Are you ready?
A photograph of a somewhat inspiring piece of artwork was shared with several elderly acquaintances for appraisal. “What on earth?” was the first reaction amid complexity and mild confusion. A few suggestions came forth – yes, it did seem to be of the earth, but what on earth? Considerable further reflection was undergone and the comment was offered that we were perhaps seeing the same thing but with different eyes, offering different perspectives. A grandson offered his perspective with what he perceived to be an obvious correlation. “It’s a circle” he added. It may well be of the earth, seen in different ways by different people, but there was a connection in the painting, a circular white line with interconnecting dots.
A comment from the artist provided yet another perspective with the suggestion that everyone who viewed the artwork would ultimately provide yet more input into what the artist was intending to present.
The painting contained a circle, which indeed the grandson perceived, and a circle which could encircle the earth, which was in itself a circle as well. There is no beginning or end to a circle, a circle just is. A circle comprises endless perspectives, endless movement, endless change. And each person within the circle constituted a source of that endless change, contributed to it. A circle cannot change unless its constituents change. And we are its constituents, we are its potential opportunity for change.
Our planet is going through a vast and endless change. It’s been doing so for a long time, for far longer than we can conceive .
But have you ever noticed it, really consciously noticed it? We are so busy, so preoccupied, that probably up until now very few people have recognised any change of any significance at all. And if they have and have dared to comment, speculate, react to it, they have been ridiculed, laughed at, ignored or even worse. Our good, stable, steady planet – how could it possibly change, why would it need to change? But look around, it is and has been doing just that for as long as we can remember! For most of that time it has been considered too risky to effect any change and we would not be capable of doing so anyway. Why consider such things, it has been suggested. But despite this people did and still do question the need for change and it has become a more and more urgent question, especially in these current times. But no longer is it a question for the future, it’s a question for now. Why is change happening so intensely now, what is going on? What on earth?
There was a time when we started to ask that question, but not urgently because it always related to the future. Yes, people admitted, a change was indeed necessary but not just yet, let’s leave it for later. But when was later? Nobody really knew.
“If you want to change the world, change yourself” we more and more commonly hear these days, these days when the future, the “now” is obviously here. We are in the now, we are contributing to it, creating it. And we are the only ones who can effect a change because we are a part of it and have always been. And we can do it. Not as in the past, not by endless attempts to change what is around us, our external reality, but by a completely different approach, by taking a totally new direction. Not by trying to build on what has already proven to be ineffective or even relatively effective for a short time. Not on the outside where chaos and confusion is becoming more and more rampant day by day. Now our task is to look within, look not only within ourselves, but in everything we see around us, our community, our world. And not just individually, but together. Together as like-minded souls. Only when we can do that, when we can reach that point, individually and globally, can something happen, can understanding and perspectives change. Only then can we become part of the circle that encompasses the earth, which will then take us in a new direction.
That is “what on earth is going on!” But are you ready?
