How to Awaken to Our Noblest Calling

written by Jackie McMackin 

To create a thriving world requires so much action.   How to discern the part we can play?   With so many choices plus the temptation to avert our eyes from need we can become passive. Powerful tools from wisdom teachings jog us loose and bring energy and focus to our desire to make a difference.

Stretch your seeing.   Enlarge your focus to include the entire Earth community.   Learn what’s happening and needs to happen to create a truly sustainable society.  Start with these short Web articles: “Blessed Unrest” by Paul Hawken; “The Great Turning” by Joanna Macy; “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community” by David Korten.

Feed your soul.   In The Care of the Soul  Thomas Moore states, “The great malady of the twentieth century... is ‘loss of soul’.”   This does not have to be.  Try an experiment: ask your body, mind and spirit what they hunger for; then give them that. Fall in love afresh with nature; walk/cycle/dance; read stories of how awakened people are creating a world that works; chill out with down time; enjoy total silence and time to think.   Be generous.  You’ll notice something curious: the old self trapped in the rat race gives way to someone truly present and full of heart.

Tap your passion.   With an awakened heart,  open to what  touches you.  What newspaper stories move you’re the most?   What evokes your most passionate criticism, your deepest grief, or what gets you thinking of new possibilities?  It truly got to Martin Luther King Jr.  that his kids were taunted on the playground because they were black.

Form a vision.   For that situation that moves you most, envision what things would look like if everything worked well.  Imagine preferred alternatives that bring joy to your heart.  King’s “Dream” speech was crystal clear: I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Identify action that calls you.   Pain or frustration are clues to call.   It was after her sister Anne’s three little children were killed in a clash between the army and the IRA in Northern Ireland that Mairead  Corrigan went on to found the Peace People who organized the largest nonviolent demonstrations in Northern Ireland which eventually brought peace.

Jump in, do things, learn from the good and unwanted results of your action.   Work alone or with others whose call is the same as yours.   In Creating, Robert Fritz shares the secret of creative people:   they imagine results they want, take action to create them and use unwelcome results to make course corrections.   Failure is not a stopper, but a teacher.

Celebrate successes.   Good news is contagious.  Whoop it up when you achieve results.  We all love success stories.    They build momentum and spark imagination to continue building a “civilization of love”.   Avaaz.org, the on-line justice organization, celebrated garnering 150,000 petition signers for Zimbabwe free elections by  flying  a plane over the United Nations where Thabo Mbeki was speaking with a massive aerial banner reading  “Mbeki - Time to Act.  Democracy for Zimbabwe.”   A most playful way to get the attention of the one person who can influence Robert Mugabe to step aside and make way for free elections.