Tag: hope

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

 

The Mystery of Paradox

It feels like a strange time just now.  Even the weather is strange.  The temperatures and ambience in the air signal spring; the amount of sunlight signals still winter.  My body does not seem to quite know what to do with that.  On the one hand, it wants to leap forward with spring.  On the other hand, it wants to hang back with winter and sleep.

I was going to write about something which I can see is true – a broad truth.  However, I have begun to see its paradox – that the opposite is true as well, and that the encompassing truth lies somewhere in the middle.  The broad truth is that although marching and protesting is good, eliminating fossil fuels is good, planting trees is good, giving up plastics is good, and so many more activities are excellent, it is not enough.  It will take all of us making difficult lifestyle changes such as releasing an addiction to convenience, focusing on cooperative decisions and the good of the group more than on individual decisions and the good of the self, mutual respect, ceasing war and competition that places winning above all else, and other deep changes if we are to avert the difficult effects of climate change.  In addition, these changes have an undefined but not indefinite timeline in which to take effect.

However, the opposite is also true.  No one of us can change the world alone.  None of us is responsible for making other people behave in the ways we can see are needed.  No one of us can be devalued for not achieving at the broad level; by ourselves it is not possible, even though we may do much.   Each little thing each of us does is valuable.  Each little increment we achieve is an attainment.  Even if we are making no visible progress towards averting the difficult effects of climate change, or even if we are one of those contributing to the rapid progress of those ominous effects, we cannot be judged – we are still valuable, and our actions still contribute in ways we may not see just now.

I have yet to arrive at the center point of this paradox.  Perhaps it lies in faith and hope.  Most probably, for each of us it lies in our extent of personal growth.  I think it may involve the willingness to continually grow, and to value each stage of our growth.  In the later parts of The Celestine Prophecy series by Dan Redfield,  the advanced people who have created harmony with nature and each other are dispersed by destructive forces (read it, I will not give away the plot), but come back in the next book to help the protagonists grow and avert global disaster.  That may be a good metaphor for us.

No, I don’t think we need to give up or think that we have done enough already. We have not.  Neither do I think that we should chastise ourselves for not doing more than we would like to be doing.   We need to keep trying, and at the same time, give ourselves room to grow and be in the moment that is.   If we keep both ends of the paradox beside each other in our minds, I do believe that eventually we, you and I, will arrive at the center of that paradox, and recognize it when we do.

May we have the courage to continue, and the compassion to love ourselves (and each other) where we are right now.

Peace, Diane

We Really Do Matter

” I have marched, petitioned, written letters to the editor, made phone calls and donated, but despite all I can do, nothing seems to have changed.   I feel I cannot make a difference.”  The words refer to the current crisis of climate change, uttered during a conversation about that topic.  The words are poignant, but the speaker is not the only one who feels that way.  At some time or another, each of us experiences frustration at not being able to inspire the changes we want to see, and many also experience a strong desire to give up and stop working.  Paradoxically, while we experience that desire, we also know that actually doing that will not bring lasting happiness.

I, too, experience such discouragement.  At times, it seems that no matter what words I use, they will simply echo back from the void of inertia, slip into the antithesis of what I am trying to challenge, and perish unread and unconsidered.  At such times, it is hard to continue.  Yet, giving up would simply create more hopelessness, and negate the essence of who I am, re-incorporating it into a standard status-quo.  No wealth or luxury (or the “righteousness” of its opposite) can soothe the injection of pain resulting from giving up.

I would that it were easier for us to continue.  I would that we were not surrounded by the integrated tangle we have made for ourselves by assuming that we can create better than the wisdom of nature, or the tenets of Wisdom.  However, wishing does not make it so.  We are indeed all linked, whether in chaos or creation, or both at the same time.  This connection, while it may seem at times to present an insurmountable obstacle, is in fact an innate strength upon which we all may draw as we continue living and doing our parts to nurture each other and our planet.  Understanding this can lift us up; acting on the understanding can help us perceive often imperceptibly slow forward movement.

We need community; we need others with whom to work, strive and share.  We need those whose efforts commingle with ours to heal ourselves and our planet.  We need to act on the knowledge that we are all linked, and that each of us does make a difference to the nature and quality of the whole.  Our connection is creative – even if we are joined in creating destruction – and allowing ourselves to be separated each from the other, perceiving the separation rather than the link, inhibits our creative manifestation.   Many ways exist to connect.  Some are those of technology (not the same as physical proximity, but yes, a kind of connection), discussion groups, action/service groups, economic cooperatives, extended family, neighborhoods and co-housing, monastic groups, intentional communities, to name a few.  These groups, each in its own way, support their members (and sometimes others, too) and devote their pooled energy into influencing the creation of the as-yet-unformed that is to come.

Another obstacle many of us experience is the perceived lack of time.  Often our experience is that when all the work done to support ourselves is finished, there remains the maintenance work at home to sustain us, and some time spent to connect with family and friends.  That done, perhaps we can eke out a little time to read, exercise or learn and grow in one way or another.   When all that is accomplished, there remains little time to sleep, even if we have been operating with the stress of full speed ahead.  Community is helpful in this way as well.  Work shared (remunerative or for maintenance) means less time each individual needs to spend on tasks.  Shared effort means support for each other.  Shared knowledge means learning and growing in the course of being.  Time saved means less time spent rushing and more time available for sleep and healing, and more time in which to pursue those efforts about which one is passionate.

“It is all so complex,” one might protest.  “We are becoming more fully aware of the consequences of climate change, yet it seems that averting the full effects of climate change cannot be addressed without also engaging the issues with which it is linked.”  It is as if the totality of mistakes made in human society are the drivers of the changes on the planet as a whole.  Yes, fossil fuels are certainly a large part.  But what about people trapped residing in marginalized areas or substandard housing, an agricultural system seemingly bent on destroying the life of the soil as it goes about chemically killing everything it cannot sell, factory farms selling meat from abused animals while polluting ecosystems, a political and economic system structured to exclude or minimize minorities, escalating wars, and technology fever, which separates us from the earth and gives us the illusion that it will protect us from change?  These are a few of today’s issues; they are related to climate change.  Cause for hopelessness?   Not when we realize that each little bit helps; when enough drops have fallen into the bucket, the bucket will overflow.

Let us hold on to hope, learn to feel the interconnectedness of all things, gather into community, and be aware that we do, indeed, matter.  Anything, small or large, that we do counts.  Let us “hold the vision and keep the faith” and continue to contribute from the time we manage to devote and the talents we have been given.  In this way, we continue to grow, helping the earth and others in the process.

Peace, Diane