When your heart is alternately breaking and expanding with equal beats in a rhythm of truth you are fully alive, bearing witness to the events of our days.

Occupy Wallstreet continues to amaze me in what it is bringing to light about the state of America. Listen to the sounds in the wake of this movement. Listen to the conversations that surround this effort. Just Listen.

On the surface it may be a time of truly devastating tragedies and deep ungrounded indulgence bringing up all our worst fears, numbing us into either unfocused action or catatonic inaction because what was will not be what is. Tempting us to fall asleep. On a deeper level we are being called and encouraged to move into the adult conversation, to open up wide to the great resourcefulness and incredible displays of true inner spirit we are longing to reclaim. Like Mark Antony urging mourners into action over the body of Julius Caesar “If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.” It most certainly won’t be the last. But, remember these are adult tears. Propelling action. Finding solutions. Telling the truth.

I don’t know a whole lot but I do know the era of great leadership seems to be on a hiatus and really when it finally emerges is not wholly going to right this ship. I do know personal integrity and honor and love are entering the fray. We are in a time when taking personal responsibility must ignite the way forward. Where we’ve been good we are going to need to be great and where we’ve been unconscious we are going to wake up. The one thing we can be sure of… the person standing in front of you, driving next to you, working down the hall has experienced, or is experiencing as much trauma as you. Be kind. Be a light so others, our children, our neighbors, our communities, here and across the globe, can rise and shine. Everyday. Fully nourished and safe from suffering.

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors and remembers.” John F. Kennedy had it right in his speech celebrating Robert Frost and the arts.

Let’s be remembered for our ability to change with grace to transform our present turmoils into peace on earth. Let’s get really clear, what we do matters. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said “Living a life of meaning is not a popularity contest.” We have challenges, for sure, things are breaking apart and falling away… However when Winston Churchill on the day of the French capitulation said “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the human race lasts for a 1000 years, let them say … “This was their finest hour” he offered a space above the doubt, beyond the uncertainty and bleakness of circumstance to rise into.

“If you know how an individual changes you know how civilization changes as  civilization is the collection of individuals perceptions.” Marianne Williamson

Start where you can. With you. Make that change within.

Join me in addressing what needs addressing, celebrating moments of magnificence, individuals of purpose, and every expression of love that you see, encouraging more of that kind of behavior. Uplifting every moment that follows. Leading us into a new era.

Dudes… It is time to say “Let there be light.”

(brought to you, not so subtly, as part of an ongoing MELIFESTO)