Transcript for Hope Committed to Action

global oneness project

Hope Committed to Action

What gives me hope?

I reflect back again to a time when I was in the tree.

And it's a time - that as soon as I go there it brings tears.

Julia Butterfly Hill - Oakland, California - Environmental and Social Activist

And I know that it will for the rest of my life.

When - I was listening to the chainsaws, everyday.

And having to watch these ancient trees hit the ground - everyday.

And not being able to go, and amuse myself, and shut down.

And just bearing witness, day in and day out.

And feeling myself - and every last shred of hope - being strangled, and killed.

And then I would somehow find a way to take another breath and go another moment,

and then something else would happen,

and it was so hard for me to hold on to hope.

And then, the enraged logger cut a tree - intentionally in the direction of activists -

and took a young man - David Gypsy Chain's - life, 24 years old, and killed him.

And that day is when I decided I didn't want to have hope anymore.

Because I thought - well, why should I care?

That my passion for caring about nature

is intrinsically woven with my passion and my love for people.

That I didn't see them as separate.

And I thought - well, why should I have more love and commitment

for people on this planet than they have?

And I just wanted to give up.

And go: "I'm gonna go - you know - climb some tree in an area where nobody will find me."

You know?

I'm just gonna go somewhere that's not under threat,

and I'm just gonna go climb, and I'm not even gonna tell anyone where I'm going.

And - I'm gonna give up on caring.

And the reason that tears come, is because I'm still so present to that pain.

And yet, that's the power of where hope came from for me.

Because, in that moment of being so devastated -

I was literally in the fetal position,

on my tiny little platform, 180 feet up in the air,

rocking back and forth, crying and sobbing,

and going: "I don't want to do this anymore."

And, the answer that came to me was:

Julia, if you have hope in your heart

- and even if you're the only person left who has hope in their heart -

if that hope is committed in action, then there's hope for the world.

If you're the only person left.

As long as your hope is committed in action, then hope is alive in the world.

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