The Crate Story

    To Shift is to move from one place to another: a crate can be shifted from the floor to a shelf.
     When that happens, there is a time when the crate is no longer on the floor, occupying the previous position, and it has not yet arrived at the destination point.
     In many ways, in relation to the societal Shift, we are currently living this ‘in-between’ time, and perhaps the movement of the crate can serve as a parable.
     Imagine a world where people live inside a crate which is called society. Society is shifting from one place to another through altered perspectives and minimal direct effort by any single individual. Many people don’t realize that anything is happening: they live much the same lives as always, and as conditions of their world change, as technology changes and research makes new discoveries, they adapt. They go about the business that matters to them most, and the gradual changes in the world are absorbed into their reality without difficulty.
     As the crate embarks on the journey towards the shelf, there are some people who remain on the floor, shouting for the crate to be put back where it “belongs”. They may express anger as they fear being left behind. Overwhelmed by the idea of learning a new way of being, they may build themselves little replacement crates, firmly on the floor, while muttering dire predictions about the dangers, the wrongness, and the impossibility of movement to a shelf.
     Meanwhile, other people have rushed ahead to prepare the shelf and make a place for the crate. They consider and discuss the size and weight of the crate and all it contains. They design a space wide enough to provide security. They are painting new colours on and around the shelf. They predict the ideal shape, wanting to ensure that the crate can be accommodated with ease and comfort. They are changing the language in order to value people as people; discarding words that limit by colour and education and height and income and origin and wardrobe and beliefs and other variables. They are making self-definition an appropriate ambition and a measure of success. They are even constructing ladders for floor-dwellers who decide to rejoin the crate later.
     For the crate itself, this may be a time of confusion. Memories of the floor are of happy certainty, and there is nostalgia for the past. Forecasts of the future are nebulous, and while the shelf may offer excitement and a new perspective on the world, it is also unknown and unknowable from the current position in between. The old conditions no longer apply; the new have not yet been realized; and still the shelf has a massive appeal. The crate soon begins to lean towards the potential.
     As individuals we can choose how we cope with this time. We can consider hopping out of the box to return to the floor, seeking the old fashioned ways we remember. The past is gone, though, and life on the floor – no matter how many small boxes have been constructed – is never going to be the same as it was in the crate.
     We can leap ahead to the shelf and begin exemplifying the new. We can find ways to express the coming world of new perspective: we can declare authentic expression and inclusion, generosity, egalitarianism and love to be the ways of The Shelf. We can put systems into place to greet the crate when it arrives, and allow the people within it to adopt Shelf Life easily.  
     Each and every one of us has incarnated into **this period of linear time. Shaping the future of humanity is possible. Why would we be here, now, if not to fulfill this destiny?

     Jo Leath has been supporting clients through change and growth since the 1980s, and she can help you to understand your role and contribution to The Shift
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