What is it that I must do?

 We, the sentient creatures, are in this time and place where we are informed on many levels, that there is danger and it is urgent that we do something about it, even though we don't have the power to fix all that needs to be fixed.

Not even the President of the United States can fix it. The trauma and the structural violence of many centuries have put the human heart and mind in the centre of a large maze and whichever turn we make will not lead us out of danger.

The problems we face now cannot be fixed by authoritarian agendas or weapons of mass destruction. Yet there is a churning inside and an anxiety that is difficult to endure.

There are things I can do about the economy, politics, climate, the level of fear but it won't fix the world. So I ask myself - who do I think I am that I should worry about the big picture. And yet if I don't what will inform me on what is important and what isn't.

This quandary is not about my ego. It is a message like the rustling of leaves in the wind. It is the silence, the radio, the books and the television programs that circle my consciousness.

It is like a moment's awakening. The words that come just when I am about to fall asleep. This epiphany, vague as it is, will be lost come morning.

I am assured in a quiet way that I am here for a reason and for as long as I live, there is something I must do, something I am here to do. Not something fantastically huge but something that is needed. Something like an energy wafting out of an open window.  Something that whispers across the garden and the pond. Something that comes through me but not of me - to paraphrase Kahlil Gibran. Something that I can do because of my particular history and my particular circumstances. Something that is authentic, without fanfare or crashing cymbals or a gun. Something that will not harm anyone.

I don't yet know what it is but when the time comes I must do it. And this thing that I must do which I will know when the time comes, is a comfort to me now, and when the time comes I will trust it.

This goes for you too. There is something that you can do, before you leave this place. Something that will help to heal this battered planet.

This is not a call for war, or the use of force, not an authoritarian dictate - although we might feel tempted because of  high levels of anxiety. We can offer what might ease the fears of other beings, not tell them what to do.