Today was my first time moderating an Awakin Call -- an amazing experience.  Our guest was Gwen Austin, who has been a long-time advocate for the homeless population.

Gwen Austin's life is a living chalice in action towards the flames of true transformation. Her early story and aha moment where she realized she was being called by something greater than herself or her own ideas of what she thought she was supposed to do and her willingness to follow that inward call into the outward realm, is extraordinary. What was most evident to me today in sharing space with her and everyone on the Awakin Call was the truth that everyone has a right to be heard and seen, and in fact, there are wisdoms and gems residing with the lives of all of us, whether we fit social castings or not. The importance of presence and deeply hearing the signals beyond the verbal, the fact that our lives have stories much beyond our current predicaments, and that as both home-less or home-free and those with shelter we all have something in our lives that also informs what we might have unique to gift back to our beloved community. Self-sufficiency and the paradigm of what that means and requires was lost somewhere along the road of hyper-industrialization and is now in this critical moment in our world circling back to a realisation of our interconnection and shared responsibility. We are moving from "I" to "We", from isolation to unity, from profit to human worth, from limited centrisms to those that signify the latest scientifically proven truths--that we are united--and unique simultaneously, as we journey this earth together.

To truly support each other we have to both believe and act in ways that go to root cause and core of our greatest challenges. We not only must take the time to teach a being how to fish, but also to eradicate the tendencies to throw away those who don't yet know how to fish, and see beings as lights of equal importance, instead of lesser for the verdant and often atrocious pain they've endured that has landed them in the moment we call "homeless" or "offender" or "mentally ill". As Gwen said today, reminiscent of Dalai Lama, change takes time -- but the very movement in the direction of change cultivated from within our beings at the level of unity and humility, deep listening and willingness -- means something. Significant.

Thank you so much for sharing space today, and for the opportunity to be of service.