When I look around the world today I see so much suffering.  The more overt, obvious suffering, but also the internal suffering that comes from holding within ourselves emotions of hate, anger, judgment, intolerance.

• I see it in the way we treat each other.  How we have no space for opinions other than our own.   

• I see it online.   How ruthlessly we’ll go after people when we don’t have to face them.

• I see it in politics.  How everything is someone else's fault.

• I see it in the way we talk about people behind their backs.  How uncompassionate we can be.

• I see it in the way we complain.  How there is a part of us that enjoys negativity. 

• I see it in our complacence. How we say, “Well that’s just the way it is.”

• I see it in my family.  

• I see it in the people around me.  

• I see it in me.

Since long before COVID even, I've witnessed so many people who feel dejected or even depressed, fearing that little can be done to save this world of ours that seems to be going down the drain.

So many of us complain about society, but the truth is we ARE society.  We are the individuals that make up the collective.  And so, if we hold within our individual selves hate, anger, intolerance, judgment - then what else could we possibly expect the collective to be made up of?  

Don’t get me wrong - I certainly have days of feeling less hopeful - but most of the time what I see is OPPORTUNITY.  An opportunity for change - an opportunity for a more conscious way of living, an opportunity to save this planet, an opportunity for less material stuff and more internal freedom, an opportunity for more conscious relationships, an opportunity for true health and wellbeing.  An opportunity for greater peace.  And it starts within each one of us.

There is so much outer work that needs to happen - so much that needs to change in the world.  But it starts with you.  And it starts with me.

With everything going on in the world: the environment, human trafficking, the political scene, Black Lives Matter, fires in the Amazon, factory farming - to name a few - ask yourself, “What role am I playing?  Where may there be intolerance or avoidance or judgment within me?  Where can I do better?  Where can I take some responsibility?"

Self inquiry is where we begin.  Always.  Because awareness brings capacity for change.

For me, this is why I practice, every day.  Because it helps me see myself more clearly - my old patterns, my worn out ways of being.  The things that aren't serving me.  That aren't serving the greater good.  The places where I lack acceptance.  Where I lack compassion.

I'm not saying that doing the internal work is an easy road - it’s not.  But I do believe that focusing on what WE need to change within ourselves is the only road with the potential for success.

There's a story about Mahatma Gandhi that tells about a time when he was leaving his village to travel.  A reporter ran up to his car as it was pulling out and said, “Mahatma, give me a message to take to the village people,” to which Gandhi responded, “My life is my message."

If your life was your message, what would you want it to say?