ONENESS IS CALLING. TIME TO PICK UP.
There are very few things in life I feel like I know to be true- really know and really true. But two principles that I am certain about are oneness and love (individually and as a pair, because how else can you make sense of them?) For those of you who know me well, you know that “one love” has been my mantra for a long time. As far as I can recall, the universe rang me with these united principles by way of Bob Marley. I picked up. And once you answer the call and really absorb the message, there’s no way to unknow it.
The intersection of love and oneness has driven me personally and professionally. They drew me to my academic studies, to my profession, to the love of my life, to my spiritual path. They inform my parenting philosophy (if not always my practice) and contribute to the kind of friend I hope to be. The intersection has driven me to marches ranging from war protests to the Million Mom March to street cries for Marriage Equality. Though different on their face, they are very much the same at their root.
This intersection has allowed me to don business suits and hiking boots with equal ease so that I might stand in front of leaders and attempt to persuade them that there’s a better way to do business, a better way to exhibit humanity. I’m not personally motivated by the “business case for diversity” (because it never really provokes change) but always viewed it as a means to an end that was clear to me. My certainty about love and oneness has allowed me to speak on topics that are often rife with insecurity, misunderstanding or worse, denial.
But I’ve also drifted. Forgotten. Gotten lost along the way. It’s easy to do. We live in a world that thrives on separation, individuality, materialism and competition. It’s in the air. If you are alive, you are breathing it. I’ve grown cynical and self-interested in various chapters of my life. A year ago, I had my own personal version of a COVID-19 crisis when my husband and son both faced life-threatening health crises at the same time. Everything stopped. Time stood still. Work ceased. But love and friends and light showed up. Meals, too. And acts of kindness at every turn. That woke me (back) up. Abruptly at first, and then in a sort of slow unfolding.
It seems to me- and to anybody who is paying attention- that the universe’s emergency broadcast system has been activated and this is no longer a test. Our unassailable connectivity is asserting itself. Apparently, decimation of our shared habitat isn’t a stark enough wake-up call. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that climate change would lead to about 250,000 additional deaths each year between 2030 and 2050, from factors such as malnutrition, heat stress and malaria.[1]It looks like that harsh reality is not on-the-nose enough for us. So here we are, passing COVID-19 person-to-person in barely legible patterns across the globe as a more direct calling card. You can’t see it, but you know it’s there. As terrifying, anxiety producing and destructive as the fallout of this virus is, there is beauty emerging in equal measure. “Beautiful and terrible” is having its moment.
A friend sent me an article earlier this week. It so well describes the momentum of love & oneness that I want to share an excerpt here:
Last week, a large consignment of crates arrived in Italy, addressed to the country’s Civil Protection Department, from the consumer electronics giant, Xiaomi. Inside were tens of thousands of FFP3 face masks for Italy’s healthcare workers, a “token of gratitude to the Italian people” for making their workers feel so welcome when the Chinese company opened its first European offices in 2018. Stapled to the side of each of the crates was a quote, in both Italian and English, attributed to the Roman philosopher, Seneca.
“We are waves of the same sea, leaves of the same tree, flowers of the same garden.”
Amidst the panic, the donations keep on coming. At the height of the outbreak in Wuhan the EU donated 50 tons of equipment to China. Two days ago, China returned the favour, sending the embattled continent 2 million surgical masks, 200,000 N95 masks and 50,000 testing kits. In the Philippines, Manny Pacquiao just donated 600,000 masks to frontline health workers. Jack Ma, founder of the world’s largest e-commerce platform, is shipping 1 million masks and 500,000 testing kits to the United States. That’s on top of the 1.8 million masks and 100,000 test kits he’s already sent to Italy and Spain. Trip.com is delivering a million surgical mask supplies to Japan, Korea, Canada and France, among others.
They also put a quote on the sides of their containers, reading “Many ways, to join one journey. Many origins, to reach one destiny. Many friends, to form one family. Many endeavors, to win one victory.”[2]
There are local versions of this playing out everywhere. In my city of Seattle, two-time James Beard Award Winner Chef Edouardo Jordan has transformed the kitchen of his restaurant Salare, to make and distribute meals to newly unemployed restaurant workers.
My friend Stacy Milrany is an artist who has decided to gift mini pieces of her art as a gesture of upliftment and love. She’s calling them: Subatomic Art: Tiny Works for Trying Times. They, like her, are fun, quirky, crazy creative and joyful.
Nationally (internationally!), we’ve all seen DJ DNice lighting the world up with his virtual dance parties. According to the Washington Post, “by Saturday night, more than 100,000 people — including former first lady Michelle Obama and a host of A-listers — were jamming together in “Club Quarantine.”
I could write volumes here about the spontaneous acts of oneness that are fueled by love as a response to COVID-19. But you get the point. My soul is jumping up and down. Like a mom at her wit’s end, the universe closed the shutters, sat our asses down and then sounded the alarm. Witnessing the rolling waves of people picking up the call to serve to our shared humanity is spectacular. It is as poignant as the grief, anxiety and loss imparted by COVID-19. There are still deniers out there, of course. But they sound like children having tantrums over being told “no” to ice cream for breakfast. This is our shadow, hanging around to remind us what we are growing out of. Be kind. This is us, too. In oneness, you don’t get to bypass the shadow.
Oneness is very simple: everything is included and allowed to live according to its true nature. This is the secret that is being revealed, the opportunity that is offered. How we make use of this opportunity depends upon the degree of our participation, how much we are prepared to give ourselves to the work that needs to be done, to the freedom that needs to be lived. — Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Working with Oneness.
I know this to be real and true: Oneness is calling. She’s got love on the other line and it’s time to pick up.
*post-script. I’ve never gotten through anything worthwhile in life without music, so I’ve started a playlist on Spotify called “One Love.” Feel free to add to it. Musicians clearly get it. One Love Playlist
