Water of life by GFPeck (CC 2.0)
There is a common theme in a lot of the things I hear, see, and read these days. It is the theme of "taking action". We are being encouraged from many directions to act, to stand up for what we believe in, to be proactive. We hear it from public figures (President Obama said it in his farewell address), and we hear it from a lot of other sources.
We are being asked to become active in guiding and directing the course of our future. We are being urged to apply our energies to make a difference in the future that is unfolding before us.
Now of course, we always make a difference in our future since even a non-action or non-choice or non-participation is an action. Whether you say no, or say yes, or say nothing, you are still affecting the outcome. When one applies that to elections for example, the people who don't vote make a difference in an election... maybe as much as the people who do vote. Their non-participation removes a weight on the scale in one direction or another.
But I'm not speaking just of elections or political matters. Our choices, our actions affect everything around us. Choosing what school your child attends, even choosing what clothes they wear, or their haircut, has an effect on who they ultimately become. Everything we come in contact with affects us in one way or another. We are who we are, but the person we are is a culmination of all the things that have happened to us, or around us, since we were born (and even before we were born).
I often wonder if my repulsion to cigarettes came from the fact that my mother smoked while she was pregnant with me. That was after all the 50s when professional women smoked, and my mother was a teacher. I don't know exactly when she stopped as I don't have a memory of my mother smoking, but I was told she was a smoker while she carried me in the womb. This is just to explain that we are affected by things in our environment even prior to birth or when we are not aware of them.
Call to Action
The current surging of the "call to arms" or call to action is not a call to arm ourselves with weapons of destruction, but rather to peacefully arm ourselves with truths, with a goal and vision of a loving, healthy and peaceful future for all. And the call directs us to take action on our beliefs, on our inner truths, on our vision on what is needed for the future of our loved ones and the entire planet.
And since we are all different threads in this huge tapestry of life on earth, we each have a different action to take. To use a musical analogy, we each have a different note to play. However, what is essential is that we all play our notes. I've been watching the series Mozart in the Jungle, and one thing that I discovered is that in a symphony each instrument is essential, and each note as well. One missing note can ruin the whole performance.
So each one of us needs to tune in to what our note is... what our call to action is... and then make sure we stand up and play our note clearly and lovingly, expressing our full potential.
To quote a John Mayer song:
Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open (a wide heart)
Say what you need to say, Say what you need to say...
And I would add: Do what you need to do. Or perhaps do what we all need you to do since you are a note in our symphony. Don't be the missing piece in the puzzle. Play your part. Show up and shine. Say what you need to say and do what needs to be done.
Article Inspiration: Song
"Say"
by John Mayer.
Click here for more info and/or to order this CD.
Click here for lyrics to the song.
About The Author
Marie T. Russell is the founder of InnerSelf Magazine (founded 1985). She also produced and hosted a weekly South Florida radio broadcast, Inner Power, from 1992-1995 which focused on themes such as self-esteem, personal growth, and well-being. Her articles focus on transformation and reconnecting with our own inner source of joy and creativity.
Creative Commons 3.0: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Attribute the author: Marie T. Russell, InnerSelf.com. Link back to the article: This article originally appeared on InnerSelf.com
