Sometimes when something is so right, you barely even notice it. It just flows, feels normal and natural. But this is when it's all too easy to take it for granted. Like love. Like good health. Like community. Like our living planet.
The American legal system rarely works so smoothly that complacency is guaranteed, or justified. When all goes swimmingly in a highly charged, controversial, high-stakes (just extinction, that's all) criminal case like the Lobster Boat Blockade Trial, it's kind of shocking, numbing and just swell, all at the same time. Maybe not a lot of people have had this experience, but I highly recommend it. Hopefully judicial smooth sailing will become more popular, even common, the new normal. A sea change. Photo of DA Sutter, credit: Peter Bowden
The American legal system rarely works so smoothly that complacency is guaranteed, or justified. When all goes swimmingly in a highly charged, controversial, high-stakes (just extinction, that's all) criminal case like the Lobster Boat Blockade Trial, it's kind of shocking, numbing and just swell, all at the same time. Maybe not a lot of people have had this experience, but I highly recommend it. Hopefully judicial smooth sailing will become more popular, even common, the new normal. A sea change. Photo of DA Sutter, credit: Peter Bowden
It doesn't just happen for wishing, though. It took weeks, months, years of work, interfaith prayers, volunteer effort, thoughtful messaging, local organizing and regional networking – preparing for the worst while hoping for the best – to create the conditions for the most righteous outcome for this case, which proved to be beyond our greatest expectations. All we can do is to create those conditions, set our intentions, act boldly and then let the magic work. And it worked.
(Click "Read More" below right to get to the really good part!)
A Boston Globe article written of the approaching trial suggested that a “sea change” in public consciousness and conversation could be unleashed by the results of this case. The pivotal point was the “necessity defense” which allows that it may be necessary at times to break the law in order to prevent greater harm.
Ken Ward and Jay O'Hara, whose boat the Henry David T blocked the coal ship Energy Enterprise (not kidding) from unloading 40,000 tons of Appalachian mountain top removal coal at the Brayton Point power plant in Fall River, Massachusetts, declared their action absolutely necessary because orthodox channels are ineffective in preventing the power plant from contributing New England's highest levels of emissions to the devastating global warming that's melting the polar ice caps, guaranteeing a ten-foot sea level rise. Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter not only dropped or reduced all charges against the activists, but came out of the courthouse to publicly state his support for them, citing the grave lack of political leadership on this great threat to the children of the future. I saw men, women, seasoned lawyers wiping their eyes, stifling sobs and weeping openly, streaming salt tears of the ocean mother.
Where quantum physics, ancient mystery teachings, religious justice traditions, Earth spirituality and social networking meet, there is the new normal, the current of energy gaining momentum with every wave of action, empowerment, awakening, ethical innovation, empathetic connection. The sea change in consciousness is a transformation from living vicariously in the past or the future to fully embracing the present moment, responding to reality instead of fantasy, moving powerfully from our divine selves instead of our egos, opening to understand each other's intentions beyond words, accepting our identity as co-creators of our world.
We are now bridging perceived gaps between defense and prosecution, faith groups and secular non-profits, individual convictions and community actions, expanding from Generations X, Y and Z to intergenerational partnerships, ultimately partnering with the Earth Herself. We must no longer fight for control of the planet's resources as though She is a passive player – as women, children and lower-ranking men are exploited as objects in a patriarchal system. We're joining forces to humbly protect what ecosystems, wisdom and habitat remain, not for ourselves alone but for future generations, should they be so questionably fortunate to exist. We're not asking Gaia to help and forgive us. We are crying, “Yes!” to Her resounding call to us to grow up and get to work.
The sea change was foretold in prescient ripples at the Our Children, Climate, Faith symposium just before this moon was new, in the hills of Strafford, Vermont. National and international speakers joined local faith and community leaders to create a sacred space so deep and broad that people from every tradition and solitary path were welcomed in creating a shared Earth altar and interfaith Earth communion. Both inner and outer transformation and action were the intended results of the weekend and virtually no one was unmoved. Tim deChristopher introduced the Lobster Boat Blockade to many Vermonters and others attending that event, with the happy result that a sizable Green Mountain contingent spontaneously convened in Fall River to witness this profound moment.
From harbor to pulpit to courtroom, the energy is cascading now more deeply and joyfully, more desperately and creatively than ever, wave upon wave. This is a day of celebration, no matter how bad we know things are. This moment in history is happening, a step that has been taken and cannot be undone. The sea change has come.
