It’s been an interesting few months looking over my life and seeing patterns and places of stuck-ness. Realizing how much my life has made me complacent.

I was at a service recently over the holidays and the minister spoke about becoming awake to our own potential and possibilities in life. It was also about being awake to the Great Spirit that dwells in and around us all.

I have been blessed by feeling the touch of Spirit several times in my life. All of which changed me and answered many questions I had about God, the universe and all those existential questions we all have at one time or another. But even having many of those answers didn’t prevent me from becoming mired down in my own yuck. In fact, it sometimes made me feel even more separate than I felt before.

Why? I think part of it is because I couldn’t talk to many people about those experiences. Either the words failed me, most of them are experiences beyond verbal description, or the people around me were not ready to hear what I had to say. One must be ready for the message if they are to understand it. Those that I told who weren’t ready, smiled tolerantly and moved on.

So I kept the experiences to myself. And because no one around me had changed, I found myself lost and alone. So I backslid a bit. I let the feelings go. I lost interest in my spiritual practices. I felt like “why bother?” I should fit in and not let on that I know things and have experienced things that would make your eyes bug out, but I say nothing and do nothing because that’s what it means to fit in. Don’t rock the boat.

Fitting in: is there a worse way to live your life? I don’t think so. Fitting in means you don’t stand out, you don’t make things different. Status quo: this actually means “the existing state of affairs”. Don’t change the status quo, we’re afraid of change, we don’t want to think for ourselves. We like living in boxes and having our spiritual lives fed to us by someone outside. We want to be told who to vote for and what food to buy, clothes to wear, who to watch and who to listen to. We just go where you point us and no one speaks out for something different.

And now the United States has a president who is the worst thing we could have done but it’s for the reasons above that we have him. No one wanted to do the actual work of getting anyone better. We got what we, as a country collective, deserved. And now we are paying the price.

What will it take to change? Becoming awake. To the world, to others who are different than we are, to looking at life through a much wider lens than is comfortable. To make a stand and speak our truths, especially when the truth goes against the grain. To stop binge watching crap on Netflix and step out of your homes and do some good for your community. Even if it’s just once a month.

Open your eyes people. It’s time.