IS THIS THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY
IN LIVING MEMORY ?
IMAGE: EMMA J STEPHENSWhile so many could not bring themselves to do more than sign the occasional online petition for any number of causes that seemed not to threaten our lives or comforts immediately, April brought suffering and death directly to the front door.by Peter 'Walker' ThomasMy voluntary work for the past seven years has been the creation of The Village, The Village Matrix and now The247Village. They are all about community re-engaging face-to-face in balance, peace and freedom held by love. For years I had little understanding why all my energy was being attracted to such a mission. Then COVID-19 happened. People began to reach out in hundreds, almost instantly, asking to become part of a new way of existing and thriving in a mixed up crazy world.

Suddenly those years, that effort, and all the energy I had given to establishing connections to people with similar vision made complete sense.
Have we entered a new era?The narrative since the beginning of April 2020 has suddenly, categorically and dramatically shifted. Fear and loathing has continued to be the driver, but our conversation shifted from terror, gas fracking, mining, disappearing bees, global warming, plastic oceans, clear-felled trees, bone dry rivers and fire scorched earth to you and me. Imminent and fully present death has come directly to our doors.

There is nothing more pestilent and insistent to jerk us into action.

Action at almost every level was swift and imperious. Worldwide actions happened so promptly we found ourselves a little breathless, as new rules and regulations overturned our strongly held social paradigms with consummate ease. In the space of about two weeks, most of the human population of the world, in particular the ‘privileged’ of the world, made changes to their societies that politicians and populace would have screamed blue murder about just a few weeks before for any reason other than:
"PLEASE DON’T LET THIS DISEASE AFFECT ME OR MY FAMILY SO THAT WE MIGHT SUFFER OR DIE"!"PLEASE DON’T LET THIS DISEASE AFFECT ME OR MY FAMILY SO THAT WE MIGHT SUFFER OR DIE"!It could be robustly argued that these two elements – suffering and death – are the most powerful motivators of all. Every sentient being does their best to avoid them. And the basal motivation is first for oneself.

Fear ran rampant. Everywhere you looked the message was repeated, then repeated and repeated some more. Lockdown. Distance yourself from others. Avoid germs at all costs. Stay home, stay safe. Close borders. Close your business. Fear one another. Millions will die! Make sure it isn’t you.

Enough!
Experiencing the greatest opportunity in living memory?As the world seems to be descending into crazy there are literally millions now asking questions about how we live our lives. No matter the starting place, people from many different walks and stations in life have become suddenly aware of the absolute insanity that is our industrial world, and have, at the very least, begun to appreciate some of the simple gifts of life. Many found themselves with time on their hands for the first time in years, perhaps even decades.

Bread has been baked, gardens planted, families re-introduced to one another. In the absence of cafés, restaurants and drive-through junk food outlets, the magic of home cooking has resurfaced to be appreciated by kids and adults alike. For some families the concept of coming together for a home cooked dinner night after night was completely foreign. Board games suddenly became the ‘new’ craze. Flying to a distant land simply to distract from the stress and pressure of modern life became impossible. Instead we have stayed at home, self-imprisoned to escape the scourge. We have been reminded of the preciousness of the present moment.

People all over the world have written poetry for the first time, begun to journal their present moment experiences, begun to learn a language or a course they’ve been meaning to get around to for years, appreciated the medicine of their children and their friendships.

Many meditated. Millions who had given little thought to their inner landscape have now set out on the most important journey of all, the inner journey into their soul selves.
Waking upAmidst all the repeated mainstream media reports of horror, death, fear and loss another profoundly powerful energy has emerged.

We have woken up to the dissonance of everything that is being force-fed into our lives. And, almost without exception, we have begun to investigate different choices, different options, different ways of life. There has been so little call for us to return to ‘normal’. Yes, it raised its head for a few days but was swiftly denounced as impossible and an undesirable outcome. Even the politicians – who have been so discordantly out of step with the shifting needs of the societies they govern – have not been able to make promises quite so empty.

