Love's evolution is my resolution, my revolution, my solution. The time is now. 2012 is upon us. The beginning is here!
I'd like to offer you an invitation, an invocation, a wake up call. Wake up! (Zen hand clap) It's time to come to our senses, and wake up! Listen — can you hear the alarm bells ringing? Can you hear the cries of Mother Earth? Can you hear the cries of Her children? Can you smell the stench of an industrial growth addicted civilization rotting from the inside out?
Look — have you noticed the species going extinct minute by minute, the disappearing bees, the melting glaciers, the rising seas, the expanding deserts, the suffering skyrocketing out of control, the politicians that act like childish lunatics, the greed crazed gamblers of Wall Street throwing dice while the whole world careens on their roller coaster of illusion, bubbles of hungry ghost money ballooning, ballooning, soon to burst yet again, banks expecting bail outs while millions lose their homes amidst the deafening roar of collapsing economies drowned by the noise of the dream factories of mainstream media encouraging us all to be selfish children seduced into a cycle of endless consumption by heartless corporations hellbent on using up everything this sacred earth can offer as fast as possible?
We're filling our hearts and minds and bellies with junk food, junk television, junk video games, junk movies, junk music, junk toys, junk fears, junk violence, junk dreams, junk junk, junk and more junk for a society of junkies.
Wake up! (Zen hand clap) It's not too late, it's never too late to seize the day. Wake up! (Zen hand clap) It's time we realized that this planet is having a near death experience. And therein lies the hope.
I'm not calling in an apocalypse — oh no, quite the opposite. Let Hollywood turn 2012 into that. We can do better. For in this chaos lies the possibility of change — and change is what we need. There's nowhere else I'd rather be than right here, right now, in this incredible time of transition. The situation is so complex, the world is changing so rapidly, that no one can guess with any degree of certainty what will happen next. If you like surprises, stay tuned! Anything could happen.
Listen — can you hear the sounds of revolution in the streets? The spark has spread, from Tunisia, to Egypt, to Libya, to Yemen, to Syria, from the Arab Spring to the European Summer, from Spain to Greece to Israel to the sudden surprising flowering of Occupy Wall Street in New York City, bursting into Occupy Together, everywhere. There is a global awakening blooming all around this trembling earth. A thirst for justice, for equality, for sustainability, for compassion — for love. And it cannot be stopped. It's a Tsunami of transformation, and the time is now.
A naturally arising methodology of participatory democracy, of shared power, is emerging, rooted in compassion, rooted in interdependence. We have no interest in the tired old ideologies of days gone by — don't come to this movement with the answers. Come with questions, come with an open heart. This (r)evolution is a process, not a product. We are Occupying with Love.
I'm inviting you — me, we — to celebrate the astounding goodness of our essential beings, the goodness of this gorgeous miraculous unsurpassable earth glittering like a green emerald in the vastness of an incredibly mysterious universe — or is it a multiverse? I'm inviting us to return to our true journey, to align our hearts and our minds and even our bellies with the unfolding evolutionary adventure, to break free from these dark dark ages and help to bring in a new era, an era of empathy, of harmony, of co-operation, of shared power, of meaning, of purpose. It will be messy, we will stumble in our awakening, hit the snooze button, fall back asleep, wake up again. And again. And again. Make no mistake about it. There will be more suffering on the journey — perhaps a great deal more. But the time has come. It's time to let go the petty profane existence the greed machine is relentlessly selling us, to break free of the shackles of illusion they have built, out of thin air.
