Brother (and sister), can you spare an hour?
Do you have an hour to spare? Have you ever considered that you could help change the world in an hour? If you believed that it would make a difference, would you invest in that hour, heart and soul?
Yes? Then I hope your open mind and open heart will rise to this opportunity:
Choose an hour. Challenge yourself. Change the world.
So, what does that mean, you ask? Well, it will mean something different to each one of us, but my invitation to you is to join me in a watch. A watch with love. A watch without fear. A watch that is solitary and yet connected to others across the globe, who have also been called to watch. With Love. As Love. And so, with power.
Buddhist Monk and noted peace activist Thich Nhat Hahn puts it this way:
“We need enlightenment, not just individually but collectively, to save the planet. We need to awaken ourselves. We need to practice mindfulness if we want to have a future, if we want to save ourselves and the planet.”
Do you believe that? I do. The collective consciousness is a powerful thing. Martin Luther King, Jr., believed Nhat Hahn as well. King nominated the monk for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 and had this to say about him:
“His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”
Dr. King’s own work for peace and peaceful solutions is monumental. And he was all for wakefulness, too. Listen to this:
“One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”
Today we need vigilance. We need alertness. Turmoil and change seems to be going on, but we are not here to be carried away by the tide, without being sure we are going or where we want to go. Seeing the tide is the first thing. We have to be wide awake not only to see where we are going, but especially to find the solid ground that allows us the stability and ability to perceive the right direction and to move toward it.
That solid ground is not going to be found by looking out at the world’s seeming chaos, but by going inward, where we all have the ability to stand on our rock, our heart within, that isn’t going anywhere and that unites us with the power of Love, personally and universally.
I believe that within us all is a tie that binds. That world brotherhood, those monumental ideas for peace from that Buddhist monk that so moved Martin Luther King, Jr.
Humanity has the power to be good and to do good by tapping actively into its own divinity, its own constant contact with the power and presence of Love.
Mahatma Ghandi:
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
This is a revolutionary time, but one that comes with a remarkable and monumental an OPPORTUNITY. The dirt we see may be political, it may be environmental, it may be the media, it may be genocide, paranoia, conspiracy, or it may be a feeling of disconnect, lack, helplessness. But that’s what revolutions are all about. The good ones that really work. They are about looking at things and choosing to shift the paradigm.
The fear and limit that a flat world experienced were lifted by a scientific revolution that revealed a round earth, one in which no one could fall off and that revolved around the sun, something larger than our world. It was about a new view, not a new reality. It was about fighting against the world’s beliefs with something stronger and more powerful — Truth.
Winston Churchill said it well: “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
I believe the same to be true about the Truth of Love. Nothing can stop it. It can be attacked or argued against, but it will always be love, and it will always be our greatest asset, individually and collectively.
Okay, so with that preamble, I want to back up a bit and tell you why I am SO passionate about this and why and how I’d like your help.
Maybe my own humble little story of inspiration, a revolution, an awakening in me, will spark something in you. Maybe you will consider choosing an hour, challenging yourself, and changing the world through a watch that is fearless, wide-awake, Love. I sure hope you will.
I was sitting in a church testimony meeting not very long ago. The Bible readings which opened the meeting included passages from John 17. I was pleasantly surprised and felt a warm glow inside as these verses were read. I had just been thinking that very morning about the prayer in this chapter. It is one which Jesus offers up for his followers, of that time and into all time. I had even shared a verse of it with some friends earlier that day as I had found it so inspiring. Jesus prayed that we were all “one” just as he was one with his father. This tender prayer was for us today, sweeping down through the centuries to this moment, as well as for his immediate apostles. It was Jesus’s earnest request of his Father that we all know what he himself knew and deeply and genuinely felt — the healing power of being unified in Truth and Love.
I felt so peaceful after hearing this prayer read to the congregation at that special meeting. I really felt a sense of Jesus praying for me right then and it felt great! It brought tears of gratitude to my eyes. A profound moment of connection. I love those!
And then, something else happened. The readings went on to share Jesus’s words to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane in a passage later on in the gospel accounts. Jesus awaited his eventual arrest and the crucifixion that would follow. He spent time in prayer with God again, listening and struggling, his humanity challenging his divinity — his spiritual confidence in the way the mission must play out. Meanwhile, his disciples slept, seemingly oblivious to this critical moment. As the author and religious pioneer Mary Baker Eddy puts it in her seminal work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:
“[Jesus’s] students slept. He said unto them: ‘Could ye not watch with me one hour?’ Could they not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voiceless agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world?”
