How does One create a movement? Can one person really and truly create an entire movement? I think not.
I think that Movements form in the Collective Unconscious. Movements are something in the Energetic Field. They're something in Eternity and Infinity that's been floating about, collecting particles of stardust, growing larger, growing momentum, like a snowball. A movement is something in the air, a whisper in the wind, floating by the ears of more and more people and beings. Movements seem to happen when animals and plants and spirit and water and land and air and humans start to combine forces, to connect. Something's been building, emerging, rolling toward us. It is so close.
In this lifetime, for me, there's been an emerging. My whole life, something has been building. I've felt it. I've thought it. I've known it. And I've known it's not me. It's not separate from me, either. Whatever it is, it is bigger, SO much bigger than me, and I'm part of it.
I've often said I want to be part of The Movement. I want to be one of the blessed Ones who gets to be in the making of it, in the heat of it, in the action. It's not action like a Hollywood action movie. It's not action like political power. It's another kind of action, a movement. The energy of the movement is subtle and glowing and pulsing and deeply peaceful. It's painful and beautiful and real and connected. It's like being part of the root system of the trees, touching, communicating, protecting, reaching all the way around the planet, inside the earth. It's that big, that natural, that normal.
There are so many ways to describe The Movement. I've described it in so many different ways through the years. I've called it Energy, God, Love, Peace, Unity, Oneness, Spirit, Soul. Nowadays, right now, this something, this movement... I'm calling it Compassion.
Have you noticed the shift? I have. For years, I hadn't heard much about compassion, except maybe in Buddhism and meditation. Then I heard about compassion in communication, as in Non-Violent Communication (aka Compassionate Communication). I heard about compassion in Brene Brown's book, "Atlas of the Heart," in relation to strengthening emotional intelligence. I've heard about compassion within environmental arenas and in the Indigenous (or Natural) World View. I hear more and more about compassion in grief work. And here, I want to pause.
I'm hearing more and more about grief work. This is good. There's much to grieve. So much. We need places where we can work through grief and be supported in grieving. Still, in between grief workshops and bereavement support groups, most of us don't want to talk about or feel or show grief. Unless Grief has taken you over and you don't really have a choice but to grieve, most people choose to steer away from Grief.
Our culture steers us toward being happy. We want to protect our right to be happy. The pursuit of happiness becomes our goal. This goal, when single-sighted, becomes out-of-proportion within the realm of all viable emotions. What happens when we only want the one emotion: happiness? We internalize the belief that there's something wrong with us when we're not happy. We unconsciously ask: how can I get happy? When we're not feeling happy, we do all sorts of things, including pop a pill, have a drink, or eat chocolate, to feel "better." We may wonder: how can I make others happy? We feel uncomfortable with another's unhappiness... with any emotion other than happy. We advice people as to how they might feel better. We do not give breath and space to a normal myriad of emotions.
Grief holds within it many emotions. So many emotions. Grief is an entity unto itself. It's a weather pattern. It can be like gentle rain or like a tsunami. Grief can creep up from behind. You may not even know you're grieving until your emotions break and crash over you. And then, the intensity subsides, and there's a reprieve. Then emotions rise up again. Over and over, like waves. Grief waves. Grief can surprise you, like a Mac truck. slamming into you from the side. All of a sudden, grief pounds into you, taking the wind out of your lungs, leaving you unable to breathe. Grief can be like that, like a panic attack. It is impossible to allow ourselves to grieve when pursuing only happiness. And yet, more than happy happens.
I want to see Grief and Grieving normalized. Every day, throughout the day. The right to be happy and the pursuit of happiness are not in exclusion of Grief and grieving. Grieving includes joy. Grief is part of life. Grief is part of love.
And here's my favorite part. When we allow grief... when we open the door to all of the swirling emotions in Grief's weather pattern... when we allow Grief to flow or enter... to have its way with us... ultimately, we land in compassion. It's that simple.
This world, this life gives us a lot of reasons to grieve, a lot of opportunities to open to and sit with Compassion. I want to encourage that. I want to be part of that movement.
I want to be part of moving our culture toward being ok with grieving. I want to be part of moving our culture toward being reverent about it. I want to encourage a knowing, that Grief is our sacred teacher... that grieving is the highest form of authenticity... that Compassion (living in the room of Grief) is the sought after emotion (more than happiness). I want to be part of the movement toward knowing that when we allow Grief, we open to Compassion. I want to live in a culture where we make our decisions from the seat of Compassion. I want to be in a culture where we know we belong to one another, in Compassion.
So, The Compassionate Revolution. I want to be part of that. I want to be part of this. How 'bout you? Maybe you'd like to take a few breaths and drop into this present moment, just a bit more. Drop into peace, just a bit more. Drop into connecting and gratitude and compassion, just a bit more.
Now to spread this. That's the movement part, isn't it? Moving this forward and rippling it out. That's the part I want to help with. Maybe you too want to do this? Maybe we could talk about how to do this together. I would like to collaborate with you.
Or maybe there's someone you know who's coming to mind right now. Maybe, right now, you're thinking, "So-and-so would SO want to know about this. This is right up So-and-so's alley!" I would SO appreciate knowing So-and-so. I would like to collaborate with So-and-so.
So, contact me, Ok? Or have So-and-so contact me. Yes? Let's get this movement moving.
Comments