I felt like he was talking directly to me and he totally gave words/validation/purpose to this inexplicable drive I've had over the last several years to honor our connection to each other and the natural world in all aspects of my life, but most fervently through my art.
So when I listened to Rob's podcast, I just had one "aha" moment after another. He says, "The higher consciousness that we are all being called into is that we are all a body sharing this planet." This is exactly what I have been feeling for many years but haven't been able to put it into words. I've been driven to put it into art.
The big hit-me-upside-the-head "aha" moment was when he was talking about the general dis-ease we are all feeling right now with the state of the world and political climate and health of our planet as "waking up". He says, "Humanity is waking up to how we are deeply interdependent when it comes to caring for our earth, when it comes to justice for the poor..." Yes. Yes. Yes. I love the idea that we are waking up and that waking up can be really awkward and uncomfortable. This is the confusion/disorientation feeling that so many I know have been experiencing. But we are waking up. Coincidence that my word of the year is "Awakening"? I think not.
Waking up can be awkward, but it can also be awesome. - Rob Bell
The mess is the awakening. And the awakening is a beautiful thing. It's what needs to happen. I believe it is what we are being begged by the universe to do right now. And the dis-ease is a symptom of being on this path of awakening. This was so inspiring, so helpful and made me feel a deeper level of connection with the others in the body of our collective humanity - like you, and Rob Bell. ;-)