Find Your Light and Shine It

“The universe is a cosmic dance of energy…Everything we humans do is about energy.” (pg 240) Energy comes from sunlight, liquids, food sources, and allows everything to move and function and create and love.

Energy has driven human history from the very beginning. “Ancient farmers who grew, stored, transported and traded the first grains were working with concentrated solar energy in a form that could be preserved through a cold, dark winter. The first people who raised a sail or dried fruit in the sun or burned a lump of coal or baked bread or experimented with uranium – they were working with energy.” (pg 241)

We are currently in an energy crisis, as our thirst for energy has grown out of proportion to our real need for energy and the ability of the Earth to provide the energy sustainably or in a healthy way. “You might say we need a personal energy conversion, from dirty energy – arrogance, rivalry, fear, hate, greed, lust, domination, revenge – to clean energy: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.” (pg 243)

Jesus once said “You are the light of the world”. Perhaps these words help us understand the connection between energy (light) and the need to have this conversion from dirty energy to clean energy.      When we understand that we are the light of the world we are directed to first look for that light within ourselves, and then turn the brightness of that light toward others and the world in which we live.

As we face collapse we can choose to do the work to find our inner light and then turn that light outward. That process is what this book has been about.

We can face the reality of our situation, grieve over it, and then step away into something else.

New insights can come as we allow input from indigenous, minority and marginalized sources. The simple binaries of black and white, good and bad, right and wrong slowly turn to paths of creativity, safe landings and new beginnings. That can lead to growth in character, kindness, and love, which branches out into new forms of community, both with other humans and all of creation.

“No despair of ours can alter the reality of things; or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there. Indeed, we are in the very midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not…We are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance.” (Thomas Merton) (Pg 247)

“This is my dream, and perhaps it is your dream, and our dream, together: That in this time of turbulence when worlds are falling apart, all of us with willing hearts can come together…together with one another, poor and rich, whatever our race or gender, wherever we live, whatever our religion or education. I dream that some of us, maybe even enough of us, will come together not only in a circle of shared humanity, but in a sphere as big as the whole Earth, to rediscover ourselves as Earth’s multi-colored children, members of Team Earth.” (pg 248)

“The dance goes on, my loves, without us or with us. Why not join the dance while we have life? Why not find light and shine bright, together, while we have this one holy moment to do so, even now?” (pg 249)

(For all posts in this series on Life After Doom, click here or on the Life After Doom box below)