As Conscious Does
It’s already been a hell of a month — floods in India, more shootings in the US, heightened security alerts, the aftermath in Paris. Syrians — will they be welcomed or turned away. It’s endless. And it’s only December 3rd!
My private practice is mirroring the global angst — the discussions about overwhelm (flooding), the anger and rage (shootings, terrorism), the helplessness (refugees).
And then there’s Facebook. What a stream of chaos that marvelous media generates. People fomenting — to which I say, I hear you. I hear you.
I hear what you are saying. May I ask:
What are You DOING? What are you THINKING? What are you CONTRIBUTING to the dialogue? To the ’cause’, to the mindset?
Conscious Is as Conscious Does
What do I mean? I mean I know I have to attend to what I’m creating. In my mind, my home, with my family, my community.
Who do I hate?
Who or what generates a feeling of helplessness in me?
Who or what is helpless in me or in front of me, in my neighborhood, community?
What Garden Are You Tending?
The garden of hatred, rage, kill or be killed, terrorism — it lives in all of us. We are all playing our teensy little part in the Collective Unconscious.
Do you own your plot, your little earthen pile of rage, your weed-choked, barren soil of judgment, fear and victimizing?
What are you doing to care for that little garden? What do you do to weed out your judgment, uproot your fear and compost (in the purest form – from detritus to nutrient-dense material) your victimizing?
Can You Own Your Voice?
Not the one that foments and criticizes, issues platitudes and ‘thou shalt’s’.
Can you own the voice that hates — you, those who are not you, those who vote one way or another, those who support killing wolves or restoring them. Whatever your causes, can you own your hatred?
Because that hatred garden is the one that most needs tending. And when weeded and composted this is the garden that can yield the most fruit. Here. Now. In your home, community, work-life, play-life, love life.
Do You Love Life?
Not the person who sleeps by your side, or who you wish slept by your side. Or the part of you that relishes sleeping alone.
Do you love life as sacred, as a right that all of us have, regardless of creed, dogma or beliefs?
When a suicide bomber kills him or herself and others, do you suppose the bombers family grieves their loss? Do you suppose they feel a void where that life once was — whether they agreed with the political leanings of that person or not?
How Do You Grieve?
Do you grieve only for those who reflect your point of view, or can you reach your hand across the aisle, the mile or the continents and oceans to acknowledge the pain that all of us feel in one form or another?
Do you grieve for the Earth and foment the fracking while blowing your leaves and riding your jet ski?
Is your grief in alignment with your choices?
Conscious Is As Conscious Does
What can you do to align with what you believe?
How can you find a way to step in to doing something small (that just might be huge!), right where you are?
Can I solve the crisis in Paris? No.
Do I know how to stop ISIL? No.
Have I got an answer for the shootings in the US figured out? No.
Do I even understand the complexity of these issues? No.
What can I do?
I attend to my thoughts. I own and release my hatred, my judgment, my fear, my rage. I seek understanding — with my neighbors, my friends, my clients, my colleagues, my students, my family.
I cultivate peace. In my heart, in my being, in my community, in my business.
I do what I can, where I can with what I have to offer.
I donate to food banks
I pay for shelter for homeless families
I give away clothing, coats, mittens, hats, boots – I don’t need more than one of most anything.
I live simply
I rake my leaves
I use a push mower for my lawn
I recycle
I avoid shopping to assuage emotions
I drive as little as possible (and way more than I’d like)
I avoid network news
I focus on what I want to create rather than what I fear
I stay in my body and I nourish my body
I avoid New Age mumbo-jumbo and 5 step answers to complex questions — can you really find your purpose in 5 hours, 5 steps or 5 days just because a celebrity says you can?
Conscious Is As Conscious Does
The Solstice is coming. The return to the light.
Will you light a candle and invite the light?
Will you stand with peace in your heart and invite peace into your world?
Will you let go of your side, position, cause long enough to understand that in the opposite polarity of where you stand there are human beings just like you with families they love and burdens that they carry?
At the end of the day, at the end of time, whatever we create, we’re all going to have to take ownership for what we contribute to the Collective. Together. All of us. We created this. Conscious is as conscious does.
Peace be with you.
