You
until our myths become global in nature we don't have anything until we start
to see our place in the world as being one that is global we're not going to be
sustainable it's it really is something that's that I'm resonating with if you
will that global focuses the shift that we are calling for we're going to find
sustainability to see the whole instead of the parts I think that Julia
Butterfly Hill has become something of a mythological figure in the best
meaning of the word in myth as in larger than life but the reality is it's not
larger than life it's just that extent that we can reach to it's large as life
and her story is an example of what we are all capable of her two year plus
tree set is an amazing example of the capacity of human beings to sacrifice to
step out of their comfort zones for something important for something that
they believe in and that's an amazing feat but part of what I think is even
more amazing is that the same time Julia is a plain old person like
everybody in this room an amazing awesome person like everybody in this room
the degree that she has stretched herself is not that much more than each
of us are capable of and so she's a marvelous example to me of what each of
us are capable of of the potential within all of us so one of the things that I
think is exciting to welcome Julia here and to welcome her here as a member of
this community as someone that is like us trying to do their part to create a
better world and so it is my deep pleasure to welcome Julia to the stage this
evening and and I'm so glad that all of you are in this room tonight I really
really care about our world and I am so grateful when I get to be around other
people who care as well and who want to put that care into action as you can
tell I don't write speeches because I don't have my little sheet up here I
speak from my heart and I speak from my heart because I found during that time
in the tree that the greatest power I have is located in my heart that we have
been living only in the realms of our mind for a very long time and not that
it's not an important tool in the toolbox the mind is an important tool in
the toolbox but we've been living using that that one tool mostly and we can see
where that's gotten us and I have learned in my life that part of what our
society and our global family deeply needs is to learn how to connect the
distance between here and here it's actually not that far yet somehow it
seems to sometimes be like galaxies away between the head and the heart I feel
that a lot of this work is about connecting the head to the heart using
the brilliance of our mind the innovation and creativity of our mind
and connecting that with our capacity to care and to feel that we truly are all
one and there's not an asterisk with a get out of jail free clause at the end of
that statement there is not a well we are all one except because you know we
all have those moments like it's nice to have we are the all one kumail moments
where all feeling good it's another thing when we're dealing with an intense
situation and going nope even in this moment bang we're all one crap one of
the gifts hidden in this challenge of the global climate crisis is that it
actually is demanding of us to come together it is demanding community the
global climate crisis has partly been created by feeding off the disease of
our disconnect people will oftentimes ask me in an interview what do you think
the most pressing challenge facing our the humans are today and I always tell
people the greatest challenge facing our species is the disease of disconnect
whether we're talking about deforestation and the logging of the
last of the ancient redwoods or war or genetic modification of food or how
prisons are being used to clear cut diversity out of our communities or
food justice and access whatever issue it is we're looking at we are actually
looking at the symptoms of a disease and that disease is disconnect when we're
disconnected from the earth we can destroy it and not realize that we are
destroying ourselves when we are disconnected from another human being
we can take an action that causes harm to them even if we don't even mean it or
realize it when we are disconnected from an animal we can cause their suffering
through choices that we make and not even realize that's what we're doing the
global climate crisis that we are facing is the direct result of the disease of
disconnect it is mother nature going sorry kids you haven't been listening
oh gotta wake up now I've been talking to you for a while and you've been busy
running around not paying attention so I'm gonna have to speak up global
climate change is our call for community global climate change is our call for
creativity global climate change is our call for loving fiercely in the face of
fear I am most famous for having lived in a tree for 738 days that tree is over a
thousand years old 200 feet tall and that's a baby for a redwood they grow to
be two to three thousand my the redwood I hung out with for a couple of years is
like my age now like in its 30s you know it is a version of its 30s I am most
known for that action and yet I have been so passionate for so many years now
about addressing this issue of the disease of disconnect so when I first
went into that tree I did think I was just going into the trees for the trees
and I care very much about the trees in the forest and I continue to work on
behalf of the trees in the forest but I had a really profound aha actually many
profound aha's let's get real can't go through an action like that well a lot
