A More Beautiful World: A Call to Action
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These are strange, challenging and chaotic times we are living in. So much has changed since I wrote my first blog post. I never could have predicted what has transpired in the world or how my journey to an earth-based life in the country was to develop.
At the time of writing that first post, I had come to a point in my life where I had decided enough was enough. I was tired of the monotonous too-ing and frow-ing along the same metro line to work and my soul was weary from all the disconnection I could see in my daily life all around me.
I felt an overwhelming desire to speak the words that my heart was clambering to shout from the rooftops.
“Enough with this insanity!”, it wanted to shout, “There has to be another way!”.
A Yearning
This deep, internal cry came from a wounded place, a place that I think all of us, or at least most of us, carry around inside us, often unbeknownst to us. It is the place that desires reclamation for all pain and suffering that exist within this world and demands an alternative.
It was the cry of the trapped wild spirit in me, who longed to roam free from the meals eaten out of Tupperware boxes, from cramped metro journeys and food wrapped in plastic. It yearned for more meaning, more purpose, and more connection.
Trapped within the 9-5 routine of modern life, it had had enough. It was time to break out of the matrix of our consumer and materialist culture and begin to seek other like-minded people with whom I could share this burning desire to co-create a different kind of world.
I longed for a world that inspires beauty instead of ugliness and promotes connection instead of disconnection. One that considers the Earth as sacred rather than a commodity to be used as or how we like and that promotes generosity and abundance rather than scarcity and lack.
Control by Fear
If I am honest with myself, I have always known deep down that there was something not right with this world. There was an unease that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Now I can see that this unease was in fact fear; fear fuelled by doom and gloom narratives that promotes pain and suffering and call it news; fear fulled by the scarcity mentality which sees us hoarding our resources instead of sharing them; fear fuelled by the culture of objectification that sees life as a product to be commoditised, including our own.
Yet there was also a deeper fear still. One that filled my soul with self-doubt, hopelessness and a depressed resignation of the inevitability of the darkness in the world.
It was the fear that the world was right, that there was no other possibility and that any dreams harboured of a more beautiful world are futile.
This is the most soul-crushing fear of them all.
It is what keeps us from acting on inspired ideas that could make a difference. It is what stands in our way of following our dreams. It is the obstacle that lies between us and the more beautiful world that we know is possible, if only we had the courage to believe its existence is a real possibility.
Safety in Numbers
And of course, there is the peer pressure of the crowd.
“If everyone else around me is going along with it, then it must be right. How could I be the only one who sees things differently?”
We begin to doubt ourselves and hand over our power to others who tell us how the world works and how it will continue to work. And so our indoctrination into doom and gloom, fear and lack, apathy and despondency begin.
We choose to live our life in accordance with the status quo and be good citizens, working hard for our families and paying our bills, and most importantly, not asking any questions. And if you do, be ready for a fresh dollop of doom, gloom and fear to keep that pesky daring of yours at bay.
Empowerment
I have decided to take back my power and begin to ask those questions that until that first blog post, had remained a hidden aspect of myself. Previously, I didn’t want to be that person making others feel uncomfortable with my inconvenient observations about the world nor the radical activist that alienates people rather than inspires them.
Yet the world will not change if we don’t engage. Who will help to co-create a more beautiful world if not us? If not now, then when? Do we leave it for our children and grandchildren to sort out? Is that the kind of ancestor we want to be?
Ignorance is Bliss
I say that now is the time to participate, to engage, to take responsibility for the world beyond the comfort of our front doors.
Yet I understand that we may be very comfortable in our lives and therefore not feel the impetuous to act. I myself come from a comfortable background; I know it very well. I know how the comfort of having all my physical needs met and then some feels- this is where I have come from.
It can feel like the problems of the world a very far away from us. So far away that it is difficult to feel any connection to them whatsoever. Our modern lifestyles also disconnect us from the Earth, so any talk of degradation or planetary destruction feels at best irrelevant to our lives and at worst absurd.
When we can go to our comfortable work in our nice cars and return to our comfortable homes, stopping by the convenient supermarket that is stocked with all that we could desire and more, we can be forgiven for not seeing beyond the material trappings of modern life. However, despite its seductive comfort, this is merely the fur-lined pocket.
Comfort and Security
Outside of this fur-lined pocket lies a different world; less comfortable, more raw, but also more alive. The fur-lined pocket represents our comfort zone, the status quo, our desire for stability and security. It is where the thought “let’s not rock the boat” is birthed and nurtured. It can be a nice place to be, sometimes a necessary place to be. But it is not the place from which we can live boldly and creatively.
Our dreams exist outside of this fur-lined pocket, as does the more beautiful world that we want to co-create.
Leaving the fur-lined pocket takes courage. It takes courage to raise our heads out of the ground and face what is happening to our world. It also takes courage to think critically about the different perspectives presented to us. It takes courage to ask questions and to be the one to say “I ain’t playing this game anymore”
A Call to Action
So this post is a call to action. It is a call to all of us to begin to engage in our world beyond the furlined pockets of our front doors. It is a call to be courageous and believe in our power to create a different kind of world. It is a call to come together and take up our role as dreamers, visionaries, creators, and makers.
We are not here only to consume, consume, consume.
We are creative beings. It’s time to own our power and begin to create a different kind of world.
Let’s not wait for others to begin for us to take action. Let’s be the visionary leaders that make a stand and lead the way by example.
Because if not us, who?
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