If you’re on this list, you’ve probably heard a lot about the “Shift,” and I realize that it can sometimes sound a bit grandiose.

So allow me to simplify the discussion by offering a familiar analogy: humanity is upgrading its “operating system,” just like a computer often needs to do.

In other words, the old programs are breaking down and are incapable of handling our current crises. And what is required is a shift to a new operating system that doesn’t pit us against each other but instead unites us as a global family that is committed to building a peaceful, sustainable, and healthy society.

Such a shift is both personal and political, intimate and social.

Hubs are where the Shift becomes real. The old Biblical phrase “where two or more are gathered, there I am” refers to the truth that higher possibilities are more easily revealed in moments of sacred communion that we share in groups. We are social animals and our ability to apprehend and embody a higher possibility requires relationship to others.

When we create a new kind of relationship with others—collaborative, mutually empowering, lovingly resonant, committed to each other, awake, and alive—this allows us to embody this new way of being rather than just talking about it.

The magic of creating a hub to celebrate the Birth is that it provides an “excuse” to build a place where we practice relating to each other in this more enlightened, unitive, and collaborative way—and then work together on making real evolutionary changes in our community.

That’s why we recommend that hubs learn to practice resonance together. In a hub, the separation between people eases, hearts and minds connect, and new insights emerge.  We experience a spirit of joy and cocreation. We speak our soul’s truth. We claim our divine assignment. We affirm our desire to offer our heartfelt gifts.

If we are to birth heaven on earth (as I believe is our ultimate goal), we need to do so in such miniature ways first. We need to practice the shift with others.

And that is why I say that hubs are “Ground Zero for the Shift.” It’s not so much what they do in the world (although that is important), it’s more about the space they create for each of us to inwardly blossom, expand, relax, heal, and be inspired. As we learn to do this in more and more skillful ways, we begin to embody the new era now. In other words, we can experience the Birth as an ongoing process, not just on December 22 or beyond. The Birth is the experience of soul and body reconnecting in a space of deep remembrance and love for each other.

So I encourage you to really listen to Barbara Marx Hubbard (our “bard of hubs”), study with her, found your own local hub—and once it is formed—dare to get real, be vulnerable, and speak your soul’s truth. That’s how we can all journey into the mystery of a new era together.