My spiritual journey has taught me that each of us has the power to change the world. Celebrating Nelson Mandela Day on July 18, I was reminded how deeply I believe in his words, "It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it." Yet as much as this has been ingrained in me, as much as I have seen the evidence that it is truth, even I am having difficulty amidst all the violence, hatred and uncertainty in the world and have been in search of something to uplift my spirit and my soul. I decided to seek the answers in a good book.
Having grown up devouring Nancy Drew mysteries I have long found reading among the most enjoyable things I do in life. While I generally lean to fiction, one might say it was divine intervention that found me with my head buried in Tosha Silver's Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead this week.
Outrageous Openness is a book about how to align oneself with the Divine (or God), independent of life's fluctuations. The stories in her book are short vignettes about things that have happened to her or her friends that exemplify what happens when we give up muscling our way through life and open up to go with flow, thus providing ourselves with better outcomes.
Tosha believes that "a force of love exists that can guide, help and interact with each of us in the most intimate and practical way no matter what the conditions." The human condition, she challenges the reader, is "if only we knew how to invite it in."
Her words have helped to lift me out of the chaos and remember how to do just that.
Every morning, after I sit in meditation, I ask the Divine to guide me through my day and show me the perfect partners. Whether I'm asking for purposes of sorting out a love relationship, my kids or business, when I'm paying attention, I find myself in the flow that day, and my miracle appears. It might be something as subtle as a big bowl of red apples in my path as happened a few days when I was longing for one or a new business partner for my company Greenopia. Whatever I need is always provided, as long as I remember to stay open and stay positive to receive it.
I realize that might sound far too simple for such challenging times when it seems as if chaos and fear are trying to swallow us up. But it is our challenge right now - to stay present, think clearly, calmly, keep an open heart, whether it's living a life of health and wellness or negotiating world peace. And I do believe if we make that commitment, each of us does have the power as Nelson Mandela suggests, to make the world a better place.
The evidence is there with groups like Moms Clean Air Force organizing a Play-in for Climate Change in Washington, DC. or End Food Waste Organization's Ugly Fruit and Veg Campaign, who successfully convinced Whole Foods to sell less than perfect produce instead of wasting it and has now set its sights on Walmart. Or with the hundreds of green and eco-friendly companies we have listed on Greenopia. As Chris Castiglione wrote in his recent Huffington Post blog, you are influential. It's up to you to exercise that.
I'm keeping Tosha's book within arms reach for the foreseeable future. It lifts me up and carries me forward, even on days that I don't think I can be carried. She has it organized so that you can open it and find the vignette you were meant to read that day. If I take Tosha's lesson about opening up to the Divine to find the perfect answer and merge it with Mandela's mantra that one person has the power to change the world then I can do my part, despite the daily anxiety the media is ingraining into our brains.
Tosha says in her book: "Use me, whatever I have to give, for the highest good. Just let me be helpful and contribute my all." I'm in. Are you with me?