The perfect scream

I was sitting chatting with a friend over a chai latte on Saturday (mmm hmmm.... ) and found myself gazing at the crowd in front of me (we were sitting outside, in a small square).I felt tenderness for each woman, man and child. But today there was something different about the way I was seeing things. Today I seemed to be seeing each person straight, without the help of the rather powerful rose-tinted lenses with which I often choose to view the world. And suddenly, it hit me right between the eyes what a different world I lived in from some of them, from an inner 'awareness' point of view at least.I was struck with an immense sadness - and a deep loneliness. And along with this a deep sense of responsibility. And in that moment I saw the awesome amount of work humanity needs to do, both individually and collectively, to wake up fully and build the new world I see in my inner eye; to begin to live from a place of authentic co-creation and flow. I could see where we were - and where we needed to get to - and my heart bled.Anyway, in this moment, as tears welled up in my eyes, I looked into my friend's eyes. And instead of feeling lonely, I felt something very different. I felt that my friend (I had chosen my companion wisely) both saw and heard me in that moment. At least I felt he did. I felt 'held'.What followed was a conversation about what it is to live as an 'awakened' soul in a world that is not yet fully awake. I think many of us have felt this for a very long time (haven't you?) Anyway, our conversation flowed to a certain globally-known and locally-based corporation, of which my friend had some 'insider experience'. On the surface it is doing great work (to tackle the environmental challenges our planet faces), yet somehow, when you look closely, it isn't doing its own 'dirty washing'! And there are many layers of uncovering and unpeeling work it needs to do before it can authentically match the persona it promotes in the world. Again, I felt sadness at the disparity between the authentic and true and the 'reality' on Earth at this moment.It was then that the toddler behind me decided to start screaming. And though her mother was trying her best to quieten her, 'not everyone wants to have their eardrums disfigured...', in that moment it felt to me like the most beautiful sound in the world. It was the perfect sound for that moment - infact I would have made that sound too if I had been just a little smaller and less obviously 'adult'!And everyone's eyes turned towards her. And because I was sitting right beside her, I got to see the startled and bemused looks on each person's faces. It was as if she was screaming, 'Wake up, People! Wake up!' to her peers, the folk of Surrey, drinking their Saturday morning cup of complacency in clusters all around her. Lift Me Up