We are the One We’ve been Waiting For
By Christa A. Lamb

SPOTLIGHT DEDICATED TO ALL OF US

MY DISCOVERY OF OCCUPY BOSTON

The first time I was exposed to Occupy Boston was on Saturday October 15, 2011. A few friends and I went to a rally that started at the corner of Park Street in the Commons and ended at Dewey Square near South Station. Prior to this what I knew of the Occupy movement I had seen on television or read about online. I was intrigued to say the least.

I brought my camera for this event. I was excited about the potential of what I could capture. It had been a long time since I had been out shooting photography and I was ready. It’s one of my favorite activities because I am able to absorb myself in the energy of the moment. I love how the camera communicates the emotions, feelings, scene, and freezes it in frame for a lifetime. In my opinion, this day was history in the making and being an artist at heart this was my moment to capture it.

I watched as the crowd grew and soon we were marching. I kept a check on my friends while I jumped around from place to place within the march. I continued to snap away as the crowd snaked through the streets of the city. I witnessed a plethora of people. It stood out to me. I saw young and old, and an earth tone of people standing arm in arm as one race, and speaking out with one voice. The message was clear. It was about unity, oneness, and coming together to end the cycle of greed and violence. It was about our future. Our world. And our planet.

Being a spiritual person, I couldn’t ignore the chills that ran through me. The hairs on my arms would rise up as if to say “we stand with you”. It was as if every cell in my body was one with the greater consciousness of this movement. It was a positive energy. And in that moment I was one with the 99%. I felt a conscious need to capture their story because their story was my story. This is how we come together. Not through force, but through inclusion, through the power of unity. I felt included.

When we arrived at our destination at Dewy Square, I stood listening as one speaker after another gave voice to the movement. I watched the wave of twinkling fingers move across the audience in approval of what was being said. It was clear the people had awoken and they were not going to fall asleep again. This excited me even more because I had waited for this moment a long time. I didn’t understand how people couldn’t see the gap between rich and poor was no longer a crack in the road but a huge crevasse in the fracturing ice of existence. We were melting in greed and it was only a matter of time before that hole in humanity’s heart would pull us down and we’d be lost in darkness forever. I saw this day as I day my hope in humanity was reestablished and I found my people. From that point on I identified as the 99%.

After the speakers finished up, I took a stroll through Tent City. I kept camera to eye and captured everything I saw. It was surreal. I always felt like I was in the wrong generation, but it was this day that I realized I am exactly where I’m meant to be. I just had to wait for the awakening to begin. Walking a long a crated street titled “Main Street” I knew I was home. I didn’t have to pitch a tent and sleep in Tent City to be home. I just had to feel the moment and let the message of oneness occupy my heart and mind. I was moved to action. But what would my actions be?

Tent City is where I met a guy named Marty. Now, anyone who knows me, knows the Universal One Healing website is the heart and soul of my life’s journey. I have long since given up worldly purpose for a spiritual one. With the site only being months old I was looking for others to share this message of a unified one and grow the vision and purpose of the site. I believe the message of awakening the higher purpose and consciousness of humanity is ready to be heard. I felt this message as I walked through the campsite and saw the “Sacred Space” tent. I was drawn to it, but my nervous nature caused me to lap around it a few times gathering up the courage to inquire about the tent. I didn’t have a moment where I decided I wanted to feature this tent on the Universal One. Instantaneously, I just knew I would. This was my first action for the movement.

I finally walked up to this kind looking young guy with a distinct scarf pulling his hair back out of his face. He introduced himself as Marty and I began to tell him about the site and how I would like to interview someone concerning it. He was excited to share and educate me on what this space was all about. So with a few phone calls back and forth to schedule a time, I found myself sitting in the Sacred Space on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. Barefoot with tape recorder in hand, I was ready to hear Marty’s story and learn more about this space.

MARTY’S STORY/ THE SACRED SPACE/OCCUPY MOVEMENT

It was a very peaceful experience inside the tent. There was an altar with an assortment of sacred items. It was clear this is a space where Buddha and Christ are friends. And gathering the wisdom of the ancestors, a shaman could journey to drum beats and tribal rhythm. All are welcome whether Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, anyone. The only requirement, respect the beliefs of your brothers and sisters within the tent.

On this day there were about a handful of people in the tent sitting on the blankets layered beneath them. As I got situated, I took note of an Indian man in meditation. One other guy was napping. I was informed by Marty, this guy had been up all night and needed some sleep. It was not customary to let people use the space for sleeping during the day time so that the space could be used for classes, workshops, prayer, etc. But the group agreed it was okay for him to have his nap. I love the idea of nothing being absolute and everything within reason. The welfare of one is considered in considering the welfare of all.

As I got the tape recorder ready, Marty wanted to read to me the introduction to the group’s Wiki Page. He thought it would give insight into the message of the group –and it did! They believe it is essential to have a sacred space on all occupy sites in order to keep the movement, “rooted in a place of love and compassion.” And I couldn’t agree more. They believe with all the intense emotions that can be so easily sparked by the passion and fervor to make change, having a place to decompress and ground the negative feelings is important. A sacred space is the heartbeat of healing and cohesion within the movement.

