It is time for action.

I don’t want to say much about it being a new year. Partly because it seems increasingly vacuous to share personal mantras on social media, in places where someone is likely to see them followed by footage of a dismembered toddler.

What I will say, what I’d like to invite all people to consider at this particular moment, is this:

What kind of action is life inviting you to, right now?  This year?  Or just today?

Because the fire burning in my heart is telling me: the time for sitting on the couch and removing ourselves due to the misplaced belief that we don’t matter…  is past.

It is time for action. We desperately need it.

What that looks like for you may be very different to the person next to you. We all have work to do; and I don’t mean what we do to make money.

Whether your place to be valuable is interpersonal, in your community, (very likely it is one or both of those), or on a wider scale… it matters.

Don’t let the lie that nothing you do matters overwhelm you. Don’t let the lie that your “calling” has to be grand and global, stop you from living the life that actually brings you alive.

Oh and artists - don’t fall for the selfish lie that art doesn’t matter or is somehow self indulgent, either. You were given a gift in order to give it to the world. If you need some elaboration on how it actually makes a difference, give me a call sometime.

Get quiet and listen to what the voices inside you are truly saying. Listen to the wind of your feelings, then let it pass. Listen to what your work is calling you forth for.

Take care of yourself. Rest. Eat. Move your body. Nourish your connections. Speak to your neighbours. So that you may be useful. See the incredible joy and beauty around us, have pleasure, have laughter, because that will sustain you too. Feel your love, even when it aches, even when it burns. It is the fuel for your work.

You don’t have to feel hopeful.

Hope and hopeless, both come to the end of their usefulness pretty quickly in the face of what we are facing. *

There is work to be done.

Roll up your sleeves.

Call on who you need.

I’m here next to you.

Let’s work.

* With thanks to Stephen Jenkinson for this perspective.