“MindfulVOTES logo” mindfulness that matters ©2012 Transformative Change
Not too long ago, I felt like you might be feeling: I’ve worked very hard to view life from a different perspective. Choosing to observe—and let go of—negative thinking and harmful patterns, only to find that over the years, while I’ve cultivated more friendliness, compassion, joy and equanimity in my own life, the politics of my country have seemingly gone the opposite way. In fact, it can feel so negative and hopeless, that I began to think I could just drop out and no one would notice.
But then I realized, that not only would my voice—and the voices of countless others like me—left unheard, be noticed in its absence, my participation, my full engagement in this election at this very time, contributes to the necessary re-balancing just when it is needed most. And like every great turn, it begins with the smallest shift, joined by others who lean together, each with their small, individual contribution to the great collective effort of righting a ship that has turned upside down.
At any given moment, a subset of people within society possesses something that contributes to the healing and wholeness of that society. It is different things at different times: ideas, inventions, cultural ways, ancestral knowing, ancient wisdom, art, literature, philosophy, ceremony: the list goes on. What matters is that We, the People, who possess that gift, make our contribution, in a critical mass, at a critical time…in other words, when it matters.
This is not because we are special. It is because what we have cultivated is especially needed. Perhaps without realizing it, we have lived our whole lives to arrive at this moment. We can debate the words, the traditions, the lineages and even the specific approaches, but beyond our individuality, as a collective whole, the mindfulness community—meditators, yogis, human potentialists, martial artists, pray-ers and practitioners of mindfulness, awareness and concentration towards wisdom—has within its possession, a unique gift that is needed by our society right now. We also have the numbers to affect the systems of which we are a part. And we have the strength of our practice to ground us. All that is needed is for each of us, individually, to make our contribution to the collective shift. To lean in and lean forward. To decide that mindfulness DOES matter.
And at this moment, at this time, we’re going to make it matter even more.
—yours in truth, aKw
dedicated to the many people the gave their lives to lift their voice & have a choice. may we not let it be forgotten nor let it be for nothing.
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