Warriors for the human spirit

Last month I spent a week volunteering at a meditation retreat center. While I was there, I read the book So Far From Home, by Margaret Wheatley. It’s an incredible book, and my main takeaway is this:

The world is doomed. While we can attempt to understand what has emerged to get us here by looking back, that won’t teach us what action to take to save the world. Emergence is mysterious and it is more than the sum of its parts.

So what do we do? We train as warriors for the human spirit. We learn to pause before we react (ah, so much easier said than done...). We give up our savior mentality. We will not save the world. We accept challenge as a way of life. We fight to put kindness and compassion in the world, we fight to become aware of and ward off aggression in ourselves, aggression which spreads all too easily. Gandhi said wars between nations start with words between men. I'm focusing on my words, my thoughts, my feelings, what I am thinking and putting into this world. I'm noticing. "As we accept what is, we become people who stand in contrast to what is, free from the aggression, grasping and confusion of this time."

We do what we know is right and just, and we don’t worry about whether or not it’s going to “work.” Things will continue to emerge, and we will continue to have very little control over these things.

The main thing is we focus at least as much energy on transforming ourselves, as we do on transforming the world (Grace Lee Boggs). And as we release the hope of saving the world, we can also be released from the fear of what might happen. We just don't know. So let's enjoy this moment, do our best, and see what happens, shall we?