When the inner joy Mother Teresa spoke of, the joy of compassionate service, is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing economic, social, and political institutions, a radical and potentially all-transforming holy force is born. This radical holy force I call Sacred Activism.

A Sacred Activist is someone who is starting to experience the inner joy and outer effectiveness of this force, who knows that the profound crisis the world is in is challenging everyone to act from our deepest compassion and wisdom, and who is committed to being, in the face of growing chaos, suffering and violence, what Robert Kennedy called “a tiny ripple of hope” and a “center of energy and daring.”

– Andrew Harvey, The Hope

On a long-ago recommendation by Amy Oscar, (author of the soon-to-be-published Sea of Miracles) I downloaded Andrew Harvey’s book to my iPad. Today I read the forward and the introduction while nearby, Ada painted family portraits in orange, green and blue. I can’t wait to pick it back up. This is what I am being called to – what many of us are being called to. There is much in the news that hurts me. At times I am paralyzed by shock and dismay.

Let us step into our Sacred Activism as fully as possible. Let us stand in the light and shine where there is darkness. Let us know, in the core of our beings, that we are those tiny ripples of hope. The world is changing before our eyes, in unprecedented ways. Let us open our hearts and minds to change with it.

*** sidenote – one of my favorite antidotes to the news is Ode Magazine. I highly recommend it for a monthly dose of optimism.