What is my activism really about? To love, serve and remember | tim hjersted

What is my activism really about? To love, serve and remember | tim hjersted


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Focusing on media activism, it is quite easy to get swept up in promoting a thousand different messages, leaving me sometimes feeling like I've gotten off track with my core message and


purpose. What am I doing here? Why am I here? The answer is in an old Sufi song I learned as a child, "What are we here for? To love, serve and remember." Remember what? That we


are all family. That you are because I am. That what is sacred in me is sacred in you. And that sacredness pervades the cosmos, if we choose to see it.* Reverence and awe for the world is


our choice to make. We can see that beauty, and live that life, or we can choose not to see it, and live without that beauty. Look at your lover this way today. See the sacred in her. See


the sacred in him. When you see it in them, see it in your family and your friends. Then, start looking for it in people you see at the grocery store and on the street. Then see it in all of


the animal creatures in your life. See it in the trees and plants that grow outside your house. See life in everything, truly be present to its nature and vibrational energy. Each person in


the world is family - caught with us amid the "splendour and travail of the earth." When we see the sacred in every person, we can see that those who cause others to suffer are


also suffering and have been deeply wounded by this culture since they were born. Every child is born with love in their hearts. The child does not know that we are not all family until they


are taught so. This is how we forget. Our culture teaches us to forget. Our culture teaches us who to love and who not to love. It is a very small circle of people. But that circle is


growing bigger for more and more people each day. More and more people are remembering that our family is life itself. That is the core message I am trying to spread with my activism. From


this revolution of the heart flowers every other revolution. Sexism, racism, environmental destruction, poverty and war are not possible when true love is there. True love dissolves


illusion. True love shatters prejudice and malice. True love liberates both the child and the adult from centuries of our inherited suffering. It is the revolution we need most desperately


to save every 5 year old child from the suffering they will inherit if we do not vow to ensure that every toxic cultural legacy of our culture ends with us. ------------------------- *I


define sacred as something having intrinsic worth and value, so for me the word connects with me on both a secular and spiritual level. In a scientific sense that value may be entirely


subjective, but I'm okay with that. For me, it's a choice to see the sacred in life. I can choose to see that beauty, or not see it. _Tim Hjersted is the director and co-founder of


Films For Action._ This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License Activism   Philosophy   The Big Picture   Transition   War & Peace