This is no ordinary time. There is nothing mundane about the space, place or time we are in. It is for me right now, unnerving and unsettling and requires enormous effort to remain grounded and responsive rather than reactionary or turning a blind eye. It appears that rudeness, self righteousness, power plays, lies and lack of accountability have taken center stage. Everyone is talking/shouting. No one is listening. All that is ugly and base is out in the open and lends a feeling of despair that permeates the current state of affairs.
But dear ones, please know, in this time, even now, that is still here which has never left us and never, ever will leave us without comfort, without hope. Love. Love bears all things. Love is stronger than fear, than anger, even death. This still remains. We just have to dig a little deeper to connect to this love which connects all beings in the web of life.
I share often in teaching women who are incarcerated, in rehab, and in classes for survivors that at least for me, emotions such as shame, blame, hostility, resentment, anger, and fear are so easily available to me. They are right there, and quick to surface, to judge, to set up camp firmly in the illusion of separation. Tent pegs firmly pounded into my psyche. It is far easier to live in the illusion of separation because it comes so naturally to us as part of a physiological response to perceived threat.
It takes far more courage to sit in the uncomfortableness of these emotions, breathing ,observing, witnessing, allowing. This is the alchemy of the psyche. In this process, these emotions become something else, awareness arises from connection. We become more in tune with the sacredness of our very breath and that of others. We become aware of love, not as a personal emotion, but as the essence of who we are, how we are created and how we are to be with one another.
So, for me right now. I want to show up for what I am for. I am continuing to write my letters, make phone calls, organize in my community. I am also grounding in the sacred texts of the Bible, the poetry of Rumi, Wendall Berry, Alice Walker, bell hooks, Mary Oliver and Hafiz. I am taking time to dance, to sing, to come to my yoga mat often in tears, rolling around on the ground and somehow always ending up in a Warrior Series smiling and crying at the same time. Joy and pain are two sides of the same coin. We can continue to open our hearts right now. To all who need love. To ourselves, to each other. This wild and precious life. Even here, even now.
