A Call To Action
(An excerpt from my book ‘The Forgotten Gift of Life: A Time for Evolution’)
In the coming years, we face impending economic, political, social, and environmental catastrophe. Indeed the end of the world has been the banner of many a campaign, but this will be no “god raining hellfire” event. This will be the full culmination of the years of abuse we have wrought on this planet that careens along an exponential incline towards resource exhaustion. Capitalism and consumer culture have failed us, and have failed our world and its family of life. While some life might indeed survive and continue after the global collapse of our ecosystems, the relief this world will feel when it shucks our diseased people from its back will be nothing but understandable.
If we wish to be in love with our world, our home, and all that makes up this thriving environment, we must begin to act as such, because soon it will no longer welcome us due to our own stubbornly blind and willfully delusional habits and institutions of consumption and waste. In view of this, I encourage you to evaluate now—before no time remains for self-reflection—how it is that you define yourself and thus how you define others, God, and the world in relation. We can no longer deny that nuclear war, and catastrophic changes to Earth’s weather patterns and ecosystems are the leading causes which could end life as we know it, and that these factors hold the potential to happen soon. I beseech you to look critically at how you have built your livelihood, the people you involve yourself with, and the social, religious, and political structures that surround you.
Ask yourself, “Is this a worthwhile life?”
If the answer is yes, then I invite you to share with love the habits, resources, and processes that allowed you to cultivate a satisfying lifestyle with all of those who might still struggle to find similar peace and comfort.
And, if the answer is no, then I implore you to keep courage and faith that by committing yourself to loving work and re-habituating your thoughts to reorganize your mind; you can indeed elevate your experience of self, others, God, and the world.
We face times of great uncertainty. Fear, brainwashing, violence, bigotry, and cowardice plague our institutions and lay waste to our efforts to unite in peace. But, only if we begin the process of healing our own minds, and then lend our hands to the healing of others and the world, will we see the turning of the tide from impending doom to possible flourishing. Humanity stands on the brink facing the choice to live or die, just as I did long ago. I daily thank God that I chose life through faith. I keep faith in humankind’s ability to flourish. I know it is possible, because I continue to witness the individual blooming of some of us due to the diligent, loving, and committed work of cultivating self in the world. Yet, unless we combine our efforts, unless we unite in the goal to heal and make whole, we will continue to witness the dissolution of our societies, nations, and world, despite how healthy and vibrant any one of us might be.
We must come together, in our hearts, in our homes, in our neighborhoods and cities, and unite for the task of healing and rebuilding. We must first agree that Earth has serious problems that are not going away. We must be very specific and consider all dysfunctional areas. There must be no “sacred cows” of the powerful exempt from honest scrutiny. We need to agree on the diagnosis before we can begin a cure. We must work to change the fundamental language of how we discuss what is possible for our future in order to align our thoughts, values, and beliefs with the reality we now face. It is the context in which we consider these major problems that will become reflected in the outcomes of the actions we take or fail to take. Is the context in which we consider our circumstances based upon a desire to keep things the same? Or, is the context in which we face our circumstances based upon our openness and willingness to evolve with and in the world?
We can no longer deny what is not working if we wish to leave a world of hope and possibility for our offspring. And, though we come to the cliff’s edge of our ability to redeem ourselves before we annihilate ourselves, we are still yet redeemable. We must make that decision of life or death now before destruction wholly claims us. We must act with urgency before there remain no actions left to take to heal our people and this world. To paraphrase a Cree Indian prophecy, we cannot wait for the last bee to fall from the sky, for the last tree to be felled, for the last drop of water to be poisoned, or the last breath of air to be polluted; by that time, it will be far too late for solutions—we will already be dead.
Now I invite you to join me in the pursuit of mortal perfection, to take up the practice of self-mastery through the sharing in God’s unconditional divine love, for the sake of self, humanity, and the world. Without you in union with all of us, we will surely perish, but as we bind together all in God’s love, all things are possible. I thank you, I need you, and I love you. Now I call you to love as I have loved, and as God loves, and as so many before us, and I hope in many countless generations to come, love. Pass your love on to all of our successors. Love who you are, what you do, who you are with, where you are, and how you go about things, and when you cannot love your circumstances as they stand, learn to change them with love. Love with every fiber of your existence, even when what surrounds you seems utterly unlovable. Love as if your life depends on it, as if humanity depends on it, as if Earth depends on it, because all of existence in fact depends on love. In the name of God and all that is holy, love. Only through love can we leave behind our pain and destruction and turn once more to healing and rebuilding. Only through love will we evolve.