Now we gather the beached wreckage of bygone eras and make a beautiful, soulful recycled sculpture garden out of the great and terrible civilization that is our home. As we mourn the losses of species. As we grieve the extinctions of languages and cultures and ancient traditions. As we literally bury those who do not survive and try to heal and nurture those who do. As we cultivate and celebrate the renewal and conscious evolution of ourselves. This is the Great Work.
It's time to reevaluate all our goals, beliefs and practices in the light of this Great Work. Does everything we do serve to accomplish the best intentions for ourselves, for humanity, for the planet? Are all our choices in alignment with our ethics, our dedications, our abilities and our purpose?
That promotion we're working for, the monthly payments, institutional education, oppressive relationships – are they worth the devotion of our life energy? Perhaps in some cases, yes, we are on a path to healing and empowerment: if we educate children in a way that preserves their natural love of wilderness; we practice natural health care; steward a small, diversified organic farm; staff a crisis hotline; create sustainable alternatives to polluting technologies; study Permaculture and interfaith ministry – yet there is still more we can do. For some the sea change is a calling to a new way of life, a move to a new location, vocation or creative project, path of learning, spiritual practice, community membership.
It's more than just information, awareness, enlightenment, more than reaction. It's the alchemical combination of ethics, conviction, action, holistic alignment, empowerment, engagement. It's not accomplished by control, force, aggression or defense. It's living from deepest beliefs, moral promptings and spiritual dedication, using the vast intellectual and social resources of our time to expand our awareness to the really big picture. At least as big as the whole world.
What resources can we reclaim to do this work? What skill sets does this work actually require of us? How can we build the bridges to a vision of the emerging moment that is realistic and optimistic, deadly serious and joyful, modest and empowered?
We carry the lines from the old shores of the past in our hands. Let us choose carefully those that we will hold fast on our journey and offer to the future. The sea change will bear us to our chosen destination. And as we arrive, we establish firm foundations to support the bridges that many others will cross if they choose to do so. The way is open and any may travel there but it must be chosen, undertaken and completed if it is to be successful; and much and many will likely remain behind.
All who participated in the actions and the legal proceedings, the potlucks and tweets that established the Lobster Boat Blockade as a successful precedent in Earth activism have fastened those historic lines of protest against injustice, sacrifice for the common good, creative expression for deeper impact, nonviolent action and community outreach to a new political and cultural shore. On that shore now grows a new seedling of hope, the strong, slender trunk planted by a circle of friends, allies, colleagues, advisors and supporters with roots firmly grounded in the ancient (for the U.S.) New England Quaker, Universalist and other justice traditions and their Old World ancestors, and with spiritual branches reaching out through various religions congregations and intertwining with the twigs and leaves of non-profits and other community organizations to both hold us steady and grow toward the light.
While I flinch slightly at using the metaphor of building (as in bridges) in context of the human artifice that threatens our own habitat as the built environment supersedes the natural one, I am heartened by the Permaculture teaching Starhawk shares that tells a new story of humans living in cooperative partnership with Earth and Her creatures, adding our own touches of beauty to the already exquisite tapestry of original and recovering ecosystems. We don't need to think of ourselves as a blight on the planet, one that would better be eradicated. Our technology does not have to be dedicated to destruction and exploitation. It's not the technology that makes us human, it's co-creative ethical choice.
So let's not think just of vast steel and concrete expanses carrying commuters from bedroom communities to urban professional districts and back again to mindlessly consume and be barely entertained or even distracted. Imagine anew an organic and artistic structure rising and arching gracefully out of the land honoring the living beings who call the place home. We are indeed a keystone species in the rainbow bridge of all life, all consciousness.
Yet everything we can muster may not be enough. We're not saving the planet. Salvation is no longer the operative belief system here. There's nothing to save ourselves from except our own choices. We are the enemy if we choose to be, the saviors if we choose to be, but the time for that is past. We are shifting from a system of judgment, reward and punishment to one of natural and spiritual laws and consequences in which we consciously and creatively participate. We need simply to be fully human, and awaken to our ability to manifest our intentions to heal, to learn, to live in compassion, to be resilient, to create communities in harmony with the land and with one another.
Don't worry, sports fans and armchair generals, the skirmishes will come – plenty of them, I wager. This graceful and peaceful victory is not expected to be replicated in every courtroom, and of course contrasts tragically, brutally with the violent abuse of peaceful protesters in Ferguson, Missouri and around the world. More Earth activists will be arrested; some are already entangled in legal proceedings, some have been convicted and served their time and now serve as mentors for others called to the front lines.
This is nothing new in the quest for democratic freedom and justice, yet there is progress. The tide is turning in support of ethical activists as representatives of the people who are not being honestly represented by elected officials. Evolving models of mutually empowering leadership emerge as vessels in this wake that carry us to the shores we manifest ahead as we paddle on.
