the call
on the courage to be seen and heard in urgent times
THE THRESHOLD
The world does not need more bystanders. It needs people willing to step forward and take the risk of being seen and show up with their whole selves in the face of overwhelming difficulty.
I know how easy it is to shrink. To decide that what you have to offer is too small or strange, or not enough for these enormous times. But I keep coming back to this: the small, strange, and unseen are precisely what the world is starving for. Less performance and more presence and courage.
This week’s poem is not a gentle invitation. It is a call to action. I offer it to you the way it arrived to me - urgently, and without apology.
This space is for us. Welcome to your weekly Portal. I’m glad you’re here.
THE POEM
T H E C A L L Ring out now, don’t hesitate. You are born for these times. The whole world is on fire, there’s no room for self-doubt. You change worlds unseen just by risking your heart. Unlock the cage of another and leave no heart behind. Remember, you are a signal, a siren, a call to prayer. Let yourself ring out now, beautiful and dangerous, through a desperate despairing world.
THE PRACTICE
The poem names something most of us are afraid to claim: that we are a beacon. That our presence, voice, and willingness to show up changes things, even when we can’t see how, or when it feels impossibly small.
This week, the practice is to ring out in one specific way you have been holding back. Not a grand gesture but something real and within reach. Maybe a conversation you’ve been avoiding, a piece of writing you haven’t shared, an opinion offered into a silence that needed it or a kindness extended across a divide.
Before you do it, write down what has been stopping you. Name the self-doubt honestly. Then do it anyway.
If writing calls to you first, begin here and find the prompt that feels most true to you right now and write from it for five minutes without stopping:
“What longs to ring out through me is …”
“What wants to be heard through me right now is …”
“What the world is waiting to hear from me is …”
THE THREAD
This week, remember that you change worlds unseen just by risking your heart. You may never know which cage you unlocked, which heart you reached, or which signal you sent that someone was waiting for. Ring out anyway. The world is listening for you.
Yours in radical hope … Amanda
You are receiving this because you chose to. Thank you. If this moved something in you, would you be willing to share it? Together we can create a more just and loving world.
What’s coming up …
P.S. This week’s poem is an invocation and if you’d like to go deeper into poetry as spell, prayer and divination, Opening the Channel is a 90-minute online workshop happening this Sunday 17 May, 8–9.30am AEST. Under the fertile darkness of the Taurus New Moon, we’ll practise invocation - the art of calling in - and divination - the art of listening for what is already present. $33 AUD. If you can’t make it live, there will be a recording available. Reserve your place here:
P.P.S. The Call speaks of not leaving any heart behind. The Sacred Creativity Collective is where we practise that together. It’s a monthly online circle of people committed to creativity as a sacred and activist practice. Our next gathering is Monday 18 May. It’s not too late to join us. New members welcome any time. Find out more here:
Love this!❤
Amanda, this is beautifully synchronous with a sign I received today. While driving, I saw three birds from my decks: Eagle (soar and let yourself be seen), Turkey Vulture (emotional processing through the sacred garbage disposal of your heart), and Hawk (act now to take inspired action) all flying together. All three are important guides to me, but I’ve never seen them share air space like that. Their message: take visible action in pursuit of alchemy. I’ve been sitting with this and not clear yet what I’m being asked to feel/share/do. But your post and poem feel like another bread crumb in finding out. Thank you for the perfect timing.