If Only My Life Had Mattered...

Sacred Activism - The Way to Live a No-Regrets Life towards a Happy Death

A study undertook to ask people on the point of death what their greatest regrets were. They did not speak of business opportunities missed, nor did they wish they’d spent more time at the office. Their greatest regrets were: 1) that they had not pursued their heart’s desire, but had surrendered to what was expected of them, 2) that they had not expressed their love more often to those they loved, and 3) that their lives, ultimately, had not mattered - that they had made no difference in the world.

If you are haunted by the fear that you are wasting your life, that the purpose for which you were born is now a fading ghost in your soul, or that in this great global crisis through which we are passing you may have an important role to play, gift to give, contribution to make, if only you could find it - then these offerings may shed helpful light on your path.

When I was twenty years old I took a course in German. One day the teacher, testing our vocabularies, asked us to say out loud, in German, the thing we feared most. I glanced at my English-to-German dictionary and said quietly, “Durchfallen.”

Failure. And the only failure, the only success that ultimately will matter to us in the moment of death will be about love and courage. Did we dare to pursue our heart’s desire? And did we have the guts to express love openly, unabashedly, and without fear.

Paolo Coelho, in his wonderful book, "The Alchemist," counsels one to "live your personal legend." Mine began when I decided to take the idea of Sacred Activism seriously. That could mean quite different quests for each of us: volunteering at an abused women's shelter, helping clean up your neighborhood, alleviating cruelty to animals - whatever cause (as Andrew Harvey tells us) breaks your heart...that is where your passion to serve can arise. Here are Andrew's words on this transformative dynamic:

"Sacred Activism is the fusion of the mystic's passion for God with the activist's passion for justice, creating a third fire, which is the burning sacred heart that longs to help, preserve, and nurture every living thing."

My life, so I have been told, is a rather astonishing story. When you're living it, you often feel like just another stumbling fool, struggling from crisis to crisis. But sometimes people will come up and tell you how much your stumbles inspired them. My passions and desires, gifts and skills, positioned me as a storyteller who stumbled upon an epic tale that might affect the entire world. I fell into delusions of grandeur, of course, but also climbed out of that pit rather briskly, and found some truths worth sharing.

So from a quiet urban monastery to the jungles of Indonesia, from the remote mountains of Colorado to a sacred cave in Portugal, these offerings will touch on wild hope for global healing, legends come to life, appalling greed, dazzling courage, and (best of all) applied sacred science that each of us may utilize one day at a time to make what difference we can in the birth crisis of a new world.

It is my hope and passion that the offerings I share here will inspire, inform, educate, and, yes, entertain those who are haunted (as I am) by the desire to make a difference, to be, perhaps, that one last quantum of Light, of courage, of love that tips the balance on our beloved Earth toward the divine Timeline of transformation, healing, and renewal.

So when we come to that moment when breath fades, the world darkens, and the sacred tunnel of Light appears, we can sing with Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha” -

And I know, if I’ll only be true to this glorious Quest

that my heart will lie peaceful and calm

when I’m laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,

that one man, scorned and covered with scars,

still strove with his last ounce of courage,

to reach the unreachable stars.

Loving bravely is the definition of glory.

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