We can all use the momentum of this sea change to begin the transformation that is washing over us even now. There is simply no time to lose in shifting with this turning tide or we will literally, collectively, be swept away in the deluge. We can ask the residents of flooding Arizona and Virgina about this today. Climate change affects the world's poor disproportionately, but not exclusively. None of us is immune, regardless of current privilege.
And as this full moon darkens, on the cusp of Autumn Equinox, we will witness the largest climate march in history as DA Sam Sutter, who proclaimed this great sea change in Fall River, and hundreds of thousands of others fill the streets of New York City with a message to the United Nations and the world. The whole world is watching! The whole world is warming! We are one world. And we welcome the sea change.
For more background and up-to-date coverage on the Lobster Boat Blockade visit www.lobsterboatblockade.org and
Lobster Boat Blockade Trial on Facebook.
Ken Ward and Jay O'Hara, whose boat the Henry David T blocked the coal ship Energy Enterprise (not kidding) from unloading 40,000 tons of Appalachian mountain top removal coal at the Brayton Point power plant in Fall River, Massachusetts, declared their action absolutely necessary because orthodox channels are ineffective in preventing the power plant from contributing New England's highest levels of emissions to the devastating global warming that's melting the polar ice caps, guaranteeing a ten-foot sea level rise. Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter not only dropped or reduced all charges against the activists, but came out of the courthouse to publicly state his support for them, citing the grave lack of political leadership on this great threat to the children of the future. I saw men, women, seasoned lawyers wiping their eyes, stifling sobs and weeping openly, streaming salt tears of the ocean mother.
Where quantum physics, ancient mystery teachings, religious justice traditions, Earth spirituality and social networking meet, there is the new normal, the current of energy gaining momentum with every wave of action, empowerment, awakening, ethical innovation, empathetic connection. The sea change in consciousness is a transformation from living vicariously in the past or the future to fully embracing the present moment, responding to reality instead of fantasy, moving powerfully from our divine selves instead of our egos, opening to understand each other's intentions beyond words, accepting our identity as co-creators of our world.
We are now bridging perceived gaps between defense and prosecution, faith groups and secular non-profits, individual convictions and community actions, expanding from Generations X, Y and Z to intergenerational partnerships, ultimately partnering with the Earth Herself. We must no longer fight for control of the planet's resources as though She is a passive player – as women, children and lower-ranking men are exploited as objects in a patriarchal system. We're joining forces to humbly protect what ecosystems, wisdom and habitat remain, not for ourselves alone but for future generations, should they be so questionably fortunate to exist. We're not asking Gaia to help and forgive us. We are crying, “Yes!” to Her resounding call to us to grow up and get to work.
The sea change was foretold in prescient ripples at the Our Children, Climate, Faith symposium just before this moon was new, in the hills of Strafford, Vermont. National and international speakers joined local faith and community leaders to create a sacred space so deep and broad that people from every tradition and solitary path were welcomed in creating a shared Earth altar and interfaith Earth communion. Both inner and outer transformation and action were the intended results of the weekend and virtually no one was unmoved. Tim deChristopher introduced the Lobster Boat Blockade to many Vermonters and others attending that event, with the happy result that a sizable Green Mountain contingent spontaneously convened in Fall River to witness this profound moment.
From harbor to pulpit to courtroom, the energy is cascading now more deeply and joyfully, more desperately and creatively than ever, wave upon wave. This is a day of celebration, no matter how bad we know things are. This moment in history is happening, a step that has been taken and cannot be undone. The sea change has come.
Now we gather the beached wreckage of bygone eras and make a beautiful, soulful recycled sculpture garden out of the great and terrible civilization that is our home. As we mourn the losses of species. As we grieve the extinctions of languages and cultures and ancient traditions. As we literally bury those who do not survive and try to heal and nurture those who do. As we cultivate and celebrate the renewal and conscious evolution of ourselves. This is the Great Work.
It's time to reevaluate all our goals, beliefs and practices in the light of this Great Work. Does everything we do serve to accomplish the best intentions for ourselves, for humanity, for the planet? Are all our choices in alignment with our ethics, our dedications, our abilities and our purpose?
That promotion we're working for, the monthly payments, institutional education, oppressive relationships – are they worth the devotion of our life energy? Perhaps in some cases, yes, we are on a path to healing and empowerment: if we educate children in a way that preserves their natural love of wilderness; we practice natural health care; steward a small, diversified organic farm; staff a crisis hotline; create sustainable alternatives to polluting technologies; study Permaculture and interfaith ministry – yet there is still more we can do. For some the sea change is a calling to a new way of life, a move to a new location, vocation or creative project, path of learning, spiritual practice, community membership.
