Spirit in Action

Holly Near - Singer and Activist

Holly Near has put in more than 4 decades advocating and training for peace and justice through her music. With more than 27 recordings, she has spoken out on a diverse rainbow of issues and provided inspiration and fuel for millions of workers for improving our world.

Broadcast on:: 27 Jul 2008
Audio Format:: other

I have no hands but yours to tempt my sheep. No handkerchief but yours to dry the eyes of those who weep. I have no arms but yours with which to hold. The ones grown weary from the struggle and weak from growing old. I have no voice but yours with which to see. To let my children know that I am out and out is everything. I have no way to feed the hungry souls. No clothes to give and make you the ragged and the morn. So be my heart, my hand, my tongue, through you I will be done. The enders have I none to help and die. Welcome to Spirit in Action, my name is Mark Helpes Me. Each week I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, creative action and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them in their service. Above all, I'll seek out light, love and helping hands, being shared between our many neighbors on this planet, hoping to inspire and encourage you to sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. I feel very privileged to have us my guest today for Spirit in Action, Holly Neer. Holly has put in more than four decades advocating and training for peace and justice through her music, with more than 27 recordings, she has spoken out on a diverse rainbow of issues and provided inspiration and fuel for millions of workers for improving our world. Holly does more than just sing, she enlightens and trains. In addition to concerts, she provides experiences like change of heart, the art of activism, a talk with song, and her demystifying activism workshop. This interview with Holly was recorded such that I could broadcast this program on the day that she'll also be appearing in Madison, Wisconsin. Welcome Holly to Spirit in Action. Thank you. Where about in the world are you right now? I'm in Columbus, Ohio and I just looked out the window and I see a little snow coming down. So that's lovely, we're going to go out and take a walk in it shortly, but I've been touring in Kansas City and traveling around the Midwest, Chicago, Madison, before that on the East Coast. I've been doing a very focused concert about trying to lift our spirits up in a time when people who have open minds, open hearts, progressive ideas are feeling an incredible amount of despair and they're feeling hopeless or exhausted because we are in a time where the leadership in the country is committing so many crimes against nature in the planet and humanity and people feel just undone by it. And so the concert is very focused and directed on trying to help an audience, lift themselves up to their highest self and not be brought down by what is going on in the world today, but rather see ourselves as human beings, you know, we come to this planet, this extraordinary planet. It's the only one we know of that has life on it like this and we get to be here. And fantastic and horrific things have happened in every single decade since the beginning of time. That's the nature of being on the planet. And so we who want to try to lift our species up and want to be more connected on both environmental and political and cultural and spiritual level, our job is to hold that space while we are alive here. Hold it so that we keep lifting up the possibility of love and non-violent resolution and care for children and care for the planet. We hold that space like the Native Americans say, we are the stewards while we are here. And if one takes the mentality that one might have been trained in a corporate world to have to achieve certain things and come up with a bottom line within the fiscal year, of course, when we get depressed when you look at this work, but if we think of ourselves in a much bigger, more spiritual context of being the stewards, the caretakers, of holding the space, while we are activists, while we are parents, while we are lovers, while we are stewards, I think we can make it from birth to death in a more graceful and effective way. Would you say that that's the bottom line that you're aiming at to add to that grace and the better centeredness as we go through and reach the other end? I want to just do my little part and when I was younger, I thought I had to fix the world. Now I just have to be in the world as open man is willing as possible. In fact, recently I wrote a song called I Am Open and I Am Willing and it is a prayer in many ways, not a religious prayer, but a spiritual prayer, something that I can hum in the car, something that I can sing to myself when I find myself shutting down, saying this is too much, I can't take it. Instead of shutting down and saying I can't take it, I just turn the news off or I change my focus or I think what decisions would I be making if I loved the world rather than trying to fix the world? How can I walk into this grocery store and affect other people's lives simply by offering them a hello or some genuine care for them? How can I be driving down the freeway instead of having road rage about the traffic that I can be an active noticer in some sort of positive way? And I think that we diminish the importance of small acts of courage and love and that is part of what contributes to our depression. I am open and I am willing for to be hopeless would seem so strange, it is ours. Those who go before us so lift me up to the light of change, there is a word in my family and there is sorrow in my town, there is a path all across the nation and there is a path all across the nation and there is sorrow in my town, there is a path all across the nation and there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my town, there is sorrow in my 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