Whoa! Uncomplaining guard over a world! I had certainly heard Jesus’s words before. But that day, in that church service, still warmed by the Master’s prayer which I felt just for me, I felt almost physically struck with shame. I understood very well, as many of us likely do, the mesmerism of fear that had hit the disciples as they waited with Jesus. It is so easy to feel weary and helpless when things seem tough or uncertain or sad. But, this inspired man had given so much and was always alert. He taught and healed and was full of deep compassion and love at all times. He gave the world a new way of looking at life, as so many other prophets and great thinkers have done in spite of opposition — like Thich Nhat Hanh. Like Ghandi. Like Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sadly, Jesus’s disciples just couldn’t wait up with him when he needed them to watch — to watch for what was to come; to guard against trouble; to honor Jesus and his mission with attentiveness and love and support and kindness; AND to remain in readiness to witness the resurrection — the ultimate proof of what Jesus was teaching and the culmination of his earthly mission; the proof of the indestructible power of Life through Oneness with Father-Mother-Love.
As I sat there, in that hour, I shook off the guilt and the shock and took up the watch. I decided then and there that I did NOT want to be the sleeping, ungrateful disciple, mesmerized by fear. I wanted to the be the watchful disciple motivated by and awake to Love, ready for a resurrected, renewed sense of life as it could truly be, for me personally, and for my wonderful world. That hour changed me and, frankly, it empowered me. I testified at the end of the service quite tearfully about what I felt, although not so very articulately. But, I left that service knowing that there was something more that could be done. My one hour watch in that service was a clarion call. A reveille for ongoing watch and march forward in a cause for peace, real peace, understanding, unity, joy, for one and all.
So, was this about taking human action to fix a warring, discordant, seemingly fearful and hopeless world? Or was it about what I had just done? To me, I had the profound sense that my loving watch, my awareness of the power of good, and the call to, for Christ’s sake — literally — sacrifice one hour to just REALLY be alert with the Christ, with that message of Oneness and love that Jesus preached, was the action that I needed to take. It wasn’t about being a do-gooder in the world in that hour. It was about getting still and waiting, listening, with Love and letting only the thought of Love fill me, lead me, comfort me, embrace me, change and renew me, empower me, and be the very motive to every thought — the start and finish of that hour.
And then….to see what was next. To expect the proof of a powerful hour with a Love that was bigger than me and yet very much a part of me.
I’m certainly still figuring out how to watch this way — to see only love, be only love, think only love, share only love, expect only love — but an hour spent even in the contemplation of HOW to watch, has blessed me. How could one not be bettered spending some time feeling deep in an embrace where Love was the only agenda and the only one I really wanted. Just to love and be loved. To be in conscious awareness — a watch — with and for and in love. What could be more wonderful than that feeling, except to know that it extends across space and time, to encircle the world and wake it up to goodness.
The greatest things that have happened in the world have come because of Love. Fear may protect us at times, but it doesn’t heal and save us, and fear, taken to the nth degree, is paranoia, hatred, panic, instability, destructiveness, war, death. Love — pure love — taken to the nth degree is healing, uplifting, comforting, inspiring, energizing, soothing, motivating, cultivating, progressive, saving, and unifying. Love in at the very least is positive, constructive, good-hearted. Love at its ultimate is the resurrection. It is world-changing. It is cleansing, purifying, renewing and uniting. It reveals a deeper Truth, rather than a surface picture. It grounds us and settles us to believe that all things are possible and that we are on the right side of history.
A watch with Love includes a watch with respect, trust, mercy, forgiveness, tenderness, gentleness, and at the same time, real power.
Your watch may look nothing like mine. Mine is prayer. Mine is thoughtful contemplation, a heart that at one moment breaks with compassion and the next is remade with connection, expectation, peaceful certainty. This is what moved me initially. Tomorrow that love may be the shower of a song, forgiveness of injustice, a soul-soothing mantra that beats along with one’s heart. It simply starts with Love and ends with Love. The form it takes is what makes it special. It is why YOUR watch is needed. It is why no one can watch for you, as you do, but all can benefit from watching with you and learning from you, as I am delighted to do as well. Please teach me how you watch.
I do have a few guiding principles for your watch, though. These may help you figure out how to start and it will also unify us on this.
First, remember that if this is a Love watch, then there is no judgment in it. A watch for one hour is a watch against judging. It is simply being. So even the watch itself isn’t to be judged. It is what it is — motivated by Love, and each of those sixty minutes open to where and how Love would lead. This non-judgment is so much the key to Love, so keep that as a guiding light in your hour of watch. If meditation is your method of stillness and connection, do that, and just be sure to allow your expanded and beautiful consciousness to be awake to the world and its own goodness and deserving.
