I have been resisting writing this week. I have been angry with the state of our nation. I am saddened to watch our elected officials vote to dismantle our government, take away the social safety nets so much of our nation relies on, threatening Social Security and Medicare that we have paid into all our working lives, all in favor of the billionaire class.

I feel helpless and hopeless as I watch everything we as a nation hold dear get dismantled. Gutting education, ignoring court rulings, deporting people without due process, and sending them to countries that are not their home, ignoring climate change, are but a few of my concerns. The lack of basic human decency, empathy, and integrity deeply saddens me.

In practitioner training, we were told if we were looking for something to pray about, look to the news. The news is overwhelming, and I can only take it in small doses, usually from my friends, Seth and Stephen, Jimmy K and Jimmy F, John O and Jon S. And yes, I pray. I know that under the mess and chaos; Spirit is evolving something new. I remind myself that systems need to be dismantled to be created anew, and this can be a painful and messy process.

I recently saw this quote from Fred Rogers, “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It is easy to say, ‘it’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”

As a white, heterosexual, cisgendered female, without children, who grew up in a middleclass neighborhood in southern California, I recognize my position of privilege. It is easy for me to look around and claim it’s not my problem; it’s not directly affecting me. The truth is that it is my problem; your children are my children, your community is my community, your world is my world. I then remind myself that problems are opportunities in disguise.

I am currently reading a book that I am finding very powerful. The author says that to fully practice wholeness, I have to turn my “me” work into “we” work. This echoes a recent three-week Laddership workshop examining the relationship of moving from me to we to us. True leadership asks me to look beyond my self-interests, to get out of my comfort zone, and look out into the world to find how I may be of service to my neighbors, be they next door, in the next state, or country. It is my opportunity to speak up and make a difference, no matter how small that difference may be. There is no big or small in Spirit.

As I figure out where my energies are best spent, I am grounded by the Centers for Spiritual Living’s Global Vision Statement. I am sharing three statements here:

• We envision all people, all beings, and all life as expressions of God.

• We envision a world where personal responsibility joins with social conscience in every area of political, corporate, academic, and social sectors, providing sustainable structures to further the emerging global consciousness.

• We envision a world where each and every person has enough food, a home, and a sense of belonging; a world of peace and harmony, enfranchisement, and justice.

–Sharon Whealy, RScP