Wow, do I appreciate that Hopi elder prophesy when it gets to the part:
"there are those who will be afraid... they will try to cling to the shore. they will feel that they are being torn apart...
and they will suffer greatly...
But the elders say--
we must let go of the shore... push out to the middle of the river...keep our eyes open... our heads about the water--
see who is with you and CELEBRATE. We are the ones we have been waiting for."
It was TEN YEARS AGO that I stood with my son and my partner in the Hynes Convention Center, with Earth Drum Council on stage before me, with our marvelous vision of a dreamed world above us, waiting for that "Y2K" moment.
It was 11:59. We drummed. We prayed. Then it was midnight, and we were still drumming. No blackout. No panic.
I remember how beautiful it was to walk the cold streets of downtown Boston over the next half hour. Everyone there was an optimist. Everyone there had believed in themselves, their spirits, the heart of the planet, technology or WHATEVER we needed to believe in, enough to Create a Miracle.
Yes I know that now, 10 years later, you will hear folks talk about the HYPE around Y2K. But I was there; it wasn't "hype". As a reminder let me mention that one of the smartest presidents we have ever had-- Jimmy Carter-- chose to weather this particular storm out in Costa Rica, in a hotel where rich Americans had shown up in droves, paying up to $400 a night for their rooms.
They had all abandoned ship, and took shelter in a third world country where the collapse wouldn't be so vertiginous a vertical drop. Sheepishly and quietly, they came "back home" and acted as if nothing had ever happened.
10 years post Y2K, I enjoyed a solitary night in the company of many strangers, at Northampton's First Night. I traveled alone through the day. I attended 10 events, in 12 hours. I had no one to negotiate with over which event we'd go to next. WHAT A BLESSING! I bumped into folks I knew all day long and loved the greetings, the hugs, the catching up,and the moving on...I drummed, I chanted kirtan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRNKrW8FqCo), I danced to Pangea, I was enraptured by flamenco dancers, I listened to a twenty something (Seth Glier http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3u-6cwR3kw) sing with more heart than I have heard coming out of a guy in many many years.
This is the nature of our lives, in times of crisis. Crisis as dangerous opportunity. Being In The Moment.
I hope that whatever you all did on New Years fed your hearts and souls.
--
Opeyemi 413-336-1291
P.O. Box 264
Hadley, MA. 01035
buy Hope Beneath Our Feet:
buy Hope Beneath Our Feet:
Restoring Our Place in the Natural World .. it will INSPIRE and encourage you!
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