of profound aha's along the way and but one of the first ones was when I climbed
up into that tree I'd never done an action before in my life I came with a
from a family of preachers my father was a traveling preacher we joke in the
laugh that I accidentally turned in my dad I didn't realize that's what was
gonna happen I'm a traveling preacher slightly different message but I'm a
traveling preacher but I grew up with a traveling preacher for a father and then
I when I went to college actually majored in business in college right people
are like wow you mentioned a business in college and now you're like the poster
out of a tree hugger yes yes it that that is me but the the great thing was I
didn't come into environmental activism in like a step process I kind of saw the
deep end fell in and had to figure out how to swim the lunatrice it was the
first action I've ever done in my life and so the good thing about my naivety
up there was that I really was approaching it with eyes wide open I was
approaching it with a student's mind instead of I already know this I already
have this figured out mind which is also part of our problem as a species we
think we know it all we think we have it all figured out so my students mind as
I approach this action had me really learn in moments and there is this one
day where I had was on my solar powered phone had a phone powered by the Sun in
the tree and I was on the phone with activists on the ground they were all in
one room sitting around speakerphone and we were trying to plan an action and
wouldn't you know it diversity of opinions started showing up in the
conversation because we all had different ideas on what the best action was
what was going to be the most powerful most impactful how much resources did
we really have to pull this off very real challenges and questions but all of
a sudden the worst of ourselves started showing up in the conversation and I'm
really in this amazing situation where I'm very very open at this point I've
been in a tree for months at this point and not around electricity and movies
and televisions and all this chaos we have going in our lives so I'm just one
wide open receptor at the point of this conversation and I was listening to how
rude and mean we were becoming with one another and when I hung up the phone
after we were done I started climbing around on Luna and I was crying because
I just couldn't believe the way we had talked to one another and I had a really
powerful aha because as I was climbing around the tree I could see for miles in
every direction and I could see the beautiful green lush areas of forests
that are still intact these ancient ancient forests and then I could see
miles of clear cuts as well where the loggers go in with seven foot long chain
saws which means they basically take thousand-year-old beings and mow the
grass with that's how that's how fast they can take them down and then once
it's all clear cut they light the clear cut on fire with diesel fuel or with
napalm and so I could see beautiful forest and then literally burnt
desecrated land that looks like a bomb has gone off in it and I was watching and
looking at all this and feeling into the conversation that we just had with the
activists and I had this realization how in the world do we think we're ever
gonna stop the clear cutting of the forest if we're so effective at clear
cutting one another and I realized in that moment that the wounds in the
external landscape were the mirror to the wounds in the internal landscape that
we they exist within us first and then we act them out on the planet we act them
out on one another we act them out on animals we act them out on sometimes
even on ourselves we take those inner wounds and the way we devastate and
clear cut our own self in this wild journey called our lives and in that
moment that's when I got the disease of disconnect that's when I realized but
that's what's causing the problems is the disease of disconnect so that if we
really truly want to help heal the problems in the world we have to begin
to shift our awareness to realize that it's about healing from the inside out
and from the ground up people interviews will ask me how do you what do you call
yourself what should I call you an activist and I tend to steer clear of
that word because we think activists means tree sitters occupiers bulldoze
locker-downers here's the fact because no choice happens in a vacuum it is
literally impossible to not make a difference oh yeah I'm not just talking
spiritually although spiritually to scientifically scientifically impossible
to make no difference in the world scientifically impossible to have no
impact which means seven billion of us and growing are activists every choice
every moment of every day do you get how powerful you are every moment what we
have to realize then is that all of us are actively co-creating our world every
day the question then becomes are we unconsciously active or consciously
active either way we're active we can look at our world and see the impact of a
whole lot of unconscious choices that have built together to create a world
where we spend more money on war than on educating our young people and feeding
our hungry and housing our homeless and protecting the quality of our air and
our water we can see the impact of our unconscious choices in the mountaintop
removal mining and and the desire for this tar sands oil pipeline and the list
goes on but we can see the results of our conscious choices through even like
when I was walking in this building and seeing some of the water saving devices
