I’ll admit it, I spent more than two and a half decades depressed about the lost opportunities to create a renewable energy economy that would spare us from the environmental disasters attendant on burning fossil fuels. Once Ronald Reagan ripped the solar panels off the roof of the White House and our government abandoned serious improvements in transportation fuel efficiency standards and pretty well killed off renewables R&D, I lost a big part of the hope and optimism of my youth. Year after year, we failed to make even the least sensible steps toward converting away from fossil fuels, and I got more and more resigned to the prospect of looming catastrophe.
I moved my attention to focus on social justice and equity, becoming a facilitator/advocate for multicultural acceptance, cross-cultural competency, and the organizational, societal, and personal benefits of a robust diversity and inclusion. I slowly stopped focusing on changing the world, and narrowed my efforts to liberating specific people from their ham-handed clumsiness and anxiety about building relationships across difference. If all that I could reach was a dozen, a score, or maybe a few more at at time, I had to be satisfied to be doing what I could, even as the problems of the world got larger and seemingly more desperate day after day.
Then, unexpectedly, happily, I found myself participating in the powerful Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium presented by The Pachamama Alliance. I had gotten a whiff of that heady perfume of hope and effective action that I’d almost completely forgotten, and I cautiously stepped into the possibility it suggested. Amazingly, in a few short hours, I was captivated, re-vitalized, and refilled with hope.
In the Symposium, we explicitly faced the enormity of the environmental, societal and spiritual morass we are in. In light of that, we explored the mental models modern humanity had inadvertently subscribed to that got us into this mess (we’re not an innately flawed species, we’ve just been using the wrong operating manual for life on earth). But it was when we reviewed the enormous capacity for, and track record of, astonishing positive change in human societies and then learned that literally millions of groups are simultaneously springing up around the world addressing the environment and social justice, the shades rolled up and the doors blew open in my mind. “It is as if the immune system of the human race has awakened and is mobilizing a massive campaign to save us from our misunderstanding, our excesses and their perilous results.” My heart leapt! The spark of hope I’d secreted away in some hidden corner burst into flame, shocking and thrilling me with its intensity.
So, I’ve finally found a place where I can joyously live my values and apply my organizational development expertise in making a tangible difference in the world at this time of environmental, social and spiritual crisis. I’ve come to believe that we are living in a moment unparalleled in human history, when we are called to step into the fullest potential of our species, for our very survival and for our extraordinary possibilities. Today I’m one of a burgeoning family of more than 2000 volunteer change agents working in 40+ countries to facilitate symposiums to bring hope and inspiration and to invigorate even more positive action in communities across the globe.
Here’s a tasty sample of what I’m talking about http://awakeningthedreamer.org/content/view/115/135 .
If this sounds intriguing, look into the web site surrounding the link for more information and a map/calendar of Symposia around the world. Or, contact me if you’d like to learn more about generating inspiration, hope and action to change our world as part of this rapidly expanding global family committed to “bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling human presence on our planet”.
