Staying the Course

We are in the penitential season of Lent and nearing the purifying practice of fasting during Ramadan.  We are engulfed in a huge transition, the end of which we may envision or guess, but cannot yet see with certainty.   We are exhausted by restrictions engendered by a worldwide virus, and even with vaccinations available for many, there is no return to “normal”, whatever that may now look like.  Our politicians seem to be busier attacking each other than working on cooperative solutions.  Economic instability is a looming threat.  Many people, including me, are feeling burdened and have ‘had enough, already’.  It would be so nice if we could count on Easter, Eid, or Passover, celebrations that they are, to end the chaos around us.  It does not seem that it will be so.

The well-known teacher Sandra Ingermann, in one of her workshops, advised those listening to never “sit down during the dark night of the soul.”   It is advice that is relevant to the times.   I do not think that she means to never relax or have fun; in fact, she encourages people to relax in nature, to let the healing and calming energy of nature enfold them.    To not sit down means to not give up, to not let the weight of whatever one is processing cause one to stop engaging with life, to allow an apathy or hindering depression to take over and prompt one to withdraw from the growing and the change.

Change and its seeming disorder are always with us.  Change is rarely patterned logically, nor is it predictable to the reasoning mind.  Change is kaleidoscopic; the patterns can be beautiful or not, but they fall as they are, responding to a present moment.   Sometimes it seems insane, yet, in the long run, change often brings a higher result.  Is not spring in the heart of winter? The Chinese symbol shows that Yin is in Yang, and Yang is in Yin – the two are forever joined as one.

The Arctic peoples know well not to lie down in the snow in the dark and cold of winter, no matter the weariness one may feel.  Just a few minutes of lying down in the Arctic cold and dark causes an exit from the planet.  Similarly, it is when we feel the most burdened and disheartened that we must carry on, walking not as if we were about to fall under the burden, but standing straight, breathing calmly, finding beauty, and expressing kindness to all around.   It is also good if we will sing, or dance from time to time.  This is how we come through into the light after the dark.  It takes discipline.  It takes faith.

Part of carrying on through the dark is holding the highest vision we can of an outcome that nurtures the planet and its denizens and our fellow humans.  It is not a matter of having our own way only, of power over others.  It is not a vision simply of relief from suffering or the weight of our burdens.  It is creative, drawn from the love of life we all intrinsically possess, if we are willing to see it.  The particulars of individual highest visions may vary, but their ultimate goal is the same, the benefit of all concerned.  It is a vision born of love.    Such individual visions, combined, cannot but help to bring the highest good to all.  It is not always easy to hold the highest vision, but it is the way to what we seek.

With Passover, Easter and Eed upcoming (and yes, St. Patrick’s Day, too), let us set our individual intents to walk our paths with confidence a while longer, and use our celebrations as encouragement along the way.

Peace, Diane

Nature Teaches Community

The other day, I turned on the TV to a relatively slow-moving documentary in hopes of a few minutes of spacing out or relaxing without thinking too much.  Flipping through the channels, I chose a nature documentary, as I love nature and relax when I can spend time with it.  Then, I got drawn into the program, and emerged sometime later impressed by how in nature, with the exception of a few lone creatures such as some predators, life grows in community, in flocks, hives, herds, packs and, even in the plant kingdom, groves of trees and other plant species.  Cooperation and community seem to be one of nature’s imperatives, structures which ensure that various groups of living species can thrive.  I had been subliminally aware of this before; now, it impressed me.  Perhaps the nature that many of us humans seem intent upon destroying is giving us an insight into how we ourselves may survive.

Much human organization is in large units called countries, states, cities, and the like, but historically and increasingly these huge, organized entities are less and less like a true community, in which the benefit of the smallest member is as important as the benefit of the whole.  For the majority, the true organization seems to be separate.  Once there were extended families and close neighborhoods.  Those morphed into the mobile nuclear family, and then into units of singles or of temporarily allied singles, roommates.  At the same time, relationships became more fluid and of shorter duration.  All that may have benefited the consumer economy, as multiple units of fewer people each required, for example, each its own vacuum cleaner or dishwasher or clothes dryer.  However, it has left the majority of us separated from each other, from nature and from community.