Second tip:
Watch in the hour you take up. What I mean is, stay in that moment. NO looking back or projecting forward. Be an empty vessel to receive the angel of the hour, the message in that moment, FOR that moment. If you don’t find peace there, it isn’t a failure. The wrestling may be part of the eventual surrender. Take up another watch. Try again in a new fresh moment.
Third tip:
Be aware that others are watching as well. Share what you found and how you found it with your One World Watchers community. Learn from them. Give to them. Relish this. There is no one way to watch, but there is One Love behind it all.
My first hour watch led me to this talk. It led to the launch of this new initiative which I invite you now to join. To sign on for one hour and to watch with Love. To watch with the power that can change the world now as it has before and as we are supremely ready for. You know it, too. We are ready to see the world back in all its intended glory — mankind united in its diversity in order to show forth every color there is in Life and Love. Productively. Peacefully. Joyfully. Gratefully.
Love unites us because LOVE is our most natural state of being. We were made to respond to it, and the more of it there is to counter the epidemic of fear, and break the mesmerism of hopelessness or distrust, the more healing can go on. The plague of fear and hatred has its antidote in Love. But we can’t wait for someone else to do it. We can’t sleep and just hope Jesus comes around again to save the day. Don’t so many of us have countless hours spent in mindless distraction that could easily be sacrificed for one hour of mindful action?
So please sign up for an hour watch. Talk to me about it. Share with others how your watch felt, what you learned, and what it moved you to do next. Let’s fill the calendar with a love-watch on every hour and across the globe. Spread the word.
Now, picture this:
You are watching with Love from your sofa in Omaha. You have music on and dim lights and you are open to what Love may say, how it may feel, and what it may do. At the same time, a child in Nigeria sits outside her little hut, innocently and lovingly watching, praying. She is connected to Love and to YOU through Love. At the very same hour, a soldier in Pakistan has taken up the watch with you. He pauses in his duties and sighs. Peace is on his mind. He is ready to feel Love. And over in Tibet, on a mountaintop perhaps, a monk’s devoted, silent hour in meditation, is connected through the spirit of Love, to your watch. This is your team. You are beautiful and powerful and together in this.
The collective consciousness is a mighty thing. I believe a universal watch with Love can overturn dissension, fear, and its catastrophic results. We can have an unbroken chain of guardians, connected to fearless Truth and willing to watch because our world does matter, and Love is the answer. I want to believe this is the answer, because nothing else can be or has been. There is nothing to lose. One hour to connect to something bigger than you and bigger than the world’s problems.
Let me share with you one terrific example of the power we have as unified front of sentinels on duty. I stumbled upon this as I was writing this talk and developing our One World Watch. I’m surprised I never heard about it, or maybe forgot about it somewhere along the way. You may have heard of something called the Silent Minute, indulge me for just a few more minutes while I tell you about it.
A British Army Officer named Major Wellesley Tudor Pole served and was wounded in WWI. He was also a successful businessman, but was always deeply committed to spirituality as well. During the second World War, Tudor Pole says he heard (quote) “an inner request from a high spiritual source that there be a Silent Minute of Prayer for Freedom at 9 pm during the striking of Big Ben. If enough people joined in this gesture of dedicated intent, the tide would turn and the invasion of England would be diverted.” (end of quote)
This dedicated minute received the direct support of King George VI, Winston Churchill and his Parliamentary Cabinet. It was also recognized by President Franklin Roosevelt and observed on land and at sea on the battlefields, in air raid shelters, and in hospitals.
Tudor Pole’s words resonate with me: “There is no power on earth that can withstand the united cooperation on spiritual levels of men and women of goodwill everywhere.”
And listen to this. It is reported that after the war, under questioning, a high ranking Nazi official was asked why he thought Germany lost the war. His reply was, “During the war, you had a secret weapon for which we could find no counter measure, which we did not understand, but it was very powerful. It was associated with the striking of the Big Ben each evening. I believe you called it the ‘Silent Minute.’”
(This silent minute, by the way, was revived after 9/11 and continues today as a non-profit, with the idea that there is always war going on somewhere in the world and that uniting collectively for peace is beneficial).
So, we’ve got a precedent and a practical application to inspire us, beyond just me passionately pleading with you to join me!
I am asking for only one hour. Although, sitting in Love for an hour, and listening and feeling its impact on your own heart and soul can be addictive. You may just want to make it two. Or three. Or a regular weekly thing. You will want to be awake to watch what happens.
Choose your hour.
Challenge yourself.
Change the world.
