The Spirit of Egyptian Revolution

Shifting Consciousness

I need a personal storytelling experience right about now. On a less intimate level, a storytelling event might do as well.

I need to sit down with a small group of committed individuals such as those which Margaret Mead must have had in mind when she stated –

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

I need to converse from my mind and heart to those places in others. And, offer prayers of support and gratitude.

I need to speak with likeminded others because what we are now witnessing in Egypt (and with the other nonviolent protesters in the Middle East) is filled with wonder. Thus we are brought to see --

Even a large group of committed individuals can change the world with great networks of communication!

AWE -- inspiring!

I need to communicate with likeminded individuals, converse, dialogue – or any other word you wish to put to the art of conversation that makes a difference.

I need to speak and listen to those likeminded persons who will speak the truth of their hearts, all the way down to its depths.

So we can collectively acknowledge the energies of our spirits and send them out to those who need this with gratitude.

Right now!

I need to communicate with people who will substantiate -- in words -- what is spiritually right in front of our eyes. Though what is being seen, spiritually, cannot readily be described as SEEN.

(Spiritual defined -- that which is physically unseen by the human eye.)

I need to communicate with people who can confirm the facts as I see them (at least to some degree); the fact that what is occurring right before our eyes in Egypt and wherever else non-violent protesters are making progress is, not only a political upheaval, but also a transformation in the consciousness of planet earth, body-mind and spirit.

I had this kind of hunger for meaningful conversation as I was moving through a local, Jewish/Muslim controversy.

As president of a local chapter of a national, Jewish women’s social action group (who actually took no action at all regarding what I viewed as a critical, local crisis), my role was being severely sabotaged.

The rabbi’s leadership was also being sabotaged.

Maybe a new rabbi was needed.

But the method of the people, as the situation intensified, was subtley and not so subtley violent, emotionally.

Inside myself, I was crying as I asked in prayer,

“Do you see what I see?”

My mind and heart bled, even if my body did not.

The episode pained me deeply.

Worse still was my isolation, along with the challenges surrounding me, in that subtley violent, systemic upheaval.

It was an awful experience!

I abhored the lack of dialogue.

That was the worst of it, next to the rabbi-abuse.

Nonetheless, the Small “Zones of Peace” Conversations Project was birthed from this chaos.

I had this hunger, again, for community sharing as I watched the AWE unfolding at Centennial Memorial United Church.

AWE that was achieved --- as a matter of fact – through community conversations.

Again, I silently cried, “Do you see what I see?”

I needed to share, not to affirm my own view of reality, but because the AWE unfolding before my eyes was so obviously filled with wonder.

And, it would be so much grander to share and celebrate with others who could speak the words of the beauty beheld.

But the awe and putting words to the systemic impact was hard to articulate.

At least, not in lay terms.

Again, the limited (though there was some) conversing felt awful.

I am working on writing about it, now, for a professional audience and for this blog.

Still, the experience of awe is hard to describe.

Though this time the experience was about our reaching the peak of the Mountain of AWE -- not sharing and celebrating more fully felt greatly disappointing..

What we are witnessing in Egypt – just the fact of what has been achieved so far -- is in the realm of AWE; a wonder to be shared and celebrated.

Not only through continued social and political analysis and commentary, but simply by taking a minute to be in the silence of AWE.

A paradigm shift has occurred.

Nonviolent, Egyptian protestors have demonstrated how collective action can make social and political change from the bottom up. As opposed from the top down.

We have rarely seen this in REAL time! Since 911, the United States has not managed one single victory in the effort to defeat al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists that could even come close to what we are witnessing now in Egypt.

Still, Americans with all our freedoms continue to perpetuate polarization, among themselves, rather than collaboration.

We need to pay attention to the systemic remedying now occurring in Egypt – and -- learn from it!

It is a momentous success for the entire planet that we are witnessing in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.

No matter how the politics play out in the immediate.

Recent outcomes are critical beyond words.

They herald a systemic shift in the Middle East that cannot be retracted.

Simply because it is!

Personally, what matters so much to me is that just at a time when many Baby Boomers are going through a “loss of zest,”

Egyptian, nonviolent activists, under life threatening circumstances, are validating that what we began fighting for when we perked up our ears and listened to JFK instruct us to –

“Not ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

I yearn for a moment of collective prayer and thanksgiving to simply just say thank you to all those courageous, nonviolent activists.

They are showing the rest of the world that bottom up, people power can surpass top down, corrupt power. They are now peaceably fighting for my freedoms as well as their own! My heart is filled with prayer and thanksgiving.

And, this time I am not silent in asking, “Do you see what I see”

I know that you do or you wouldn't have read this far.

So, please respond to my invitation to pause and join the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” Project and myself in --

A moment of thanksgiving prayer for the nonviolent protesters in the Middle East -- tomorrow at noon,Friday, February 25,

Just for a minute. We can raise our spirit energies, many times over, wherever we are to help consciously uplift those who are giving so much to their country as well as our own. Just for a minute.

Anastasia