Our Hope for Earth
‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.’
– Emily Dickinson
We live in a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty, with fear growing as to where we are headed. Like living cells in a larger body, we feel the trauma of our world. However, it is important to remember that feelings of anguish, anger or fear arise from the depth of our caring and through our very real inter-connectedness with all beings.
There is no doubt in my mind that Earth will survive its current crises and will thrive well, into a new future. I believe there is great hope in what is happening and where we are going – and that the enormous change we are going through will carry us all significantly towards the good. It is essential to listen to that song of hope in your heart – and whistle along with it!
I often run across people’s vague belief that we will solve humanity’s problems ‘somehow’ – by the same intellectual and cultural assumptions that created them. But to paraphrase Albert Einstein, we cannot continue to think in the same ways that gave rise to the problems and expect to get different answers!
We can find the cause of humanity’s continuing destructive and unsustainable activities in our very own human consciousness. In short, part of us puts our personal desires ahead of everything else and, most particularly, ahead of the collective good. We believe we are above nature herself, a privileged species that need answer to no one, not to nature, not to God (however we might conceive her!).
However, our hope also lies in humanity’s consciousness – and in its continuing evolution. Our analytic and separative mental consciousness has provided us with so many living benefits over the last several hundred years. But we are now sensing, expressing and explaining (in scientific terms!) our deep inter-relationship with each other, with the Earth, and with all life on it. This is the shift in consciousness that will save us.
In every area of human thought and action there are signs of this change of consciousness. All show a growth of heart consciousness, the next step in humanity’s journey on Earth. This is what is happening in our evolution – whether we are willing participants or not.
Yes, we are also seeing the reaction in us all to this change. The stuck parts which want to hang onto the past, that do not wish to grow, through fear of losing our well-defended sense of self and certainty. Hence the conflict, the turmoil in the world, in ourselves – and the increasing tensions and stress between competing energies among whole groups of people.
There is no changing of the outer world without real transformation within. The only path for each of us is to open our heart, to connect with its loving presence, its hope, its purpose and its deep sense of being. In this place, we do not live in the past, we do not live in the future. We live in the present, connected with our higher self and with the greater heart within which we dwell.
‘The future depends on what we do now.’
– Mahatma Gandhi
Our conscious cooperation with the greater changing consciousness within which we live will help bring about a smoother transformation for everyone. We are alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe. We participate in the dance of life, perceiving it with our senses, breathing it with our lungs and being nourished by it physically, emotionally and spiritually. It is such a wonder!
In heart consciousness, as in love, the personal is subsumed in the whole, the enveloping consciousness that humanity brings to its role on Earth. So, as we grow our own heart consciousness, we contribute to the greater growth of humanity’s consciousness and help bring about the changes the world needs.
In this way, a new world can arise out of our current darkness. Not a world constructed by our minds, but a more peaceful and loving place emerging from our hearts. Even though we cannot see clearly how it’s going to happen, we are called to let the future into our imagination. We will only be able to build what we have first nourished in our hearts.
We must nourish it with hope.