I'm Pollyanna, Nice to Meet You

I talk a lot about my "inner Pollyanna" here on this blog, in the hopes that you've all seen that movie. If not, you probably know what I'm referring to. I have an unstoppable optimist inside. She's not always active, as we can say about most of our "parts", but she's always there. It's the part of me that believes we can do everything we dream. She absolutely refuses to believe that "this is the way it is, this is the way it's always been, and this is the way it must continue to be...". Nope. Polly thinks that's lazy and a cop-out.

What Polly really believes in is the power of intention. She believes in each and every one of us doing our best. I love to harp on consensus reality so I'm going to touch on that again. In principle, it says that reality is what it is because we all agree- by consensus. It's the biggest sense of "life is what you make of it". Think about that statement. If life is what we make of it, why not make something different, better? Why not let our imaginations run to wild and wonderfully healthy places?

So many people feel like I do, I'm learning slowly. We don't believe in war. We don't think life should be lived for money. We believe in love as a verb, as a way to live. We believe in the ability of each of us to make the planet a better place to be.

I believe in a future that's so different from what we've been led to believe as possible. I believe in not fearing one another. I believe in a world where a woman can walk down any street alone at any time of the day or night and have nothing to fear. I believe in a world where we realize that we are all brothers and sisters, that we're all connected. I believe in a world-wide culture that includes everyone, where we love each person without needing to know anything about them. I believe in giving help to others because they need it, not because we think we might need help in the future. I believe we could come to a point of not-needing, of everyone having enough. I believe that even thought the state of the world is so far from this now, it wouldn't be that hard to bring us here. I believe that deep down, every person wants this. We all want to feel seen and to be heard. We all want to feel loved and feel "good". We are constantly creating strife for ourselves as we struggle against and through the systems we've created to "keep things in-line." If we work on trust, we could drop our defenses and give every person the means to do their best, to grow without fear into a world that welcomes and loves every one for who they are.

If you think this is naive, you are holding us up!

This is Alanis Morissette with Pollyanna's theme song, "Utopia":




We'd gather around
All in a room
Fasten our belts
Engage in dialogue
We'd all slow down
Rest without guilt
Not lie without fear
Disagree sans judgement

We would stay and respond and expand and include and allow and forgive and
enjoy and evolve and discern and inquire and accept and admit and divulge and open and reach out and speak up

This is utopia
This is my utopia
This is my ideal
My end in sight
Utopia
This is my utopia
This is my nirvana
My ultimate

We'd open our arms
We'd all jump in
We'd all coast down
Into safety nets

We would share and listen and support and welcome
Be propelled by passion, not invest in outcomes
We would breathe and be charmed and amused by difference
Be gentle and make room for every emotion

This is utopia
This is my utopia
This is my ideal
My end in sight
Utopia
This is my utopia
This is my nirvana
My ultimate

We'd provide forums
We'd all speak out
We'd all be heard
We'd all feel seen

We'd rise post-obstacle, more defined, more grateful
We would heal, be humbled, and be unstoppable
We'd hold close and let go and know when to do which
We'd release and disarm and stand up and feel safe

This is utopia
This is my utopia
This is my ideal
My end in sight
Utopia
This is my utopia
This is my nirvana
My ultimate

Being an Aquarian

Why I'm a Witch

   I remember reading that one of the usual qualities of Aquarians is that we are aloof and can be cold and dis-connected.  I wanted to say, "No, that's not me!", but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it can be very true.  It seems that my subconscious has the ability to withdraw and cut-off from any situation that starts to feel dangerous - especially emotionally.  I've been aware of that for several years and I think I've found a flip-side to that coin.  I can clam-up quickly in a protective fashion when dealing with personal things, but when it comes to the interactions of the whole world, of humanity as a whole, I am utterly bare nerves.  

   Ani DiFranco has a poem called Self Evident which is about the 9/11 tragedy.  Every Single Time I listen to that poem I break down.  It's almost as if I feel every bit of sorrow and horror that accompanied that day, along with all the pain and fear we have felt about it since.  There's this open channel that allows the pain of Everyone to come through my heart, and perhaps it's a type of healing.  Perhaps, as these things are felt and worked through by individuals, the collective consciousness heals a little each time.   

    I'm not sure what this means in my life yet, but if I can be of service by helping to transcend pain, I'm more than up for it.  I was also thinking about the way we tend to try and define ourselves, how we look for what makes us "stand out" from the rest.  What if we thought, instead, about what part of the whole we are?  We're certainly all individuals and very unique, but that shouldn't make us feel separate.  

   For me, working with the Craft has shown me a multitude of ways to connect, to remember to be humble and to work towards healing things NOW, HERE, on THIS EARTH.  I'm not here to try and appease or impress some far off idea of Deity, I'm here to help co-create a world like we've never even imagined. Here, now, in this life.   I believe in peace and love and brother/sister hood.  I believe in ONE, in ALL.  I believe in the potential of each and every one of us to do something great that will, in some way, help all the rest.  I have been fortunate enough to learn the way to commune with nature, with Deity in a way that feels personal.  It is possible to make these changes.  When people say that intention is powerful and that thoughts are things, these are not concepts to be taken lightly!  We are literally making the world we're living in.  It's called 'consensus reality' because, by consensus, we've agreed to this.  Then we wonder why there is suffering, war, hate, rape, hunger,  why there are so many have-nots.   It's because we've grown up here and we've let ourselves believe that this is the way it is and it's too difficult to change.  We feel powerless.  We think it will take too long, there are too many things in the way, we're too small to affect change.  (At least, these are the things I feel weighed-down by in less optimistic moments.)  That belief is a part of consensus reality, ironically.  So we believe that this is the way it is and we believe that we are powerless to change it.  

   I urge anyone who feels dis-content at the state of the world to learn more about the power of thought, intention, the Law of Attraction, The Secret... whatever label you choose, this principle is available in many forms through many traditions.  And believe it or not, this is "magic".  These are the principles used by witches for centuries to help us through our lives.  

  Consider that 500 years ago, someone who saw a light-bulb or a car or an airplane would surely have thought it was magic.  They had absolutely no explanation of or experience with that type of thing.  Now think about our future.  If we decide, it could be a place where we can clean up a gulf with focused intention.  Where crime and hate are in history books.  Where we are capable of things we can't even imagine right now.  We're here at a pivotal time in human history and it's impossible to ignore that.  I have faith in the light that we each carry within us.  I know that our species is very tarnished with greed and plagued by tunnel-vision, but once these tendencies are shaken loose, there is no limit to the things we will be able to do!

I've never heard this version of the poem, it's much more musical, which makes it a little easier to listen to.