"Be the Change"
“Be the Change You Want to See in the World."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Our Path as a Catalyst for Change: Profound and deep commentary, wisdom, and guidance -- the voices of friends and families and within our communities are helping us understand the reality of the election. Many of us with tears have gone through the classic mourning process: denial, anger, bargaining and depression. But we have stopped and paused at the last step of acceptance and said NO! We do not accept this vision of our country. We do not accept bigoty or misogyny- from whatever source. We do not accept hatred towards others. WE do not accept that others are less than ourselves. We can say NO.
As I retreat to ponder and meditate, in addition to LOVE, the one concept that keeps pushing into my thinkingis the word “Catalyst.” According to Webster Dictionary:
“The word “Catalyst” is a fairly new word, which appeared at the start of the 20th century . It was formed from the word catalysis, a chemistry term which is an increase in the rate of a chemical reaction. In the 1940s, the figurative sense of catalyst was: someone or something that quickly causes change or action.”
The events over the past couple of weeks can serve as a catalyst; a potent wake-up call to reinvigorate our efforts to further social justice and create a culture from a place of the conscious rather than from power. This may be the spark- the lightening needed to energize ourselves and others -- reaching out to change the minds and hearts of others, one by one. There is a place for peaceful protest.
A fellow traveler on our journey toward equity, the NW brilliant poet and activist, Alberto Moreno, posted an old saying: "Hope had two daughters: Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things were and the Courage to change them. Together, we can make it so! We can despair. Or we can repair.” (Thank you Alberto!)
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice. But
there must never be a time when we fail to protest."- Elie Wiesel (Holocaust Survivor)