An Urgent Message

Urgency: A message to Activists

I often hear people say we don’t have time to vision or to take the time required to build the relationships needed to create a diverse movement.  We don’t have time to take care of ourselves or even our families.   We are driven by our sense of “urgency”. 

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about “Urgency”.  We no longer have the luxury to talk about working for change in the long term.  I’ve heard many activists say “I know that we won’t achieve the change we’re working for in my life time, but…??? 

But what???  

If we don’t achieve change in our lifetimes, we are fast approaching a place of no return.  We are so close to a tipping point with global warming, non-sustainable lifestyles, and rampant rise of violence and poverty, that we have very little time to turn around the self-destructive direction we are going in. 

We are living in urgent times.  However this sense of urgency can also lead to our downfall. 

We must slow down; build the trust and relationships and networks that allows our work to go much faster. I recently heard a story of a heart doctor training her assistant in surgery.  She said, “Once we open the chest and access the artery, we only have 1 minute to make the repair.  Therefore, it’s imperative that you take your time.”

Likewise, I’ve learned that if we take the time to build inclusiveness, safety, trust, and take time for visioning and reflection, not only will the work for change go much faster, it will be much more successful.  As we move toward more and more urgent times, it is essential that we slow down and work in a way that is sustainable; in order to go fast – in order to build a movement that can win real and long lasting change.   

Power Through Connection

I am at a writer’s retreat.  Me.  The person who said I would do anything in community organizing as long as it didn’t involve writing or fundraising.

Since I’m planning on writing another book, well actually 2 new books, I thought it might be good to get some actual instruction.  So here I am.

Our first exercise was to choose a word out of a basket and to write non-stop, anything that came to our minds. How is this connected to what I want to write about, I wondered?  I am a little intimidated being with many experienced writers but decide to go for it.

Here is what I wrote (remember it is “free writing” where we were not allowed to stop writing or take our pen off the paper):

“Leaves”

OK… what about leaves?  They are many colors, many shapes, many species…  Turning over new leaves?  Seasons? Changing?

I think about leaves mostly in the fall.  They are so beautiful.  Such an exciting time.  I see myself in the fall of the seasons.  How do I use the rest of my life?   My calling, my vision is about changing the world.

As I approach the fall of my life, I see time getting shorter.  How much time before this leaf falls to the ground to compost back into the earth.  How do I use the rest of my life to fulfill my vision?  How can I make changes in the face of impending doom I see around me?  How can we break the powerful hold that corporations and those in power have over us?  How do we stop the every growing snowball from crushing us?

I feel a sense of urgency, a sense of being one leaf trying to go against the storm.  But there are millions of us and we are all connected to the branches, which are connected to the tree, which has it’s deep roots connected into the mother earth… connected to the other trees.

We have untold power that we often do not see; power through our connections.