The Wakeful

I read this fantastic article earlier and I really loved her opening line about harnessing the energy of those who are awake rather than trying to wake those who are asleep. 

I hear a lot of people say we have to wake people up... convince them of the urgency of this moment... make them realize that the planet is headed for disaster!  But I don't see it that way. Anybody who needs to be woken up at this point is so deeply asleep that they're not the target audience for global activism. We don't need to wake the sleeping so much as we need to harness the energy of those who are already awake. Enough people know we're in trouble; what they want to know is what to do about it.

So true.  We have to learn to build on strengths rathen than focus on weaknesses, and though it may sound harsh to say, sometimes that means focusing our energy on people who want to be active agents in social change rather than chasing those who are content to carry on as passive recipients of things that just happen to them, around them, etc.

Great article over on Engendering Equality too, quoting another excerpt from Marianne Williamson's piece.