Spanning the Globe

Posted by Amanda Moreno

Spanning the Globe

Amanda Moreno re-commits to a necessary, positive contribution, but is met by the questions we all are confronting. Then she remembers: we don’t have to shoulder the entire world, but rather claim the part within our reach, and act to heal it. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes, “Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.”

By Amanda Moreno

Two things have become pressingly clear to me this week. The first is that I’m more committed now to the idea that love is the only thing that will save us. The second is that we have to stop fucking around, compromising our beliefs, living in denial, and pretending like what we as a society are doing to staunch the flow of our collective misdeeds is enough.

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

Photo by graywacke/A Landing a Day

I say that, and yet I know at the same time that so many of us aren’t fucking around. We are doing what we can to contribute. But what if it’s not enough? When do we have to stop making excuses for the ways we conspire to keep a broken system running?

I’m starting to feel like I — we all — need to start making bigger sacrifices. Perhaps it’s not OK to hop on a plane for a beach vacation in Mexico. Those avocados I love to eat so frequently? Definitely not locally or sustainably grown, and probably not appropriate for me to be eating.

But is that level of militancy helpful? Is it militant to say that it is never acceptable to waste fossil fuels at this point or is it just realism? What if we all agreed to just stop using gasoline in any way? What if we all agreed not to pick up a weapon? Are there social codes that can span cultures? Doesn’t enforcement require militancy?

I go down that rabbit hole of questions and it all just seems pointless. Give up. Start over. Ignore. Carry on. Fly away.

There are just so many issues to tackle and difficult decisions to make. I’m pretty sure we have to stop ignoring things, even when the feeling of being overwhelmed is too intense. Maybe we can’t address genocide in Syria directly. But we can address climate change, which plays a large part in driving genocide.

Then those echoes rise up: It’s too hard! Too uncomfortable! Why do I have to make these changes if not everyone else does?

I once had a lover who said that any time he was with his dog at the park and saw someone fail to pick up their dog shit, he wouldn’t pick his up either. If they didn’t, why should he?

Needless to say, it was a short-lived affair — but what a common mindset! It is our right, after all, to get on a plane. To tune out to television. To buy a new phone well before the existing one has worn out. If only we were cultivating an educational system steeped in imagination and logic, so that we could come up with clean energy sources that would allow us to maintain the little gadgets we love and the quality of life we feel so entitled to now.

Perhaps we do need leaders to enforce and take responsibility and hold all of us accountable. I kind of despise that model, however. As it stands, we have leaders who seem to have no backbone. It’s more than that, though. We have a population who by and large treats elections like a football game, and once their side wins, they tune out.

We have a political system that requires an educated public to participate and advise elected officials as to what steps to take. Instead, we elect and then ignore, expecting the leader to make the best decision, ignoring the fact that that “best decision” typically involves corporate interests. It’s a maddening system devoid of personal responsibility and accountability at all levels.

Vision-Quest_button

Wealthy nations want poor nations to take out loans to finance their ability to be like us. Which is really just gross at this point, not to mention problematic and unrealistic and also quite predatory.

The current mess with student loans is emblematic of this problem. I got a notice last week that my renewal paperwork had been processed for my student loans. The amount I owe per month has more than doubled, and yet my income has gone up by maybe 2%.

For an income-based repayment plan, this seems a bit ridiculous to me, but alas, I have to take responsibility for the fact that I took out the loans — and I do! I’m also aware that the system cannot hold. Or perhaps they’ll just start locking up the thousands of us who paid entirely too much fake money for an education.

It’s overwhelming. It seems impossible to fix. I am drawn time and again to the truth that rings deep within my soul: we have got to figure out how to bring spirituality back into our society. We have to heal the fragmentation wrought by thousands of years of wounding at the hands of religion. We have to tap back into the fact that we live in an inherently connected universe so that our hearts can guide us, hopefully helping us to make the decision, one by one, to choose love.

I came across this piece by Clarissa Pinkola-Estes the other day. I found that it helped to ease the tension of the paradoxes I was grappling with. And I remembered: we don’t have to shoulder the entire weight of the world, but rather claim whatever part of it is within our reach and make the intention to heal it in some concrete way. If each of us will do that, in whatever way has heart and meaning, perhaps we can span the globe.

Posted in Columnist on | 7 comments
Amanda Moreno

About Amanda Moreno

Amanda is an astrologer, soul worker and paradigm buster based in Seattle. Her adventures in these forms of ‘practical woo’ are geared towards helping people to heal themselves and the world. She can be found in the virtual world at www.aquarianspirals.com.

7 thoughts on “Spanning the Globe

  1. Amy Elliott

    I’m thinking an individual public pledge campaign might be the thing. You know, where we all calculate our carbon footprint and then make detailed plans on how we’re going to reduce them. That, combined with keeping the pressure on our leaders, might just work. Militancy’s time is ripe.

    1. Amanda MorenoAmanda Moreno Post author

      See, there is something about militancy that to me is indicative of some external source enforcing a rule or belief or whatever upon me, and that is reminiscent of centuries and millenia of war, and…well, that’s not working. Which makes me think once again of paradigm shift — into a paradigm where personal responsibility is enacted through a shared belief that everything is connected, is enchanted, is working together and that without each part taking responsibility for its place in that, everything else falls into chaos — and not the good kind. In that sense, I see a world where love and understanding take the place of militancy…to perhaps become…vigilant? I don’t know. There’s a problem with the languaging of it for me, I suppose. Combativeness and fighting are inherent in the term “militant,” and…well…perhaps that is still serving or can still serve a purpose, but I heartily believe we have to transition out of that.

        1. pam

          Or just watchful or keeping half an eye open, or just in it, being conscious and these bad things would be dealt with before/as they arise?

          I copied the CPE piece all around Amanda. Thank you.

  2. Aiyana

    Wonderful post, this rekindles a piece of my fire inside of me and reminds me to keep going, to keep reaching, to keep hoping. I believe humanity can pull through, with the help of all of us that are continually guided by love. Thank you for writing. We just have to keep forging through this crazy forest of life, even through the thickest spots.

  3. Len WallickLen Wallick

    Amanda: i really like the way you walk us through your reasoning here. Such a method of reaching your conclusion motivates me to support your perspective . That is no small thing in a world where the irrational and unreasonable (such as in your example of the careless dog owner) so often assert themselves as somehow acceptable even though not supportable..

  4. Pisces SunPisces Sun

    Dear Amanda, thank you for voicing the anguish and thank you again for providing some solace through the words written by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, I captured this passage in the link you provided:

    “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know, which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, and continuing.”

    Mother Theresa says: “It is not how much we do but how much love we put into doing.” She is also known to have said, “You do not need to do great things; only small things with great love.”

    Committing to embrace a character of love- love for our self, each other and Mother Earth and setting that as our first intention will guide the choice. Sometimes the avocado is a good choice out of love for yourself who needs the nourishment and what it offers you. Sometimes not to have the avocado that day is a good choice, out of love for the earth by buying locally during a season where avocados are required to be shipped, so out of a sense to deflect transportation affects, you select something else that is more locally grown. Or by choosing the avocado, you counter its transportation effect by taking the extra step to recycle and compost (a true Seattle delight) and you walk an extra mile, in lieu of any transportation effect that uses carbon, in your way to reduce its carbon footprint. It is all a matter of balance really. A give and a take, a yin and a yang, but more than anything it is conscience living supported and engulfed by your intentions of love and choice. Nothing can guide the earth and its humanity better than personal intention and action. It is a small thing but with great love.

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