It's time to take hold of your birthright. To discover your true calling. It's uniquely yours — not anyone else's. You are a perfect singular snowflake of a being inextricably interwoven with all the other stunningly unique snowflakes dancing through this participatory interconnected living, ever evolving universe. We are all miracles. Wake up to your true Self. As the Zen prayer goes — don't squander your life. Wake up! (Zen hand clap)
I'm not asking you to crawl on your knees in acts of service and supplication. I aminviting you to be of service, but in a way that is joyous for you. I'm inviting you to discover your bliss — not your ego's bliss, but the bliss of your true Self. You know the difference, if you dare to check in. I double dare you to become a blessing, to allow the universe to offer you the true riches of a life of love, a life of meaning, a life of possibility. Ask yourself this — are you a gift to the planet? Are you a gift to your community? Are you a gift to your family, your friends, your lover, your true Self? Are you a gift to the whole damn universe?
If you aren't, then you're missing out. Because when you become a gift to this universe — to your world, community, family, lover, friend and Self — when you become a true Giver and not just a taker, you will discover the incredible power of reciprocity. The real Secret is that the more you give, the more you receive. As you go deeper into true Giving, the particles become waves. The oscillations between giving and receiving speed up, until they become instantaneous, until there is no giver, there is no receiver, there is just flow. Try it out. Let me know how it goes.
I promise you this: you cannot lose when you lead a life of love. It's as simple as opening your heart. It's as natural as breathing. All that other stuff — the addiction, the suffering, the separation from Source — that's unnatural. That's just a big bag of hot air, an illusion of smoke and mirrors. We've been tricked! Are you gonna let them keep fooling you? Stealing your happiness? Wake up! (Zen hand clap) Cut the cords and claim what's rightfully yours.
It's not too late to turn the tide. Start small, start big, but start somewhere — can you spare a smile? Can you spare some compassion? Some creativity? Some action? Some Love? Some love in action? In the end, it all comes down to love. Love is the bedrock of the universe, of the planet. We are part of an incredibly complex system of systems, systems within systems within systems, all relying on each other in a web of checks and balances, of co-operation, of community. Even our bodies are made up of organisms that rely on each other to keep our system going. This is a form of love. Gravity itself is a loving force — without it, we would float off into space, and nothing would hold together. We need that force of attraction. Love — it's all about love.
I invite you all to join in the awakening — to use whatever creativity and skills and tools you can find to make this world a better place. There are so many ways to do this — in fact, there are as many paths as there are people. Each one of us has a unique role to play — what's yours? Take the time to go deep within, and listen to your heart. Follow that heart, wherever it may lead you. With every opportunity that comes your way, ask yourself — is this a path with heart? If it's not, move on. There's no time to waste in false pursuits. You can be a sacred warrior, you can be both fierce and compassionate, you have the stuff! Occupy the emptiness of corporate culture, with love.
Love is a verb, it's the creative life force of the universe unfurling in real time, it's the breaking wave of transformation, it's life itself, propelled by the evolutionary energy that burst forth some fourteen billion years ago that is always and ever yearning for greater and greater depth, complexity and creativity, an infinite journey into the vastness consciousness unfolding in real time. We have an open invitation join in this dance, to love the universe, which is us, right back, our hearts wide open, sparkling, sizzling, giving, loving, loving, living large and wild, free and true. This is who we are — beautiful, brilliant, and interdependent. We need each other, we need the universe, and more than that, nothing is more deeply deeply meaningful, more fulfilling, than plugging into this process, this unimaginably powerful process. This love.
It's time to wake up. Wake up! (Zen hand clap) This is the moment — right now, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year. There's no better place to be than right here, in this moment, right now. Welcome to life in the fire of change. Heart by heart, we can transform this world, from the bottom up. We aren't waiting around, we aren't asking for permission. We are doing this. Now. With love. Let your fierce love shine.
— Velcrow Ripper, on the eve of 2012
Velcrow Ripper is an award-winning filmmaker with dozens of films and videos under his belt, including Scared Sacred, winner of the 2005 Genie (Canadian Academy Award) for best feature documentary and Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action. His current project is Occupy Love a feature doc which asks the question: how is the economic and ecological crisis of today a great love story? This is a community funded film. Learn more and support the project here.
Image courtesy of Velcrow Ripper, www.occupylove.org.
