Recently, I spent the afternoon with some beautiful souls -- young women who shared their life history with me. I've seen what a broken system can destroy. But it has almost always been on the other side of the world, slightly abstract. Rarely has it been easy to relate to someone's story as possibly your own. But this was different. These were local young women that methodically and personally walked me through their lives from their earliest memories. Describing how their lives were shattered through sexual abuse at an age when most of us were learning to tie our shoes.
How do you say, "Life is what you make it" to those young women and the thousands of women (and men) like them? You don't.
But here's what you do: listen.
What I have learned over and over is that giving voice to the truth inside you is the first step in making your life your own. And when you listen, you bear witness to that truth, that story. Only listening can begin to provide the safety that is required to take a step into life. And real listening -- done without judgment, without needing to "save," without being repulsed -- is no small feat. But speaking truth is even harder.
My latest song, "Silence Broken," was written after meeting these young women. Because I know that we are only as free as the most bound among us. And as long as voices are silent, we will never know where we are as a species on this planet. We will never know how truly evolved we are -- assuming that we're defining evolution as greater acceptance, understanding and love of our fellow human.
As long as the truth is not spoken, we will be living a lie. And that lie will manifest in the societies we create. In every disconnected experience -- whether it's in the food we eat, the things we buy, or the experiences we share -- if there is not truth at the core, it will continue to add to the disharmony that seems to permeate so much of the world around us.
I truly believe that nearly all -- if not all -- ills this society faces are symptoms. Poverty is not the problem, war is not the problem, obesity is not the problem, a broken education system is not the problem, GMO's are not the problem, the 1 percent is not the problem.
These are all symptoms of massive disconnection. It is no surprise that Facebook exploded as the biggest thing on the Internet. We crave connection. We need to be seen and heard. We want to be loved.
But Facebook won't get us there. We've moved from an organic ecosystem to a digital ego-system in a few short generations. How do we take the best of what we've created (like refrigeration, indoor plumbing, electricity -- you know, actually useful things) and marry it with what has worked for thousands of years?
Why are so many people afraid? Hungry? Bought and sold? And not just somewhere else but right in our own backyard.
I don't think this is human nature. I think we're better than this. I think we've been better than this. What's the story?
What do you think? Share your story at www.changeourstory.com, and join the conversation on how we can all become active participants in shaping our future.