I received some great insight listening to a podcast* this week. My insight is this is a great time in our lives to not know.
Not know?! What?
Yes, I realized we all seem to want to talk about what is right and wrong. Who is a good guy and who is not. What side is right, what choice is right. We are thinking, thinking, thinking- frantically clutching to something that will resolve all our worries and fears.
However… try this idea on for size. Everything is changing right now. Every day we learn about different opinions, different sorts of research going on with the virus, news about racial inequalities. There are new books, new podcasts and new information. Everything is changing. Yes, I know that makes some of you want to panic but please, just take a deep breath.
Our world has become unsustainable. Our natural resources are in danger. Our environment is changing. There’s a virus that we didn’t have a year ago and we have no clear solution to that. There is more visible racial injustice that is opening some of our eyes for the first time to how unfair our world is. Unfair to black and brown people, unfair to women, unfair to the poor, unfair to immigrants, unfair to animals… I’ll stop. I’m making my panic want to rise too.
Our awareness is broadening. We are awakening to our world in new ways. We are remembering that we are all in this together, globally. This is massive change for all of us. Think about all the changes you have faced this year that you never imagined could happen. These changes are not like a light switch, one day on and the next off. They’re a sort of process of ebb and flow. New information arrives and helps us see situations differently. It’s a process of change and we are in the thick of it. Change is our vehicle to a better world.
So, with all this shifting, awakening and changing, how can we imagine that today we will know the one right answer? There are thousands of issues to be resolved in time. We are seeing dysfunction in our government, in our medical care, in pharmaceuticals, how we manage and care for natural resources. We know that we do not treat one another fairly and equally. We are awakening to the fact that we have built a world that isn’t working well anymore. What to do?
There is no one man or woman who can fix this. There is no one political party that has all the answers. This is not an easy problem we are facing so there will be no easy solution. My personal solution is to work on me first. I must look within and calm myself. I must give myself and change some time. We don’t have all the information yet so how can we choose solutions. Instead perhaps we might each choose to take loving action for good. That might mean being kinder to your neighbor or to a stranger. We might stop and take a breath and remember that we are ALL in this together so yes, it’s not all about me! It has to be about us… not us vs. them. There is no them. There’s only us here. Creating a “them” is at the root of the problems to me. But I’ll have that for another blog.
So, for now, choose to be kind. Choose to help as you can. Choose to learn in peaceful, loving ways. Choose to sow love, not fear and hatred.
It’s okay to not know the answers right now.
It’s okay to not take sides.
It’s okay to find some middle ground that feels right to you.
It’s okay to take time to adjust, explore being hopeful even if you’re not sure of exactly what is happening.
It’s okay to identify with a candidate you feel will work mostly for the good.
It’s okay for you to try to work mostly for the good.
It’s okay to learn new information as it becomes available and change how you work mostly for the good.
So my answer is to slow down. Take a deep breath. Remember that there is no one person to blame for all the problems in our world and there is no one solution. However, I do believe that blaming is a cop out. It puts the responsibility for fixing our broken world on someone else. No one else can fix this world. You can fix your corner of the world. I can work hard to fix me and my corner. We can both choose to be loving and kind to others… no blame, just love.
It’s not a quick fix. Hopefully it’s a very longterm path of choosing love, kindness, unity, fairness and in time even, wisdom. Think more with your heart, less with your head and when you catch yourself blaming “them,” remember that there’s no them… there’s only us.
Breathe and love.
❤️
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*The podcast that I found so nourishing is from East Forest, a musician, composer, teacher, facilitator and much more, I’m sure. EastForest.org/podcast titled Episode 125 – Radha – Krishna Roundtable