There is Hope

There is hope

You know who I think the missing link is to making our environmental hopes (and necessities) a reality?

Hints:

1. There are billions of them.
2. You engage with them every day.
3. Unite them in Love and they are the most powerful force in the world.

The answer: Regular people. 

I say ‘missing link’ because I genuinely believe that most regular people are asleep to the crisis. I know because I was one of them. I was asleep to the severity of Nature’s need and, even more importantly, to both my agency and our collective power to meet it. 

Then I had a baby. The combination of staring into the bright eyes of a three month old, “drill baby, drill” was the smelling salt that jolted me awake. I finally realized no one is coming over the hill to save us and we don’t have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. 

I woke up with the next generation curled in my arms, little fingers wrapped around mine saying, “I trust you.” 

As I emerged from my slumber, it became abundantly clear how little I knew about our deteriorating planetary context. Some of you may read that and think, “Are you kidding?” Perhaps with even a bit of judgment. That’s fair. But I willingly admit my ignorance because I believe many people choose to stay asleep for fear of being judged for not being awake the whole time. For fear of being seen as an idiot or being wrong. So, I share both with vulnerability and transparency: I was ignorant to it.

And as I discovered, yes, I learned about the really hard and scary reality but you know what I also learned that was even more important?

That there is hope.

There is hope for Life. For restoration, resilience and human-Nature relationship. I found that there are millions of people who are braver, wilder and smarter than me who are miles and miles down the road that I just started on. AND they are calling to all the regular people – like you and me – because we need all hands on deck if we’re going to turn the ship. 

It’s regular people who, when activated and united in Love, have immense influence and collective power to literally build a reality that not just allows for Life, but Life abundant. 

Throughout my entire learning process, I kept wanting a guide. Someone or something that would say, “Hi regular person, here is how you do climate activism both effectively and sustainably. Here’s how you don’t burn out, the practical things you can do that actually matter and the organizations that are doing the most strategic good you can support.” 

I never found one of those, so I made it: Climate Activism Guide for Regular People. My hope is that it is useful to anyone who is just waking up too. A map for others who want to participate in advocating for our home planet but don’t know where to start. Send it to all the regular people you know who could use a guide so that we might use our individual and collective power on behalf of Nature.

The reality is capitalism wasn’t built to promote Life. You cannot have an exponential growth model on a finite planet and expect a good outcome. And its symptoms including corporations, big money and greed, are largely responsible for the crisis we’re in but they don’t get to determine the way it ends. The truth is: Our future is made by us — regular people. This is not the time to abdicate our ability to respond. This is the moment we wake up, hundreds of thousands at a time, to our influence, agency and power both as individuals and, when united, as a collective. 

We are creating our reality as we experience it and through active participation, we are empowered to co-create a future full of Life and Love on behalf of humans and Nature alike.