My philosophy on how to change the world:

  1. Become part of the world you want to change, as deeply embedded as you can possibly be.
  2. Change yourself.

If you are truly part of that world, and you have changed -- then part of that world has just changed. And all the fabric of the world, the fabric that your choice to join and love that world has woven through you -- now it ripples and transforms with you.

It will hurt. That's what happens when you let yourself love something or someone. It will hurt. Joining sometimes requires piercing yourself over and over with thousands of tiny needles as the fabric weaves you in; stretch out your hands to take those needles, drive them deeper. It will hurt. Changing will stretch and tear you and the people you have come to love, and many of them will not understand. Many times, neither will you.

It won't be glorious, nor will it be quick, nor will it feel worthwhile most of the time. If someone sells you that, all you're doing is buying an experience that feels good. That isn't what you're here for.

If we want a better world to become enfleshed, then we must dwell as that presence ourselves, among the world that we are given. We must embody what that world can be. Each of us, lamps. Each of us, salt. Each of us tiny seeds, sowed and struggling into the earth, crackling through it, inching up towards the sun. The sprouts are often solitary, but the roots are interwoven.

That's how change works.