What I have found that I most admire among them all is they are reaching for their version of life that best matches who they are and what they want in this life. But the other thing I have been thinking about is even more important for each of us to consider in our own reaching - and that is not what can the community I seek do for me, but rather what can I do to support the community I choose?
Yes, John Kennedy said the same thing so many years ago about our country, but look how that turned out! We have created a country that feels entitled to what everyone else has at any cost - only it is now we are feeling the pain of the costs incurred all these past years. We have focused our giving on what we could get and not sharing what we want to keep what we have.
As I write this as more and more are moving themselves into their opinion of the movements that are sprouting up everywhere to occupy places that represent the greed of our past. While the desire to have a better life is at the core, the actions and words don't represent the solution, only a restatement of the problem.
In essence, we the 99% feel you the 1% need to give us what you have so that we can have what we want. I don't know about you, but I can't get the people I love to give me enough to make me secure and happy 100% of the time. How can it really work out to ask the same thing of people who don't like us, know us, or even care about us?
The positive is yes, the people are recognizing the problem. The negative, they still think the solution lies somewhere else outside their own mind, family, and community. We want the solutions we seek to come to us from the outside to the inside, but the laws of this universe just don't work that way - hence the direction things have been going for most of the recorded history of man this time around.
So, back to small communities and my deep admiration for those who are reaching to live their own solution. As I listen to each person describe their lives I am stuck by their creativity, their willingness to face obstacles and challenges, and mostly the joy I hear deep within them as they creatively build their own version of the world they want to live in.
It is a hard moment to awaken to the realization no one is coming to save you or solve your problems. But, it is also the moment you truly are set free. Waiting for someone to give you what you need is a long and often painful wait followed by bitter disappointment and resentment at their failures. Just witness our relationships, our jobs, our health, and our country.
But, when the anger and the rage and the blame and the need to be an innocent victim passes out of you and you pick up your hammer or hoe or pen to begin creating your own solution - you tell me which you were really happier and meant to do?
There is tremendous satisfaction in solving your own problems. There is even greater satisfaction in helping others solve theirs by your contributions. As some of you know the beginning of my journey was a little bit bumpy, but the one phrase that kept going in my head over and over is that no one reaches their dreams on their own. I was blessed every day and still am by the generosity and willingness of others to share their wisdom and their skills to help me create my dreams. But it feels even better when I can help others create theirs.
What I would say to all the occupy protestors is go home. Then, meet in groups that share your version of life that you dream of and start making it happen. The 1% don't fear your anger and rage, they fear your absence and your indifference to them. Energy directed at a source, be it for or against, is still energy that feeds that source. But remove it and it has no choice but to whither and die from hunger.
Spiritual wisdom says we can't reach Heaven alone. I also believe we won't build the new world individually, but together. It begins within each of us, but it must progress to our families and communities as we share our own wisdom and skills and dreams. If you give to get you won't have for very long. But, if you give to share so that everyone has more - then you have found the secret to success and happiness. Gold in a box is not the answer. Joy within a community is.