I believe Marty knows this truth well. After talking with him, it is clear that he has found his sacred space within. And having an understanding of all things essentially being entangled and interconnected, it is important that not only do we as humans need to discover this space within, we need to discover it through out.

From the very first general assembly, Marty was a dedicated catalyst to the formation of the Sacred Space. He took it upon himself to begin the process of creating it and before he knew it he was getting help from all sorts of people.

He says one of his favorite aspects of the movement is, “If you have an idea, and it’s a good idea, you can just start it and people will help if they can.”

And with the group only being a few months old and already having 206 members on its Facebook page it is clear the group is only going to grow.

Marty believes the Occupy Movement is a whole part of a larger movement, or rather a shifting of consciousness away from an old way of being and into a more enlightened way of being. This isn’t a new thought, but rather an old belief foretold by the ancient mystics. Only now, we are able to see their perspective through greater understanding.

As Marty stated in our interview, “We’re at a point where we can merge what we’ve learned from the scientific revolution with the wisdom of mysticism and indigenous people.”

Marty considers himself a “Philosophical Anarchist” He says, “We need to respect life and restore relationships in all of this, not just tear the system down and leave a vacuum.”

This is why it is important to ground the movement in the spiritual, not just the physical realities of life. As I came to find out in our interview, Marty and I share a similar belief in that we both belief we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Or as I see it, “When we embrace our higher consciousness in love and unity with all life, it allows the earth to have a spiritual experience.” In a very real way, we are the conscious thread between the physical and spiritual.

Marty is a kindred spirit on a similar, yet very distinct journey from me. We are both here to bring awareness, inspire, make change, elevate the human consciousness, but our road toward doing it are very different.

He went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute for Biotech Engineering until he had an “ethical explosion” while there. He began to realize that these people whom he admired as great scientists didn’t really know what they were doing. As he put it, “They were swinging around blindly at the environment in order to see what they could get from and make out of it.”

After this realization he started working with the Worcester Roots Project and then went to Ecuador to learn about “inter-species alliance” which simply put is the use of plants and fungus to draw toxins out of the earth. He’s on a path to co-create solutions, work toward re-invigorating the soil, and currently he’s feeling the push to dig in and grow his own food. He has a passion for biomimicry and wants to experiment with it.

This passion for the earth is deep rooted in him. From a young age he learned about recycling and confronted his mother on why they weren’t recycling. But on a more spiritual level, it goes deeper for Marty, he says “We are the earth becoming conscious of itself, I’m acting as part of that.” He doesn’t just want to save the earth. His truth is that he is the earth. This is a wonderful way of seeing life. By healing the earth, he is healing himself. And by healing himself, he is healing the earth. So through a mass conscious awakening we have the potential to heal most owounds we have inflicted on this planet and ourselves.

For now Marty finds himself within the Occupy Movement making change. Where his journey will take him? Only the spirit of life knows, but I’m sure this is fine with Marty.

At the end of our interview, I asked to take a picture for the website. I didn’t want to use flash and without the ability to set up a tripod I had to hold the camera very still. I ended up taking a handful of pictures and as I went through them, I noticed the shifting on Marty’s face. He isn’t one to search out approval or be in the spotlight, but he’ll put himself there if it means getting the greater message across. I admire this about him.

The interview came to an end and they went right into their meeting, which I was able to sit in on. And I learned about a wonderfully unique aspect of the Occupy Movement, it is a leaderless movement. There are no formal leaders. Everything is agreed upon through consensus. For example, the Faith and Spirituality Group has daily meetings in which proposals are presented. Everyone in the group discusses the proposals and at the end of the meeting if the proposals still stand then a representative from the group brings it up at the general assembly. Everything must be agreed on. The Occupy Movement operates as a working democracy. All groups are working groups and all working groups elect representatives to speak for them at the general assembly. This is how the movement functions. It is democracy in action.

I learned a lot about myself, Marty, the Occupy Movement, but I realized that this Spotlight isn’t about any of it. I can’t make this Spotlight about one person or movement because that would indicate I didn’t learn anything. This isn’t about one person. This is about many souls. This isn’t about Marty’s journey or mine, but our collective journey. This isn’t about the Occupy Movement, but about the shifting of old to new.

This Spotlight is about demonstrating how we don’t need leaders to show us the way, we need love and compassion to guide our collective way. So I am dedicating this spotlight to EVERYONE who is ready and desires to make change. Don’t wait for the change to come to you, create change in your life and the opportunity for more change will grow from the changes you create.

This Spotlight honors Marty’s belief. We are waking up and this is why we are this month’s spotlight healer.

We are the One We’ve been Waiting For.

And please join the Occupy Boston Faith and Spirituality Group on the Universal One.

Help make positive change!
Occupy Boston Faith and Spirituality Group