Those of us who will look can see for themselves the effect of the combined lifestyles of the mainstream.  Weather has become more destructive and unpredictable.  Soils are becoming less fertile as our pesticides destroy them.  The rainforest is disappearing.  The extinction rate of species has accelerated exponentially.  The ocean is acidifying, and parts of it are dying.  We ourselves are facing the aesthetic and health impacts of pollution, and – whether we realize it or not – of separation from each other, from nature, and from the creative matrix from which all emerges.  It is not only species of our fellow beings here on Earth who are facing extinction, but also we ourselves.

In our state of separation, we seem to have turned to our science and technology to save us from the truth that we are connected not only to each other, but also to the Earth itself and all the species on it in what is often called a web of life.  For many of us, the belief that we are masters of all other life, and that we do not have to change our ways because our science and technology will absolve us of consequences and will create habitats for us that are safe and nurturing, despite what happens to everything else.  Even though the wisest of scientists understand the connection to nature and that much of scientific progress has been an imitation of nature, many people seem to be unaware that in taking the stance we do, we are destroying ourselves along with the other life that we destroy.

What would it be like if we returned to community and taught ourselves to live sustainably on the Earth?  What would it be like if we were to seek out nature, respect nature, and develop ways which were in harmony with nature?  What would it be like if we had as much access to trees, soil, clean air and water as we currently have to concrete, cars and pollution?  What major changes would we need to make to ourselves to achieve that?

We have models; groups of people have for some time now banded together to create what is called intentional community.  Not all of them are the same; many are quite different.  In nature, a herd is not the same as a hive or as a flock.  Some are urban; many are rural and are learning and practicing sustainable and regenerative agriculture.  There are artists and scientists and craftspeople, farmers and businesspeople and educators, and people of different persuasions.  People of like mind tend to live together, and each group respects the life and orientation of groups which are different.  This is a new system.  It does not rely on a large, overseeing government to regulate and provide for us as if we were children who could not do that for ourselves, as if it were OK for us to not think very deeply.  It does not rely on what is outside of ourselves, the products of corporations or the results of politics to find and implement the ways in which we need to behave to reverse the process of destroying our Earth, its denizens and ourselves.  Community presupposes that we in cooperation with others are responsible for these things.

It is crisis time.  We inch closer and closer to an irreversible tipping point.  It is time to wake up, to save ourselves from collectively hurling ourselves off a cliff.  It is time to transcend our distractions of pandemics, differences (all of us are equally human), wars and internal conflicts that would silence or eliminate whichever group of us “lost” political battles.  It is time that we realized that we are all in essence one, coming from the same source, equally valued and equally responsible.  It is time we work together and form community – learning from those of us who have begun before us and contributing our own perspectives as we grow.  We need the time of cooperation; continued competition and conflict, continued emphasis on “winning over” will succeed only in destroying us all.

Let us all, whatever groups we affiliate with, whatever beliefs we hold, whatever our wounds or state of healing, realize that the other is a sister or brother and come together to create community.   Let us learn to work cooperatively together.  Our well-being and our survival depend upon it.

Peace, Diane

Focus

Focus

Several years ago, I had cataract surgery. I had worn glasses for poor vision before the surgery, but it was not until my ability to change visual focus naturally was taken from me by the surgery that I realized the importance of focus, at least visually.  The surgery removed my cataract-clouded natural lenses and replaced them with artificial lenses, giving me clearer vision but restricted to a specific focus, a far vision focus suitable for driving or walking.  To change my focus, I now require glasses geared to the focus I wish to achieve.

As important as focus is visually, it is exponentially more important when it comes to what we pay attention to.  I am not saying when it comes to what we believe, but what we focus on.  We may believe in the existence of extra-terrestrials, but not pay much attention to it, and also not be graced with flying saucer sightings.  Or we may believe that love conquers all but pay attention to the ways people hurt and betray each other, and have a very difficult time finding the love in which we believe.  It is the attention that counts; we attract what we pay attention to, one way or another.

We are currently in a time of chaos and transition.  In time, from this chaos will emerge a new way of being, of organizing, and perhaps even a new kind of human.  At the moment, the possibilities are myriad.  Richard Bach, in his book One, talks about parallel lifetimes, each a reality due to the choices that were made by the individuals (in the book’s case, he and his wife) that led to the different directions each life takes.  We are now in a kind of energy vortex, and the choices we make now will determine the course(s) our lives take.  There are so many possibilities.  Bach’s book, when I first read it, sent me into a kind of mental overload; I simply could not hold in mind simultaneously the many parallel paths he explored, all existing but hidden from each other except as he explored them. Now, I can see clearly paths forward in several (of course, not in all of the possible) different directions.  One direction is favored by the media and will lead to a result we may not have expected.  Others are also valid directions, each with results depending on the premise that underlies that particular path.  It is still overwhelming, and the temptation to follow those paths into the future and become preoccupied by that effort can be a siren call.

This awareness is a good thing, not something to become blind to.  We need the ability to follow into the future the outcomes that our choices of today can produce.  We also need the in-the-moment ability to sense what is going on amidst the chaos.  However, given that what we pay attention to tends to be what we manifest, the focus on what we are doing NOW, juxtaposed to what we have thoughtfully determined we want, is the most important.  We must resist the temptation to submerge ourselves in the “good old times” of the past (or in the traumas and suffering and anger and blaming), or to get lost in the maze of future possibilities and the fear some of them can produce.   We need to keep a focus on the present moment; this present moment is the space we have to create what we want to see.

The question is, what, in this present moment, do we want to see long term???  It is not simply how we must react to a situation to which the media promotes ever more fear, so that we believe that we have no choice but to follow the promoted story and keep our feet on that path, but what exactly do we want as the more beautiful, nurturing life we can envision?  (Although some of us may not want that, preferring a more contentious life that seems to assure more power or a more compliant life that promises more security.)  Rarely has armed opposition or inimical struggle brought about a lasting and fully positive outcome, and rarely has abdication of our individual power done that either.  There is a middle ground.  Yes, we need to learn to live cooperatively with each other, and with a sense of community.  First, however, we must heal ourselves so that we can not only envision a healed existence, but also act in the present moment based on what we envision.  Do we envision a world which is peaceful, which has abandoned the practice of war?   We must first be peaceful ourselves, having ceased to fight.  Do we wish to live in a world surrounded by the generous beauty of the natural world?  We must first become a part of nature, healing her as we heal ourselves.  Do we wish to live in a world of plenty?  First, we must be plenty ourselves, generously sharing with others of the plenty we have.  Do we wish to live in a world in which we are respected and appreciated for our talents?   First, we must learn to respect others, to appreciate their talents, and to retain our sense of awe, of wonder. We must carefully choose our visions.  Should we envision that which destroys or diminishes others or Nature itself, we will ourselves be destroyed and diminished thereby.  We must be careful choosers, and we must then be that vision we welcome into ourselves.  What we are doing in this present moment is our focus.

Our focus can be expressed in our actions, in our thoughts and in our souls. Whichever ways it is expressed, we must first choose to form and maintain the focus.  Before we can form and use focus, we must wake up and take the responsibility of knowing that no one or no thing else will save us, while we do nothing.  It is time to awaken and carefully create our visons, and to grow in strength to use our focus to heal and nurture our surroundings.  It is time to bring responsibility and creativity, life, and loving nurture as a response to apathy and entropy.  It is up to us.  What are we going to do?

 

Peace, Diane

 

Excuses

I have had the joy and privilege of teaching children from preschool
through middle school level.  Often, they have taught me as much as I
have taught them.  And, whereas lesson content is certainly important,
some of the biggest learning is about life itself and interaction with
others.  An example is how willingly preschoolers absorb the simply
paraphrased Golden Rule. 

Another phenomenon is that when children become of an age to undertake homework, a new issue rears its head – the EXCUSE.  Some children love doing homework, and the idea of the excuse does not engage their attention much.  Others, for a number of reasons, definitely do not want to do it, often spending more effort on evading the requirement than they would on actually fulfilling it.  There are many excuses for the undone work, a classic (and not often offered) excuse being,”The dog ate my homework.”  And, of course, there are sometimes quite valid reasons mingled in with the excuses. 

The thing about an excuse is that it does not acknowledge that the homework was not done; instead, it offers apparent and sometimes quite creative reasons why the student should be given credit without doing the homework.  It does not honestly acknowledge that the homework was not done and that therefore there is not credit for doing the homework. (Exceptions/late acceptances may certainly be given for valid reasons that are honest barriers to getting the work which was intended to be accomplished done.)  The excuse is an attempt to avoid the work and also the consequence for not doing the work.

We have a similar situation in our adult world today.  We all – or at least most of us – want a world which is fairer, less violent, more respectful and caring, and more attentive to the needs of our planet and its denizens.  Most of us – but not all – seem to think that it is the job of the government to create and provide this.   The truth is that we are avoiding responsibility.  No government by itself can possibly create a system which is at the same time fairer, less violent, more respectful and caring, and more attentive to the needs of the planet on which we live.  By its nature, the power of government will first be used to secure the power of that government, and after that, whatever causes the government feels it wants to undertake.  True change does not come from the top down; mutual benefit does not come from the top down.   It comes from the bottom up.  Those of us who are expecting the government – either heavy handed or with a light touch – to secure and provide for us those conditions we need for optimal living, without our doing anything much except to obey and condemn those who disagree, are operating under the same illusion as the student who thinks he or she should get credit for undone work if he or she can offer a creative excuse.  We cannot gain from giving away our power and doing nothing.

Change which comes from the bottom up involves each of those whom that change will touch.  Not many of us live all by ourselves in a cave in the mountains.  We will all be touched by changes and doing the work of those changes involves us all.  We can elect the leaders we want, but with election does not come the ability to shoulder the responsibility of each member of the community.  Those who drop their responsibility have not given it to an authority, although they may have given their decision making power away. The responsibility remains, even if ignored.  We can be certain that if we give our power away and ignore our responsibility, we will get changes which are not to our liking.  Politically, true democracy rests on an informed and participating public – not just a leader/leaders and followers who echo what they say.

In order to achieve the goal of a widely participating public, it is necessary to begin listening to each other as opposed to debating, condemning or overpowering each other.  There is what I (and some others) call the “Law of Paradox”, which states, paraphrased, that if one holds in mind two diametrically opposing concepts long enough, one will eventually arrive at the center between them, which is where the truth is most likely to lie.  If one engages in (or writes) a discussion, as opposed to a debate or a persuasive presentation of one side only, one understands and considers BOTH sides.  Usually, one’s conclusion falls somewhere between the two (or more) sides.  However, even if the conclusion reached is strongly on one side of the spectrum, it is ALWAYS influenced by the opposing perspective.   The process is not competitive. What is sought is truth, not simply the power to “win”, to silence that which disagrees with one’s own particular viewpoint.  Rarely, if ever, is this done by big government.  It is, however, exemplified in the consensus decision making process used by many intentional communities.

People, we each have the responsibility to think, to envision, to discuss, to listen and to COOPERATIVELY create the system and environment in which we wish to live, from the grassroots up. (That does not mean giving in, it simply means not insisting on all one’s own way being the only right way, and it means treating the other with loving kindness.) Those of us who neglect to do that are abandoning both themselves and their fellow beings.  The more who give away their power by abandoning it, the less habitable our world will be.   We are currently on the cusp of change; it is time to wake up.  There are limitless excuses for being lazy, for neglecting to do the work required of us.  The excuses will not give us credit for having done the work.  No work means no credit, and results we do not wish to see, about which we may find out too late.

Let us wake up and stop using excuses to try to get what we want.  Let us realize what is being required of us, to cooperatively and respectfully engage in discussion of how to firmly but peacefully make the changes needed to usher us into a new way of being, known for a long time to those willing to listen.  Our humanity and the existence of the planet and all its denizens, including us, depends on that. 

Peace, Diane