on in the bathrooms and the energy saving devices and being excited
because I'm on tour and a lot of universities still don't have these
simple yet very powerful and important choices happening on their campuses so
we can see everywhere we look choices that either lead us into destroying our
world or healing our world global climate change this crisis we are facing is a
truly a spiritual crisis at its core it's why I'm so excited to come here and
be a part of an event that's brought together by the Kentucky interfaith
power and light group I love that it's interfaith that it's looking at dealing
with both the problems and the solutions we've created as a species but from a
spiritual perspective that really looks at it is a crisis of our souls it is the
crisis of our deepest self that we would have created a world that has caused so
much harm because when we look at ourselves what we know is that's not
what we're intending to create we are deeply caring people I deal with people
who think that they are my enemy and I refuse to look at them as so I started
dealing with that in the tree and dealing with people who thought they were my
enemy and I'm like I will not choose to see you as an enemy because that
perpetuates the disease and what I found is if I stayed committing to finding the
good in people we oftentimes found it together and so what I know from that
journey is majority of people on this planet at their roots at our soul level
are deeply caring people but we have gotten disconnected from each other from
the earth and then we act out this disease over and over and over again and
all of us are born into it the example I use of how we are all dealing with this
disease is when we say I'm going to throw something away where is a way
no such thing we actually behave as if there's in a way it is how the disease
of disconnect has shown up in all of our lives we heard two great stories
starting the evening tonight of people who are looking at the reality that
there's no a way around energy around consumption around food everything and
bringing away home on a very deep personal everyday level and that's so
inspiring to hear these stories of people who are beginning to heal the
disease right where they live let's see what else do I want to say I don't know
I climbed to the tree because it was all I knew to do to help when I entered the
redwoods for the first time I was deeply and profoundly moved by how beautiful
these forests are there's something really really incredible about walking
into a forest with trees that are thousands of years old hundreds of
feet tall knowing that it takes millions of years to create an ecosystem that
can grow trees that are two to three thousand years old we know how much
effort it takes to create soil rich enough to grow a healthy garden like
we're talking about growing trees two to three thousand years old it is millions
of years to create that process I later found out that it takes five hundred
years to create one inch of topsoil in these forests when they come in and they
clear cut and the rains of the winter time come the redwoods are temperate
rainforest it rains when the rains come five hundred years can disappear in an
afternoon wash down the hillside choking the streams killing off the salmon and
the other fish causing landslides that destroy people's homes when I started
learning about the impact as deeply as I have been touched by the beauty of these
forests I was deeply as devastated by their destruction and it called me into
action and I did not know what I could do I just knew that I had to do something
because when I was praying and asking for guidance the answer that came to me
loud and clear was Julia if you see an injustice and you have the opportunity
to say something and do something and you choose to do nothing your inactions
are as much a part of the injustice in the world as the actions of others yeah
it's it's an intense answer to prayer because that's a call to action right if
I do nothing I am putting a stake in the ground that says this injustice is okay
in the world so I knew I wanted to help I didn't know what I could do and then I
heard about tree-sitting and this guy pointed up to Luna on top of a hill and
he said you see that tree up there I said I think so there's a bunch of trees
up there he said it's the one that's right in the little nook right up there
and it looks kind of funny up at the top but it stands out oh yeah I see that
tree said that's Luna I said great what's Luna he's from Detroit Michigan he
talks like this man so he said that's Luna man and I said great what's Luna he
said that's a cheesep man and I said great what's a tree said he said that's
where people sit in cheese know to protect him man and I had my lightbulb go
on I was like I don't know how to be an activist I'm not even sure I know what
that is but I grew up with two brothers and no sisters really poor we played
outside I've climbed a lot of trees I can climb a tree to help sign me up and
although you can't tell it right now because I just get up here and start
blabbing away those of you have heard me before know that I'm actually an
introvert it's part of the reason I just start blabbing because it helps my
nerves calm down the other reason I volunteered to climb a tree was because
I heard I can climb a tree live in a tree hang up by myself and make a
difference I am so designed for this accident sign me up and it was interesting
because the person who was bottom-lining the tree said at that time making sure
food and supplies and people were in the tree said he didn't recognize me I was
