For many of us, worries about the economic and political scene (e.g. the stock market, healthcare and the federal deficit) and fear of an unknown future have our blood pressure rising along with our credit card debt. Fear has become a powerful tool for both sides to wield in the public debate and entrenched polarization ensures that nothing moves forward.
At the same time, an increasing number of people are seeking out pharmaceuticals to treat their depression, thinking it is the answer to maintaining functionality, while avoiding the cause and ignoring the signal that something is wrong.
Clearly, when we look out at the world, what appears to be broken and needs to be fixed is everywhere. There is an intersection between our own psychological and spiritual health and the actual landscape of our life.
Tom Atlee of the Co-Intelligence Institutes has observed that “…evolution, like water behind a dam, knows where all the cracks are, and is working on them right now with increasing intensity.”
Could it be that something new is trying to happen, seeking the transformation of the Whole? Might our out-of-balance world be due to increased spiritual energy seeking to awaken the values of the heart – compassion, generosity, forgiveness, and a desire to live in harmony with others?
I propose that the only way forward through this mine field is to befriend our problems as the messengers that they are, highlighting the empty, loveless or meaningless places in our life that thirst for something meaningful and real.
To anxiously hold to the way things were, wanting no disruptions in our lives, is to avoid finding answers, because the current status quo is really closely tied to the malaise on the planet.
I remember being surprised years ago when I read Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore. One of the chapters he titled “The Gift of Depression.” I had to think about that.
What if we learned to suffer more effectively? Rather than failing to notice the opportunities and the learning our challenges offer, we could see the problem and the solution as two sides of the same coin.
In fact, today’s suffering could become tomorrow’s happiness. Who would you be today if it weren’t for your suffering? Think back. Wasn’t there a jewel of awareness and growth offered in almost every tribulation?
Regardless of whether society is ready yet to transform, individuals who bring their lives into balance and harmony, restoring the love, hope and unity that is their birthright actually aid the possibilities for change in the wider world.
We could, as Tom Atlee suggests, “use our differences and our challenges creatively, not simply as problems to avoid or solve, but as signs of new life pushing to emerge – and as invitations into a new, more whole tomorrow.”
In the next few years, remembering this invitation will be of utmost importance. Profound changes are ahead and whether we move forward gracefully, rather than kicking and screaming, depends on our ability to see problems as friends and to let go of the past into a “not-yet- known” future, rather than fear the unknown.
I leave you with this link (www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWyTxCsIXE4) to a YouTube video called Flatland for you to contemplate as we move into new dimensions of being.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Quote of Note
“Crisis is the dangerous breaking of glass that opens locked windows of opportunity that require perceptiveness and courage to move through, with care.”
~ Tom Atlee, founder, Co-Intelligence Institute
