Molly Ivins was one of my heroes. She spoke the voice of truth to power, channeled through an open heart of love. She wasn’t serving special interests, rather, she was coming from an interest in serving the whole of humanity. I find myself wondering, how will her departure affect all the rest of us?
I think of the dreaming groups that I lead every week. When someone who holds a strong voice of truth leaves the group, exiting stage left so to speak, their role gets picked up and played out by the remaining members of the group in a new way. Their leaving seems to energetically open up and create space for others to become empowered and incarnate their own true voice in creative ways. It’s as if the energy that the person who has left was embodying gets digested and integrated into the remaining members.
Often, when someone who holds a strong vision passes away, their deeper vision becomes more available for others to realize. It is as if the person who has died is no longer constrained by the limitations of the third dimension. I can easily “imagine” that Molly is on the other side, and she has already found and created new forms of multi-media to transmit her vision of peace across dimensions.
To me Molly represented genuine compassion. She wasn’t unconsciously reacting out of a closed heart, but consciously responding from an open one filled with good humor. She wasn’t coming from hate, but from love. This didn’t mean she lacked passion or outrage, however. On the contrary, Molly’s work was infused with the courage and ferocity of a lion’s roar. Molly was a rare voice of sanity in a world gone mad.
Her closing words in her final column say it all. Speaking about Bush’s insane intention to send more troops into an unwinnable war in Iraq, Ivins writes, “…every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we’re for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush’s proposed surge…. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, ‘Stop it, now!’”
The best way for any of us to honor Molly is to follow in her footsteps and creatively express our true voice so as to stop this insane, illegal and immoral war. It is within our God-given power to incarnate Molly’s, and our, vision of peace into the world. We can all creatively channel Molly’s voice in our own unique way. The truth which was animating Molly is a reflection of the truth inside of ourselves. I can easily imagine Molly inspiring us from the other side as we honor her by connecting with our true selves. In honoring what she represents, we simultaneously receive the benefit of the truth that she so embodied. I can easily imagine her being delighted at our thought that she is helping us from the other side. I find myself imagining that Molly’s passing was her gift to us, as it revealed to us our own creative genius. Molly, we are forever grateful.
Paul Levy is an artist and a spiritually-informed political activist. A pioneer in the field of spiritual awakening, he is a healer in private practice, assisting others who are also awakening to the dream-like nature of reality. He is the author of The Madness of George Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis.