Reflections after being at our 350 candlelight vigil at City Hall

Standing in the cold last night, listening to how Canada has been obstructing the agenda in Copenhagen day after day, I struggled with a sense that this little blue-- green planet is pretty stuck, that most people are operating on a level of consciousness that is about survival, and being comfortable or distracted from difficulty and pain..

It was powerful for me to realize that Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is now supporting this 350 movement, is someone who has been a part of enormous social change in his lifetime: the fall of the Berlin Wall, and of course, of apartheid..He was speaking this weekend about how demonstrations and petitions actually work, in the long run, as soon as there are enough people behind them.

That helped me a lot, because I find the general apathy and passivity of so many people can feel like a huge challenge. I was remembering when the Chinese invaded Tibet, and the Dalai Lama sent so many telegrams to the United Nations, asking for help, that they filled up a whole huge room. And nobody did anything. They left Tibet to its fate.

I actually had a good friend of mind on the weekend ask me, ‘What is Copenhagen?” That was a difficult moment for me--a shock to the heart.  I’ve been understanding that a more evolved level of consciousness allows us to keep persevering, the way Bill McKibben has, for the last 20 years, without getting overwhelmed, or angry at those whose capacity to participate is less developed.

Waking up from the emotional numbness, so that we can actually feel the enormity of what we are facing, is so crucial at this point. And then finding that place of freedom and balance, from which we can engage without being dominated by either fear or desire, is the other piece. I pray that more and more of us find our way to this level of consciousness, before things reach a point where they cannot be reversed.