And so the masses have awakened. This is the most significant blessing of our times. Both the virus and the reaction from world leaders trapped in their own web of fear and deception have nourished the awakening of millions, even billions of humans, no matter their circumstance.

What ‘awakening’ actually means is as multifaceted as the tree of life, the flower of life, the fractal magnificence of life itself. It is so easy to be drawn into imagining that this ‘awakening’ is not just one thing, yet in its myriad manifestations it is.

Activation has occurred. It is a long awaited and completely necessary, frightening and exciting activation into a shift in the way the world works has not been present with such determination since the Renaissance of the 16th century. It means that our lives will never be the same again. And it means that in the best possible way.
What does the ‘shift’ look, sound, taste, smell, feel and sense like?This is extraction from the rush and hurry of the slavery of lives dedicated to the machine. Consequently no longer will it be commonplace for people to give most of their waking lives to a corporation. That has come to an end. We are no longer bound to this.

This is the end of the ownership of land and property. There is a surging tide of recognition, engagement and implementation of communities of people who reach out to one another to manifest, build and inhabit the land as stewards and caretakers. Personal ownership and, more significantly, ownership by manufactured entities and corporations is at its end.

This is the end of cities. Of course they will continue to persist for some time, but their wind-down is inevitable because their magnetism diminishes as their prison-like nature is realised, one person at a time.

This is the liberation of nature Earth and its guardians have sent a formidable and insistent emissary to remind us that we are intrinsically held in the web of life. Respect is not hoped for or requested. It is demanded. The skies and the air have commenced the long journey back to clarity. The waters have begun to flow with a freshness we remember. Rocks and stones have reminded us where we stand. The fires have torn across many nations to cleanse and exfoliate. Meanwhile that other heavenly fire reminds us of our relentless light, our opportunity to choose to shine every single day.

This is the movement from me to we. Isolation gifted us with a new comprehension of the importance of our human connections. We will not let them be diminished so easily for a thousand years.

This is an activation that transcends the plane on which we live and transports us into a brand new dimension. It is not a metaphorical shift. Reality has reasserted itself and thrust all of us into a dimension where everything that posed as truth has crumbled like a house of cards. The greatest purveyors of untruth have been revealed and they are those to whom we once turned for our gospel.
IMAGE: EMMA J STEPHENSInspiration aboundsThe lies have been exposed in a manner reminiscent of that old story ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ and suddenly everyone has witnessed that the power we gave to the emperor has been distorted and perverted. Our emperors have failed us and we will not permit them to continue to reign.

It is still not reported in what is called ‘mainstream media’. Because that channel of information has been revealed as the propaganda machine it has inexorably, inevitably become. We simply don’t believe them any more.

In our face-to-face connections we realise that we speak a different language than these purveyors of fear and threat. In our intimate relating we have emerged with a new comprehension of our partners, our children and our choices. We have begun to demand our lives back. We will no longer sell all of our daylight hours to the profit of a few.
AscensionSome call what is happening an ascension but there is much confusion about what ‘ascension’ means.

We are not about to vanish into thin air, catching the tail of a passing comet and leaving Mother Earth behind to fare for herself. This activation into ascension is implicitly right here, right now. And is empowered by every decision we make.

In our millions – billions – we are choosing new ways to engage with life with a sense of the divinity of each and every moment. Liberated by our renewed sense of awe and wonder. We have once again become the ‘children’ of this exquisite place, sensing and expressing from a place of childlike veneration. And that, ironically, is the key to our maturing into guardianship, stewardship and compassion for this living being we call Earth, as it whirls through this limitless creation.
The time is nowWe actually really are the ones we have been waiting for and we are here and now. It is a wild and prodigious privilege. And we are the emboldened souls who chose this moment so that we could bring our everything in full power.

There is absolutely nothing to fear. We’ve got this!
Eight plus years ago Peter walked away from ‘normal’ life, leaving behind his family, career, and friends to embark upon a personal walking pilgrimage.Peter is a writer, orator, MC, teacher, and student of the possibilities of life. He holds space for inner work with power and integrity, and facilitates mens’ work, group work, individual mentoring, relationship and sexual expansion practices. www.thevillagematrix.org.
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