Directions have consequences

Reading the headlines in the news this week I am reminded that things are really changing. It’s still hard to fathom that I could actually agree with something the Government does, rubbing my eyes as if waking from a dream. There he is, President Obama, talking to me like an adult, talking to us like we’re part of the conversation, talking about talking to each other, our friends, our adversaries, whoever needs to be talked to in order to create a better world family.

It seems so basic: What do we tell our children when they bicker and fight, when they forget to think about the consequences of their behavior? What do all the world’s religions say about how to relate to our enemy? And yet, we’ve allowed ourselves to be guided by the kind of instincts we would teach our kids to avoid, that Jesus or Mohammed or the Buddha would advise us to transcend.

True, having George Bush and Dick Cheney as our leaders and role models made the task of staying open-hearted and -minded more difficult, but I have been complicit in my own distrust of the human capacity to act in ways we teach our children. Too often I have thrown my hands up at the charade of political theater instead of sharpened my wit at the politics of the personal. I too have been tempted by cynicism, disengaged from hope, doubtful that elections could have actual consequences.

“Elections have consequences” is a statement I’ve heard a lot lately, and I’m feeling like this time it is actually true. But I’d like to take a further look at the reflections of elections, which brings me to directions. As our wise President has repeatedly stated, this is as much about us as it is about him. Yes, there are important consequences of his ascent to power, as we can already see from plans to shut down Gitmo to allow states to enforce strict carbon emission laws. But nothing can fundamentally change, unless each of us resolves to choose a direction that is committed to the ideals we believe in and teach our children, on a daily basis, in our hearts, and in our own communities.

Maybe it’s no coincidence that this blog — incubating for so many years — had to wait to hatch until right now. Those who  have read my newsletters and ruminations over the years know I’ve always looked at the state of the world through the lens of the soul, finding the greatest resources to make change happen around us within the tender fabric of our own imagination. At the same time, I understand the power of action, the need to take a strong stand, to tend to the soil, the fragile blanket of survival that binds us all together, physically and metaphorically.

You catch the drift. On this joyous moment in human history I’d like to share my direction, sew my little patch into the quilt of ideas, ink the feather that tickles my divine sweet spot. From geology to astrology, from history to mystery, from agriculture to active culture, from government to enlightenment, from art to the heart, I will roam in the spaces between and orbit on the cycles around. I serenade the gift of paradox and transcendence, I strive so I can let go, allow myself to be wise enough to take action. I raise my glass to the mutual inspiration of the political and the spiritual, the resonance of the active with the creative, the  union of soil and soul. Time to evolve.