Can you have one?
I mean really can one person start a revolution of themselves?
To what end?
Theirs?
Others?
Or are we constantly in a revolution of the soul, the battles and struggles daily instead of punctuated by gatherings and protests. Perhaps in a soul revolution, one just keeps showing up with the idea that all that happens to them, happens to wake them up on the path and to make sure that they are brought to their highest vibrational level.
It seems to me that one can choose not to revolutionize their soul. One can take the circumstances in life and just live them. Allowing each thing to drag them down, pin them to the moment where they feel like they are getting less than all they want, need, or desire. Or one could take all the moments of this crazy, mixed up, beautiful life and decide that all the things that happen are here for the sole purpose of waking us up and revolutionalizing our soul.
But it seems that there are many people living day to day bogged down with addiction, ignorance, confusion, craving, aversion, desire, hatred and malaise. The circumstances of life act as some sort of depressant that levels their spirit and makes them afraid. I can say this because I have been there.
Perhaps the most drastic and revolutionary change happens when you accept your life for what it is. Never stopping to believe that whatever is occurring is all that there is. Knowing that whatever is here will likely go and while that can bring a feeling of sorrow and loss, there is something else, someone else always coming to fill the void.
I feel like the whole of my existence has been in trying to go deeper. Trying to find meaning and purpose in this world. Working hard to peel back the parts of myself that are stinted and marginal. Rid myself of selfishness, self centeredness and craving. And perhaps this is what life really is, for everyone, a soul revolution that happens every day, every minute of our lives. We are constantly returning to ourselves to check in and get an update on the content of our hearts, minds, bodies and souls. Perhaps this is the most perfect use of life. To notice your own soul revolution and participate, and share it with others. To love them while their journey walks parallel to yours, and when their path diverts, to love them just as much as they turn into the revolution of their soul which perhaps takes them far away from your own.
Revolution is time consuming and requires rest to continue. While exciting and purposeful, allowing your soul to be reignited with passion, the joy of living, purpose, love, hope, desire, faithfulness, and the ability to love without condition or demand, often feels unattainable and exhausting.
Perhaps I do not even know what I am talking about. Which is why I am writing. Writing it all down so that I can remember who I am and why I am here. Reaching out through words on the screen to let you into my own soulful revolution, every day as I plod my way through life’s ups and downs. I am pretty sure love is at the core of any revolution. Love of the cause, love for change, love for others on the path. Love the great igniter of longing for something different than what you have. Meeting other souls on the path who want what you do and are willing to fight to get it.
Love being the thing that makes it all worthwhile. Victory without love is hollow. What would any revolution be without loving kindness and compassion for the others you toil alongside? You are either brothers at arms or soldiers all.
The most important aggitant for any crusade, a heartfelt desire for things to change. I think we can all relate to that today. We all desire the pandemic to end. The political climate to resolve itself, hopefully for the better. I am personally appalled by the ever deepening chasm between the world of spirit and the world at large. We have so many opportunities to connect with others, see them, look deeply into their eyes and see that they are more like us than not. That the things we see first, the color of their skin, their gender, their affluence or poverty, their hair color, level of attractiveness, the cut of their clothing, the shape of their body all things that act as barriers to seeing the soul inside. We spend so little time in this life, really seeing the core. Distracted and summarily dismissing the being that really crosses our path.
Perhaps it is time to start a soul revolution where we all strip away the blinders that keep us stuck in this perpetual cycle of misery. Perhaps now is a call to action for all who are willing to love without condition, restraint or fear. To love even when the person who stands before us will never love us back because they can only see us in this most basic, human form.
Surely there are those who aren’t capable of looking deeper. And then there are those who might be capable but just aren’t willing. But I believe that there are more of us who can and will. I believe that we can start a soul revolution using our own experience to soften us and peel back the layers of self protection which only serves to keep us separated from each other.
It is time. Time to break out and free of how we always are for how we can do better. Be better. We can meet each other on the city streets, in the marches, the protests. At work. Online. In the marketplace, we can all show up in our revolutionary selves willing to finally show up with heart bleeding but still wiling to battle on. Not only for our own soul’s change but so that all who might care to relate on this new and deeper level can join us. We can show up with heart, honestly, integrity, authentically ourselves and have that be enough. To decide to take the chance and be the change.
What if everything we ever wanted was present in our lives right now? What if all we had to do was stop thinking it was different? What if we just took the risk to look deeply into the eyes of another and see them, love them and hold them close? What if we could all begin there? What if peering it the eyes of another were the catalyst for the beginning of our soul revolution today?
Could you do it?
Would you do it?
I know that it would be easier to not do it. I know that it would be safer not to do it. But I want this life, every minute of it, to be actualized with my never ending, tireless willingness to meet the challenges in this life and dare to take them on. To march forward toward the expression of my highest potential and share that with others, all with the hope that they will likewise do the same. That every encounter an opportunity for the alchemy of love to change the world. That we all become willing to allow this life, and its attendant circumstances to wake us up for the most truest thing we know: life is fleeting. It is all impermanent. So let’s give it all we’ve got while we can.
