The most important thing to do right now in these chaotic times is to take care of ourselves. This does not mean that we should trample on others to do so but that we must recognize our own ability to create abundance and practice that by taking care of ourself first. When we do so we feel powerful and satisfied and can more clearly see how to be of use to others if needed and wanted.
I have seen in the last few days a significant transformation of the Occupy Wall Street movement that may be very good for the spreading of the overall message of OWS. Good because the protesters are now forced to spread out, to find alternative places to protest and to push the message outside the park thus including more people who actually couldn’t even get in there anymore or didn’t really want to go in. In addition the inhumane actions of Mayor Bloomberg in raiding the camp at 1:00am and disrespectfully treating the people, their stuff, their donations and their animals as trash has incensed a lot of people creating more sympathizers. However, we now see too many young people sleeping around the streets of downtown, like the homeless, without enough clothing for the cold nights we are getting into now. I am planning to step up to the people’s open mic and ask them to please take care of themselves first. No one can save others from drowning in the tsunami of problems we all face as a country if they are drowning themselves.
Last night at the people’s mic – Soap Box there were a lot of complaints, injustice stories, inspiring encouragements and some crazy dudes but one woman who got us to sing with her was great. She pointed out in song that this is an awakening, this is an opening, this is love. She get’s it and I agree with her. However, we cannot recognize the blessings in anything when we feel completely unsupported and often grabbing support is necessary. Help will not necessarily just fall all over us.
As community, which was a very big point made many times last night at the people’s mic, we must be responsible for ourself first so that we can then be of great support to that community. From strength we can assist others to be strong.
Here are some more pictures from Zuccotti Park just as the 99% was permitted back into the park on Wednesday night. At the bottom are a few pictures of what Wall Street occupation looked like on Thursday when the protesters marched toward it. They never really got there it was already occupied by the police. There are many pictures of police because I was amazed to see lower Manhattan transformed into a police state. The protesters do not disturb me but the response to them definitely does. I am sorry that I didn’t take any pictures of the crowds of protestors pressing toward Wall Street from all corners a couple of blocks away. There were thousands. I did take pics of the tree people but for some reason only one of the pictures that I took came out.
Any way my principle message for the day is to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of each other. That is how we will know that Heaven is Here.