”I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am.
I know that I am not a category.
I am not a thing — a noun.
I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process
— an integral function of the universe.”
~ Buckminster Fuller
We are all verbs. Not a one of us a noun. Not one a fixed identity. Thank you Bucky, for articulating something so critical, so crucial, so clearly. The liberating power of this deep understanding is a game changer.
Somewhere a few centuries back, we developed the fragmented, Newtonian worldview that haunts us still. With help from the new power of the zero, we accelerated our reduction of the world to facts and figures, cleaving it apart with a sword of Hubris. . Our very perception shifted, as we fragmented ourselves, specialized ourselves, as we created a binary world of black and white, of us and them, of either/or. Nature and spirit a distant other. There was security in this view. A false sense of security.
Look up! The skyscrapers are falling. Rapid climate change, economic collapse, ecological collapse, political instability and technological escalation: the only thing we can be sure about is radical indeterminacy. In the face of this acceleration, we have choices to make. We can freeze in fear, becoming paralyzed. Static. Resistant. Frozen. We can buy stuff or watch stuff or eat stuff, anything to avoid feeling. There’s too much pain out there.
Or we can rise onto our surfboards and surf the power of this wave ~ particle ~ wave of change. This Tsunami of transformation. We can dive into the frothing waters with joy, celebration and Love, following the currents, not fighting, not resisting, yet not succumbing ~ transforming poison into pearls.
Buckminister Fuller’s gravestone reads, “call me Trimtab.” The Trimtab is the tiny rudder that trims the direction of great ships. We are not trying to shift the steel prow of the oil tanker that is industrial growth civilization, which is clearly on a collision course with limits, heading for the next spill. The next crash. The next dead end. Instead, we are becoming the collective Trimtab for spaceship Earth. We are learning to meet the raging tides of this age of extinctions with radical grace.
We are schools of fish lost at sea, seeking to change course from the bottom of the ocean up. Slowly, then suddenly, with a committed wave of our million fins, we will steer the seemingly immobile forces of top down self-destruction, back towards harmony, towards Love, towards an ever evolving universe story that is as ancient as light.
There is tremendous energy to be found in these days of quantuum leaping. We are facing record breaking weather around this trembling Earth – the hottest, the wettest, the coldest, the driest. But we are also seeing record breaking vision arising everywhere, in this season of transition. Millions of people around the world are creating a new story. We are the largest mass movement in humanities history, and we are a verb.
Welcome to the era of resilience. Of fluidity. Of flexibility. Balanced with the strength of right relationship, of clear intention. Free will in service to the Universe made manifest on Earth. Which is Us.
The rigid, the fixed, the unmovable- they will be moved, regardless. Most likely they will snap, crackle, crumble, unable to bend with the winds of evolution. Unless they (who are Us) learn that we are truly verbs. How beautiful this understanding that we are evolving. There is so much joy in this – so much meaning. How can we not help but be in awe of the stupendous 14 billion year journey that has brought Us to this place of consciousness, of conscience, of self aware Love? A miraculous mirror reflecting the infinite journey back to the creative life force Ourself.
I am in Love with Life. I can’t get enough of it. I am in Love with this pearl of a world. I am in Love with humanity. I am in Love with our wisdom – and our folly. To those who say the planet would be better off without Us, I ask that they reconsider. For we are integral to this planet. We are Earth.
We are in the midst of a great Love story, and part of that story currently involves a separation. Yes, we have lost our way, We have strayed far from our Love. But still we carry the torch, burning away, buried in Our heart of hearts.
We are in a reckless mid-life crisis, spending all our resources on some useless, big red Ferrari, racing away from compassion and responsibility, lost in denial, searching for something we’ve always had. One day, may it be soon, we’ll crash the damn thing one last time, and come back home, to our true Love, to our true Life, with a much deeper appreciation for all we have left behind. Carrying new gifts, borne of the experience of separation. And in that return, we will Love like never before.
Love is a verb. It is something we do, something we live, something we are. Every dancing cell is alive with Love. The stars are burning with Love. The Earth gives birth to Love, night and day. Death is part of Love. Sadness is part of Love.
The whole spectrum is Love, in action, in motion. Even our illusion of rigidity – borne of fear – is all about Love, about our vulnerability. Our human vulnerability. We are afraid of truly living, of truly Loving, for to Love is to accept that one day, the Lover will be gone. To open the heart, is to be deeply vulnerable. But to be vulnerable is to flow, to be open, to give and receive.
Yes indeed- all is impermanent, all will be lost. And that is the ultimate source of liberation. So don’t hang on – but don’t let go. Breathe it all in! Don’t miss out by numbing down or dumbing down or running away. No matter what is happening, you are Loved, and you are Love. And it will all disintegrate, dissolve, decompose, be gone in a flash.
Don’t turn from the journey! The greatest show on Earth is this very moment. This very breath. This this very heart beat. This endless Love. Welcome home to planet Earth. May you Love the Life you Live.
~ Velcrow Ripper