new to the movement was heading into the winter time they'd never had an action
go through the winter time before and he was like okay great another wide-eyed
excited person wants to come and help out what happens with the reaction a lot
of the times as people get really excited and then you hit the difficulty
and people give up and go home and so it's like winter time they're almost out
of resources they don't know me I'm wide-eyed I have no experience in
activism whatsoever and I volunteered he's like wow we have a whole list of
needs and you're not on it not not there if you had some experience something we
might could use you but you you don't fit our needs list but no one else would
volunteer for the Luna tree sit-in so they had to pick me and that's how I
ended up in the tree and in that journey learned so many lessons that have
become so relevant to my life and to the work that I care very passionately about
and one of them is what I started this conversation on on the power of love
people think that love means foo foo new age and hippie people think love means
soft love is the fiercest taskmaster I have ever chosen to take on in my life
love demands of me to be better than I know myself to be because I am a human
being and I get grumpy and I get messy and I get stubborn which sometimes in it
is an asset and sometimes not called for I get frustrated I get overwhelmed I
get hurt I get cynical all those things we all go through and love demands that
I find a way through my own stuff I love telling people all extra extraordinary
people are is extraordinary and they don't let their ordinariness stop them
that's why we see them as extraordinary because we wouldn't recognize them if we
didn't recognize their humanity they are people who come up against a challenge
and move through it in a way that inspires us because they don't let their
ordinariness stop them it doesn't mean they stop being ordinary it's a
difference so in that tree what I found was that love demanded of me to be
better than I knew myself to be people tell me thank you for doing that action
Julia I never could have done that and I remind people well neither could have I
right like I was not five years old going someday when I grow up I'm gonna go
live in a tree for two years and eight days I'm gonna go through the worst
winter in recorded history of California I'm gonna go through a company trying to
kill me I'm gonna grow through the grief of watching a forest being destroyed
and not being able to stop it no if I had seen all that stuff coming I would
never have done it like thank goodness I didn't see it coming because who I knew
myself to be at that time would have said nope wrong Julia there must be
another one somewhere because that ain't me that's the way life is when we can
commit ourselves to something worth falling in love for it will call us to
be bigger than we know ourselves to be my mind could not have conceived that my
mind would have held me back our mind does that the biggest obstacles in life
are not the external ones they're the ones up here and how when we come up
against an obstacle how we then respond to that if we allow that obstacle to
stop us or if we allow that obstacle to be an exercise equipment and we exercise
the muscle and we get stronger we move through it and we approach the net
obstacles an opportunity to learn and grow I would not have learned that simple
lesson if I hadn't have learned how to love because when I first went into that
tree I was full of a lot of rage and I was angry because my world and my planet
in my future is being destroyed and the tears that come up now that I have no
problems showing my rage was my defense mechanism for the fact that I am a
highly sensitive person in a very violent world and I did not have the tools
on how to stay sensitive in such a painful world and to keep my heart open
and to keep caring no matter what and so rage was my defense mechanism it was the
way to shut down from hurting so when they started logging trees around me I
got angry and I wanted to I could see the mill the Pacific lumber mill that
takes these old growth forests and turns them into a clear cut I literally when I
first climb Luna the first thing out of my mouth was damn what I could do with
a good rocket launcher from here not necessarily the most enlightened thing
to say but that's what I felt was like if I could just wipe it out I could stop
the suffering my rage my anger was a defense mechanism to try and stop the
suffering but that rage was consuming me it was eating me alive I could not have
lasted two years and eight days if I had stayed fueled by my rage tell people if
you're not angry in the world today probably not awake but the shift is do
we choose to take action out of our anger or do we choose to take action out of
our love if we take action out of our anger we're perpetuating the disease of
disconnect through love we can breathe anger in which is what I learned I breathe
anger in and through my love it turns into fierce compassion see compassion
compassion still has passion in it because people will come up to me and
say I have to stay angry Julia that's where my fuel comes from I'm like well
if you're committed to that there's nothing I can do to change your mind
like if that's what you're committed to that's what you're committed to but with
love I can remain the fiercest I can remain the passion but instead of acting
out my anger on the world I'm acting out my love yes I get angry yes I get
cynical I am such a cynic I'm like I there's a voice inside of my head that
99% of the time is like we're screwed might as well as give up no hope people
