What Is Your Role to Play in Making Change?
Over the past couple of months, I have found myself immersed in difficult conversations that reflect the complexity of the social environment we find ourselves in. In order to give myself space to reflect with less noise, I’ve tiptoed away from Facebook as it seems to create more clutter than it does cut it. Since then I have felt a renewed sense of spaciousness within me, spaciousness enough that I have time to come back to what I love to do: to reflect and to write, and to write what I reflect upon.
One of the key topics that has captivated my inner workings over these past few weeks is that of purpose or role. This arose from a somewhat heated exchange via Facebook in which a viewpoint was raised that there are certain actions that everyone must take in order to contribute to equality (specifically racial equality in light of what has risen to the surface of collective consciousness this year). In other words, we all have a role to play and that role must look something like this or this or this. This idea challenged me to inquire more intently with my own beliefs and led to me to investigate for myself:
What is my role to play here?
What roles, if any, are we obligated to take on?
A challenge with the current paradigm of reality is that we have come to believe that the most powerful actions one can take are the ones we can see. And yet, I have found roots growing deeper into the more subtle yet equally impactful realm of change through energy and through consciousness. It seems to me that centuries of exclusively outward-oriented actions in the name of change are not enough alone to build a world that is deeply different than the one we have become accustomed to. Is there a place for outward-oriented actions? Absolutely; without doubt. Is that the path for everyone to take, at all moments in life? I do not believe so.
Some years ago - five or six or so - I was an online and in-person activist for environmental protection. I shared petitions and media that outlined the ecological problems we face. I marched against Monsanto and canvassed for Greenpeace. Those more outward actions fuelled me, and yet as all things change, my inclinations did too. There are still hints of my interest in online activism; it simply looks a bit different these days than it did back then.
The point of this is to say that our roles can change overtime; that we ebb and flow according to the nature of our personal evolution. And this evolution is not static nor predictable. We can in one moment embody activism outwardly and in the next take a more subtle approach to change making.
When it comes to societal dictations of what we must ‘do’ in order to be an effective change-maker, I am wary. We are each blessed with unique gifts, insights, and tools that only we know how best to use. I must add, however, that using our gifts and resources most effectively often requires courage, strength, and vulnerability. None if this is to suggest that even doing what we are intuitively called to do is easy. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t, but one thing is for certain - no one else can know nor tell us what the best way to harness our power is.
Recently, I watched a recording of World Localization Day Webinar 3, in which Charles Eisenstein said:
“Maybe we have different opinions here about what is the highest impact leverage point and ‘here’s what everybody should be doing,’ but I tend to be a little bit wary of grand plans and formulas that tell everybody what they should be doing. I prefer to come together in a common understanding and a common story that unifies us and calls forth the unique gifts of each person as applied to the unique circumstances that they are in.”
We all have a role to play whether we are aware of it or not. Why do I feel this? Because we are all playing roles throughout our lives whether consciously or unconsciously. These roles ebb and flow and take on different forms from second to second, but in one way or another, we are all taking positions and creating ripple effects in the world through our thoughts, our words, and our actions. The question is, in this moment, what is your role to play in making change?
Perhaps it would be better to pluralize that - to remind ourselves that we have numerous roles to play. Some of those roles as they apply to cultivating a better world for the earth at large include:
The teacher
The healer
The consciousness shifter
The builder
The wisdom keeper
The storyteller
The strategist
The advocate
The innovator
The visionary
The caregiver
The bridge builder
The responder
The disrupter
Each of these roles (and all those I have missed) have their place - and many overlap within us. You likely identify with a few or more of these. In any case, it is up to us individually (with feedback or support from others where we yearn for it) to discover in any moment what is calling us. What can we do given the tools, insights, gifts, skills, and resources that are available to us?
Consider the five elements - fire, water, earth, air, and space. In a balanced ecosystem, all of these are present. In the same way, each of these metaphorical elements must be present in our approach to some of the biggest challenges we face:
Someone must bring the fire - energy, confidence, strength, courage.
Someone must bring the water - adaptability, flow, grace, creativity.
Someone must bring the earth - grounding, stability, support, security.
Someone must bring the air - agility, dreams, curiosity, communication.
Someone must bring the space, or ether - subtlety, expansion, light, clarity.
Just as we embody multiple roles at once, we each carry within us a blend of these elements. That blend is unique to who we are in any moment; and, when we are in full alignment with who we are and what we have to offer, we are able to contribute in the most meaningful and inspiring of ways.
So, what is your role to play in making change? You do not need to seek the answer; let it arise. Let it come to you with grace and effortlessness - and listen. Listen to the call of your heart, to the words of your intuition, and to the insight of your highest mind. Trust that you will be guided - and that you, in your own unique and wondrous way, have gifts to give.