Moving Toward Transformation

Autumn carpets the streets in gold, bright orange medallions flutter in the wind, and crisp nights leave blankets of frost to greet the mornings. Then the rains turn sidewalks slick and brown, clog the drains, and swell the streams. The sun rises late and sets early as we move farther across the bridge between the light and dark solstices.

The change of seasons is unmistakable, but when do the leaves change color, exactly? What determines the moment that they fall? No one can say how long it takes, why some leaves turn faster than their branch-mates. No one can pinpoint precisely when the process begins, the moment it becomes apparent, or just when the transition is complete.

Transformation

This much we do know: the transformation begins long before it becomes visible. The turning and changing unfold out of sight, steadily proceeding before the first hints of yellow and gold catch our eye in still-sunny late September. Each leaf changes in its own time within the season, until bright colors dancing in low-angle sunlight stop us in our tracks and we say, "Ah, autumn."

But autumn this year has been hard—hard for folks who toiled on political campaigns and hard for those struggling to convince ourselves and our children there really is a reason to give our hearts to the world, that together we really can create change.

Disbelief, outrage, grief, bitterness, and despair roll in like waves on a storm-tossed sea, threatening to drag us under the tide.

Democracy, environmental defense, peace work, access to education, civil liberties, gay and lesbian issues, indigenous people's rights, workers rights, immigration, economic justice, nuclear issues—whatever our reasons for staying engaged, millions felt shudders of disappointment and waves of dread at the prospect of four more years of consolidated neo-conservative power pushing a right wing agenda for our country.

But the questions posed about changing seasons apply here as well: When do the leaves change color, exactly? What determines the moment that they fall? When does a cultural shift actually take place? What determines that moment when we can finally say, "Here it is."

Emerging

Unheralded by the mega-media, grassroots activists in countless cities and towns throughout the US and around the world are diligently working in thousands of ways to create change. A million seemingly disparate efforts, taken together, are building the momentum that will enable a culture of dignity, inclusivity, diversity, creativity, and peace to gradually take shape. The process is complex and organic, and a new world won't pop up full-blown one sunny morning.

The myriad unsung actions—patient, simple, creative, skillful actions large and small going on in villages and towns all around the globe—this work can't stop now. The world we are working toward is like a butterfly still developing in its cocoon. And like that butterfly, with our love and tireless work, in time that world will emerge.

The Tibetan story of the Shambhala Warrior is profoundly relevant in this time and well worth reading. We first heard the story related in this way from Joanna Macy.

Betsy Toll is Executive Director of Living Earth. Contact her at Betsy@LivingEarthGatherings.Org