are addicted to being dumb
does anybody else have that voice or am I the only one okay just check it all
right so here's the thing we mark star this out by saying it's about the
stories we tell part of it for me is realizing that cynicism or hope is just
a story neither one of them is true not cynicism or hope they're both a story
what is true is right here right now right here right now right here right
now how do I show up right here right now am I to the best of my ability
without judgment embodying my vision for the world and if the answer is no how
can I more closely shift myself to be in alignment with my vision for the world
love calls me into that judgment kills that is all judgment can do judgment
never can bring life to anything judgment can only kill so love gives us the
opportunity to be bigger than we know ourselves to be are you really willing
to do that though because if you're not don't take on love as your goal because
love will demand of us to be bigger and better than we know ourselves to be but
it's not about perfection and it's not about judgment it is about recognizing
that every moment of every day we are giving our life to something every
second of every day is an investment every breath of every moment of every
day we are investing our life in something we get to choose what we
invest our life in people tell me well do you feel like it was maybe a waste of
your time to spend two years and eight days and just protect that tree and that
grove I'm like no not for me because we're giving our life to something every
day the quickest way to die is to get born sorry quickest way to die is to get
born what we get to choose is what we do in the middle of that bookend we don't
get to choose either side we get to choose what happens in the middle we get
to say what is worth offering my life to because I am offering my life to
something every dollar I spend every community action I participate in every
book that I study in university every class that I take everything that I put
on my fork and on my plate everything that I do is an investment in something
what do I want to have the my life be invested in and to me that is a way
better way to live I would rather live my life now out of love and investing my
life in that it means I'm going to hurt and as you saw up here I no longer am
ashamed of that I have nothing to hide when people start crying with me they
so often start apologizing and I say stop that stop apologizing for having the
courage to care because to care in the world today is an act of courage wear
it as a badge of honor model it for others
their root word for courage is core from the French which means heart the only
acts of courage can only happen courage does not is not attached to a gun or a
bomb courage is attached to when we come up against our own fear overwhelm
cynicism apathy rage anger anything when we come up against that edge and we
choose to speak and act out of love anyway an act of courage just happened
so acknowledge ourselves for having the courage to care and then put that care
into action and do not wait until you know how to do it before you get started
but don't allow the fact that we don't know how to solve this global climate
crisis stop you from looking at how to solve it right now right now right now
don't let that fear of overwhelm of saying I'm just one person I don't know
if I can make a difference as I mentioned you do make a difference it is
impossible for you to not make a difference so then the question we get to
ask ourselves is what kind of a difference do I want to make I don't know
what your unique contribution is but I am a hundred percent clear that each and
every one of you is a unique contribution and that each and every one of us is
here for a purpose all of who we are is exactly who we're meant to be and I'm
going to end it here and then open it up to you to share ask whatever is
relevant for you all of who you are is exactly who you're meant to be not 70
percent not 80 percent 100 percent and that includes the things you and others
have told you was bad and wrong about yourself I have been stubborn and getting
into trouble since I was two I learned how to direct it into good causes I tell
people I am probably one of the few people in your life is going to tell
you you don't need to change but you might need to change your focus right
like the fact that I'm stubborn and don't have a problem getting in trouble
that is now an asset I have to be careful because sometimes I jokingly say
it's like it's like sometimes a bulldozer is really helpful in moving
things in a glass china shop not so helpful so I have to do the work on
myself to know when bulldozer is appropriate and when it's not when
stubborn is appropriate and when it's not but I'm not about disavowing my
bulldozer stubborn side I'm about embracing a hundred percent of who we
are because a hundred percent of who we are is our gift it is our contribution
that we all have unique role to play the fact that I was young and the fact
that I was a woman when I first started that action in the tree was used
against me the media had this tone of oh isn't she cute give her enough time
she will come down from that tree she will get her atrocious hair and nails
done and she will go out on a date and get on with her real life and I was
like I am going through more of a real life than you will ever know in your
lifetime but here's the cool thing after a while after I stayed and stayed and
stayed and stayed how many people were like wow she's still up there all of a
