If Not Now… When?

“There is something in every one of you
that waits and listens
for the sound of the genuine in yourself.
It is the only true guide you will ever have.

Don’t ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go do it.
Because what the world needs is more people
who have come alive. **

Martin Seligman, the “father of positive psychology,” after years of studying depression and coining the term, “learned helplessness,” decided to examine instead what could go right. Examining a diversity of cultures across millennia, he distilled a list of virtues and qualities universally valued and regarded as essential to creating a satisfying and fulfilling life. He came up with 24, and the #1 was called Zest, or aliveness.

Each New Year, many people choose to think about how they can live a better life. This often comes in the form of resolutions — habits, commitments, and ways of being they either want to end or incorporate more into their lives. Most often, these resolutions are superficial – eat better, exercise more, take yoga… all good ideas, but wholly within the field of the known and ordinary.

Abraham Maslow, who initiated the self-actualization movement, said “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. Whatever someone can be, he/she must be.” One of the most important questions a person can ask is “What lives inside of me that needs to be nurtured, tended, and brought forth into the world?” Maslow remarked, “If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”

And yet, that is the way that many live. Over 150 years ago, Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” And in the Gospel of Thomas (recorded over 2000 years ago), verse 70 states… “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

What’s within us includes both wounds and gifts, and both need to be brought to consciousness, invited to the table, and welcomed into our circle if we’re ever to really know who we are. Otherwise, we risk continuing the attempt to be “good enough,” some version of a “good boy” or “good girl,” trying to live up to an externally-generated and downloaded version of who we think we should be.

Maslow asserted that “Self-actualized people live more in the real world of nature than in the human-made mass of concepts, abstractions, expectations, beliefs and stereotypes that most people confuse with the world.”

One ancient wisdom tradition I was much taken by – originating with the Toltecs seers of Mexico – perceived human beings, ultimately, as fields of energy. In their system, a sage — a “man or woman of knowledge” — was an expert, a maestro in enhancing his or her personal power or energy … their aliveness.

From 1996-1998, I often traveled to Mexico to study this tradition. We were taught that three things determined a person’s level of energy. 1) The amount he/she was born with – some just arrive in this world with more energy than others. 2) The totality of consequences from one’s habitual actions, behaviors, ways of thinking — were they energy-sustaining or draining? And 3) one’s relationship to the great sources of energy (sun, mountains, rivers, wind, sky, oceans …) of the universe.

The amount of energy one is born with can’t be changed. But the nature of our habitual behaviors, beliefs, and ways of seeing the world — energy-sustaining or draining — was fertile ground for “the work.” Becoming conscious of the nature of these acts and beliefs (via a very intense and unusual inventory) and addressing their consequences brought up old wounds, traumas, and self-defeating belief systems. Freeing oneself from their toxic residue is – ultimately — the goal of all healing work and a necessary undertaking on the path to reclaim one’s personal power.

Most “Western” therapies happen primarily indoors and focus on the mind – ignoring “one’s relationship to the great sources of energy in the universe.” This mind can — at best — access about 10% of who we are, and without deep and meaningful relationships with vaster parts of ourselves and our world we’re denied the experience of our full potential.

Primal cultures referred to this living presence, this “Unknown,” as the Great Mystery. It was source and origin of everything, the wellspring out of which emerged all which could be experienced and known. It was a focus of reverence, the matrix and mother of our being-ness, the background and context within which we live, know, and perceive.

To experience the Great Mystery is to know the Source, our creator. To experience does not mean to think about or understand – it means to be intimate with. For most of human history, developing a relationship of appreciation, gratitude, and respect with this Unknown was the primary task of life. Creating, nurturing, and sustaining this relationship led to a sense of belonging, of having a home, resulting in profound feelings of peace, wonder, purpose, and connectedness with all parts of creation.

It’s “The New Year.” Becoming alive, bringing forth our passions, commitments, voice, and purpose — what longs to be born and bear fruit – is the definition of living a satisfying and fulfilling life. It’s the new year… “If not now, when?”

** From Howard Thurman, American author, philosopher, educator, prominent religious figure, and a key mentor to leaders within the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr.

~ Sparrow Hart, January 2022