It's more than just information, awareness, enlightenment, more than reaction. It's the alchemical combination of ethics, conviction, action, holistic alignment, empowerment, engagement. It's not accomplished by control, force, aggression or defense. It's living from deepest beliefs, moral promptings and spiritual dedication, using the vast intellectual and social resources of our time to expand our awareness to the really big picture. At least as big as the whole world.
What resources can we reclaim to do this work? What skill sets does this work actually require of us? How can we build the bridges to a vision of the emerging moment that is realistic and optimistic, deadly serious and joyful, modest and empowered?
We carry the lines from the old shores of the past in our hands. Let us choose carefully those that we will hold fast on our journey and offer to the future. The sea change will bear us to our chosen destination. And as we arrive, we establish firm foundations to support the bridges that many others will cross if they choose to do so. The way is open and any may travel there but it must be chosen, undertaken and completed if it is to be successful; and much and many will likely remain behind.
All who participated in the actions and the legal proceedings, the potlucks and tweets that established the Lobster Boat Blockade as a successful precedent in Earth activism have fastened those historic lines of protest against injustice, sacrifice for the common good, creative expression for deeper impact, nonviolent action and community outreach to a new political and cultural shore. On that shore now grows a new seedling of hope, the strong, slender trunk planted by a circle of friends, allies, colleagues, advisors and supporters with roots firmly grounded in the ancient (for the U.S.) New England Quaker, Universalist and other justice traditions and their Old World ancestors, and with spiritual branches reaching out through various religions congregations and intertwining with the twigs and leaves of non-profits and other community organizations to both hold us steady and grow toward the light.
While I flinch slightly at using the metaphor of building (as in bridges) in context of the human artifice that threatens our own habitat as the built environment supersedes the natural one, I am heartened by the Permaculture teaching Starhawk shares that tells a new story of humans living in cooperative partnership with Earth and Her creatures, adding our own touches of beauty to the already exquisite tapestry of original and recovering ecosystems. We don't need to think of ourselves as a blight on the planet, one that would better be eradicated. Our technology does not have to be dedicated to destruction and exploitation. It's not the technology that makes us human, it's co-creative ethical choice.
So let's not think just of vast steel and concrete expanses carrying commuters from bedroom communities to urban professional districts and back again to mindlessly consume and be barely entertained or even distracted. Imagine anew an organic and artistic structure rising and arching gracefully out of the land honoring the living beings who call the place home. We are indeed a keystone species in the rainbow bridge of all life, all consciousness.
Yet everything we can muster may not be enough. We're not saving the planet. Salvation is no longer the operative belief system here. There's nothing to save ourselves from except our own choices. We are the enemy if we choose to be, the saviors if we choose to be, but the time for that is past. We are shifting from a system of judgment, reward and punishment to one of natural and spiritual laws and consequences in which we consciously and creatively participate. We need simply to be fully human, and awaken to our ability to manifest our intentions to heal, to learn, to live in compassion, to be resilient, to create communities in harmony with the land and with one another.
Don't worry, sports fans and armchair generals, the skirmishes will come – plenty of them, I wager. This graceful and peaceful victory is not expected to be replicated in every courtroom, and of course contrasts tragically, brutally with the violent abuse of peaceful protesters in Ferguson, Missouri and around the world. More Earth activists will be arrested; some are already entangled in legal proceedings, some have been convicted and served their time and now serve as mentors for others called to the front lines.
This is nothing new in the quest for democratic freedom and justice, yet there is progress. The tide is turning in support of ethical activists as representatives of the people who are not being honestly represented by elected officials. Evolving models of mutually empowering leadership emerge as vessels in this wake that carry us to the shores we manifest ahead as we paddle on.
We can all use the momentum of this sea change to begin the transformation that is washing over us even now. There is simply no time to lose in shifting with this turning tide or we will literally, collectively, be swept away in the deluge. We can ask the residents of flooding Arizona and Virgina about this today. Climate change affects the world's poor disproportionately, but not exclusively. None of us is immune, regardless of current privilege.
And as this full moon darkens, on the cusp of Autumn Equinox, we will witness the largest climate march in history as DA Sam Sutter, who proclaimed this great sea change in Fall River, and hundreds of thousands of others fill the streets of New York City with a message to the United Nations and the world. The whole world is watching! The whole world is warming! We are one world. And we welcome the sea change.
For more background and up-to-date coverage on the Lobster Boat Blockade visit www.lobsterboatblockade.org and
Lobster Boat Blockade Trial on Facebook.