sudden the fact that I was young and the fact that I was a woman became an asset
because I was doing something no big burly dude had ever done before
loggers who at first tried to kill me were standing there the day I came down
I was able to come down after we successfully negotiated an agreement
that protected the over 1,000 year old redwood tree that I was in in the grove
around it and I was able to come down and there were loggers there at the base
of the hill that day same loggers who had tried to kill me standing there with
their hands outstretched shaking my hand one by one as I walked through and that
only happened because I chose to have love call me into action if I had allowed
hatred to call me into action they very well might have succeeded in killing me
and I share these stories not to be like yay Julia butterfly that's not what
gets me up on this stage I share my authentic self mass authentic stories in
hopes that we might all look in the mirror for ourselves and ask what calls
me into my greatness and for each one of us that's a different answer only you
have that answer but my hope and my prayer is that in events like this when
we come together we all myself included look in the mirror and say what is my
next greatness calling me to do and what is my next greatness calling me to be
the global climate crisis really is a crisis of our souls of our spirits of
our hearts the beauty in it is that is it is a call to living and being more
powerful than we've known ourselves to be as a human family we are facing the
question of do we get to be here or not and the challenges is who in what gets
hurt along the way of finding that answer these times of coming together
where we look at we're using a unusable mug people like really does that one
thing make a difference we did this research thing and found that the average
person I don't remember all the statistics now we looked at all these
different charts and things but the average person who goes to the coffee or
tea shop to get their their weekly tea or coffee on their way to work if they
were to bring their own mug and just that one action by the end of the year
they would have reduced their own energy use by 98 percent that takes into
account all the washing of the cup and the energy used to making the cup and
all that and all the other water save energy saved resources saved by
something as simple as a cup the great stories that were shared here tonight of
the lights and the air conditioning and all that we've kind of thought that was
passé we kind of gave up on that and yet as was mentioned here tonight the first
step is reduce not recycle corporations actually spent millions of
dollars they invested millions corporations invested millions in the
recycling campaign corporations why because if we think all we have to do
is recycle we'll buy more of their crap when we realize the crisis of our souls
we realize that a huge part of our need to consume is about trying to fill a
hole that is within our souls that we have lost our connection first and
foremost to ourselves and they trick us into thinking we can fill it with the
next latest and greatest outfit or perfume or car or whatever when in
reality in my experience and in the experience of people who I've talked to
and I'm sure in the experience of many of you in this room when we begin to live
our lives in alignment with our vision for the world in alignment with our
heart's desire to care we start feeling way better I majored in business in
college I started my first business when I was 18 years old I was very successful
and I was one of the many successful people who was never happy because there
was something in me deeper that wanted to have a purpose more than making money
and when I found that purpose I live more simply than I ever did in all those
years of being a successful business person and I live more happily because
there is something innate in us that longs to be a positive contribution and
this call to action right now possibly one of the biggest calls to action we've
ever faced as a species gives us the opportunity to live lives more magical
and more powerful than we've ever possibly known to have a life that
nourishes and inspires us and in turn reaches out nourishes inspires touches
those around us and invests in the future that we might not even be around to
see finally the last piece I know I said I was gonna wrap it but I have one more
piece that just came to me to make it present to I'm up here on the stage
wearing pants I'm a woman wearing pants there are women who I will never get to
meet here comes the tears again I don't get to look in their eyes and tell them
thank you for the risks and the intensity of what they went through women
risked an experience torture and imprisonment for me to have the right to
wear pants I like to climb trees I like wearing pants like seriously these
women I don't get to look in their eyes some of the women who fought for the
rights that I have as a woman today they didn't get to see the fruits of their
labor they knew that to give their lives to it was what brought meaning it was
not about the outcome it was about giving their life to something they
believed in and I benefit from it we when we commit to this greater calling not
only do we get to have a more amazing life we are investing in generations we
will never meet we are recognizing that we each and every one of us are
ancestors of the future and we give a gift those to those children who are
still to come and to me that's truly a life worth living with that now I will
stop thank you so much thanks you're sweet thank you thanks
