If Not Now, When?

Are you as unsettled as I am by the dangerously chaotic state of our world? Would you like to make more of a difference? Do you wish you knew how?

My husband Trond and I regularly engage in probing conversations now about what else we might do to bring our varied gifts and rich life experience to bear on the sorry world situation. And I have come to one useful conclusion: I am able to "change the world" precisely to the extent that I'm willing to change my little corner of it, starting from deep inside, out. To make a difference, I need to be different.

It's not about doing more. Rather, the crazier it gets out there, the more I am drawn back in here, to the core of my being, where the seeds of sanity, peace, and compassion are sown. To nurture those seeds, I find I must slow down, relax, breathe, and return to centered self-awareness often. Only then I can discern the ongoing effects of what I'm doing and how I am being, with myself first and foremost. By paying close attention, I learn to adjust my inner and outer behavior to accord with my soul's--and the world's--truest promptings.

If instead I shoot myself (and others) down, or let my fear-mongering mind take me hostage, should I be surprised there are snipers and terrorists? And if I don't stand up to be heard and counted, what right do I have to bemoan the state of our democracy? Unless and until I cultivate and express my authentic presence in all its radiant power, how can I expect a harmonious world?

Really, dear friends, we are the world. It begins and ends with us. We wield power to shape it beyond our wildest imaginings. And we do this through shaping ourselves "in the image of God". I mean by this that we shape the world by aligning ourselves with what is most fundamental and real, within and around us. Our capacity to make a substantial difference is all about stripping away what we are not, till we can rest in what philosopher Yasuhiko Kimura calls "the clarity of being, in which there is no self-deceit." I am that I am.

Like charity, peace begins at home, with the radical self-acceptance born of clear eyed self-realization. Fortunately though, peace doesn't end at home. We who are awakening to reality cannot help but be inspired toward greater service. It is who we essentially are. It is what we were born to do. It is all that makes us happy.

We often lack only the vision and the courage to stare ourselves down until we see what we are made of, and what we are capable of. Risky it is; it can even be excruciating. But since, let's face it, we will all be six feet under some day soon, we might as well live large and luminously in the meantime. If not now, when?