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April 5, 2010
On My Way to the Middle East Regional Microcredit Conference in Nairobi, Kenya
I’m on a plane about an hour outside Nairobi, thinking about the Microcredit Conference and particularly delighted that 26 other women who came to the SISTER GIANT Conference are going as well. I didn’t know if any of them would, though I felt strongly that putting the invitation out there was the right thing to do. I know there were others – including people who heard about the trip to Kenya at my Tuesday night lectures in LA -- who would have come had they been able, and still others who were intrigued by the idea even though going on this trip wasn’t right for them right now.
I led metaphysical tours several years ago…to Egypt a few times, to Ireland, to Greece, even a metaphysical tour of Washington DC. But as I’ve been saying in my lectures over the last year or so, “The era of data collection is over.†It isn’t as interesting as it used to be to just go somewhere to consume…. even if what we’re consuming is spiritual information or even experience. The pulse of this moment is participation. It’s not enough any more to just learn or even to grow. It’s time to participate fully in the transformation of the world.
Obviously the issue of poverty is just one issue among many that demand our urgent attention. No matter what form our activism takes, it does something to you – to the subtle fibers of your being – when you stand up fully to advocate for others. I first learned that during the AIDS crisis in LA in the l980’s. There was no way to ignore all the pain and fear around us, but those who responded – with the LA Center for Living, with Project Angel Food and in other ways too– found our lives enriched and blessed for having done so.
The flow of activism begins to occur naturally when we allow ourselves to emotionally absorb the human suffering in our midst. 17,000 children die of hunger each day – every five seconds, a child starves to death somewhere on this earth. Take even a moment to truly consider 1) what it would feel like to die of hunger; 2) what it would feel like to watch your child die of hunger; 3) that so many children each day do die of hunger; and 4) there’s enough food to feed them if that’s what the governments and financial institutions of the world truly decided to do – and you couldn’t remain complacent even if you wanted to. We are moral beings at our core, and we yearn to do what we can to right the universe. It’s not enough anymore to just put “Be the change you want to see happen in the world†on the bottom of your emails and otherwise leave it at that.
So I am already blessed by this trip, just by being on the plane. By showing up. By making the choice to be here. And I am so looking forward to meeting others at the Conference --- four thousand people are here from all over the world --who have devoted themselves so utterly and completely to activities that lift the poor from poverty and get food to those who would otherwise starve.
Posted by mwblog at April 5, 2010 7:37 PM
