the same sentiment, during which I described the way I felt as though I walk out of my apartment, daily, to find a loved one surrounded by masses of people—and I can’t break through the crowd or do a single thing to stop the situational momentum.
Standing idly by is an unpleasant place to be.

Countless essays and articles by various experts from various scientific and/or environmentally-related fields have come to the general consensus that we cannot continue with our patterns of energy and technology use and population growth if our expectation is to survive for another century. On the flip, the focus always seems to turn to the hundreds of decisions that we can individually make on a daily basis that feed into the stirring pot of profound transformation. And, sans any doubt, there are a bundle of choices that we each have a responsibility to make and to stand by—now and always.

Perhaps the most profound of the profound agents of change will be to explore and to embrace what is slowly being revealed to us about our potential and how we influence the world around us.

It’s been a really long while since I have felt the hopelessness that I touched upon above. That pattern of perception and despondency dramatically shape-shifted as I began to step further into an understanding of the field of consciousness and our role in it. Stepping away from a stretch of time when I felt “written out” of the scene and into a stretch of realizing how much a part of everything that I witness and experience was and is empowering. It felt and feels so different—it felt and feels so right. And, as has been expressed many times before now; what feels right is a certain and beautiful measure of Truth.

Many of us feel this shift—this uprising, of sorts—that is currently at play. We feel the power of it. We are, collectively and quickly, grasping this understanding of how we interact with and influence the world around us—and that is why this turnover is so powerful. It writes us—you and I—back into the universal equation. It empowers us with the ability to transform the great “messes” of our time, rather than sit back and toss the outcome to a ravenous fate. Upon the realization that we are co-creators of our reality; what problems cannot be solved? Which visions are beyond our scope of possibility?

We are an Essential Key.

The reason? This changing force is rooted in what you and I are doing and being right now—in this moment. Individually and collectively, consciously and unconsciously, we are all making choices wrapped around the way we see and what we think about ourselves and what we believe to be true of the life around us. The on-going emanation of our thoughts and beliefs envelop us as the arrangement of our experience.

The way science is in the constant process of bridging with spirituality is exciting. It is increasingly being understood, as well as accepted, in scientific circles that the reality of our lives—everything from health, finances and relationships to more globally pressing matters—is wrapped up in our belief patterns shaping the measurable material that all else, in this time/space reality, is made from. It’s all so intricately interwoven into the thick of what we choose to accept as truth about our world—and about our capabilities and boundaries within it.

The Power to Change is—Through Choice, Intent, Vision, Action and Trust—within the Power to Create.

The idea of relying on something within us to address trials that seemingly dance outside of us can be unnerving to some—and downright loony to others. I cannot chalk up the conversations that I’ve had with people over recent years, during which they begin tossing around the looming state of our planet and I follow up with touching upon some of the above points and suddenly feel as though the other chap or chapette is playing the role of Will Ferrell in “Old School,” slurring out: “You’re crazy, man. You’re crazy. I like you, but you’re crazy.” Well, sort of. I am crazy in love with the potential that we all have to do good things while we’re here. After it soaks in for a few minutes, hours—sometimes years; I’ve later been asked, “if this is so essential for our future, how do we learn about how to influence the world around us with our thoughts and belief patterns now—and how do we reel in the masses quickly enough to shift our surroundings in time to survive our current condition?” Hmmmmmmm…..fair question! My response is usually a simple variation of, “I don’t know.” Aside from sharing little write-ups, like the one right here, and similarly-toned conversations with other souls, I don’t tote around a master plan. I don’t know that any of us really do.

I do know this: my favorite thoughts come to me in the space of being outdoors with my bare feet planted so firmly in bright green grass. (Smiling…and pausing to breathe in my surroundings.) More seriously, I know this: on the one hand, we’ve been led to believe that we are these small and powerless beings who live in a world where things just “go down” for no apparent reason. On the other hand, our most ancient and revered spiritual traditions gift the teaching that there is a force that lives within each of us—an energy, a capability, a competency—that nothing in this world can even remotely touch. With it arrives the affirmation that walking through the darker moments of our lives will lead to a place where, in hindsight, only good can be recognized. In the interim, we continue to unleash our true selves. We write. We speak. We love. We live. We learn. We are both strong and vulnerable and, through it all, we may occasionally feel spells of confusion and helplessness. It would be unfair to suggest that we, during these murky moments, are not best served by fully leaning into and processing through what we feel…
but then, ohhh then…
…make the effort to lean into, to allow the beauty of recognizing, of knowing and of trusting our divine power and ability to bring what we believe is good and whole into the matrix of life around us.

What are the odds that by transforming any belief patterns from our past that are no longer working (whatever they may be) into healing patterns of love and peace, we can boldly alter this life today—and the life of tomorrow?

They are good—really good.

We are such a brilliantly interactive, important and ever-dynamic element of this beautiful life we weave.

We are the artists…and we are the art.