I’m thinking about you all in these strange and uncertain times, this great unraveling, revealing, and transition that is continuing to make itself known in louder ways. Many felt this coming. Personally, what has played out in the last couple years – and particularly in the last couple months – has felt like a preparation for what is occurring right now. What has been moving through my waking life, dreams, guidance, and through my relationships has been significant, loud, and perfectly placed. Reflecting on this, I've been feeling astounded and grateful. I keep hearing this echoed from others, that they've lately been recognizing similar lines of happenings and increasing serendipities. This is a very good time to listen to what comes through you. It is a good time for vulnerability. It is a good time for connection, despite physical distance.
You belong to yourself and we are for each other.
In unraveling and up-rootedness comes opportunity to reassess and connect to what matters most. A time to co-create new futures, visions of which often arrive from realms that we don’t often collectively acknowledge but to which we are all a part. A time to connect more deeply and more vulnerably and more routinely to our centered selves, to one another, and to the larger living world. To be slow. We often forget that we are part of a fabric: the way you feel and move and think affects the way others feel and move and think. We are constantly co-creating one another. Lately, I have been practicing closing my eyes and imagining all the extraordinary beings – human and more-than-human—that I've been fortunate to encounter in my life. In times when I've felt isolated or alone, I've been soothed by remembering that I'm connected to each and every one of them (you) even without physical proximity. In these moments of awareness, "I" am suddenly so much larger and so much more alive than I believed myself to be.
You belong to yourself and we are for each other.
It is critical to acknowledge, here, that the processes of slowing down and connecting are not universally accessible or are only partially accessible to some. Trauma, marginalization, restricted access to time, money, and other resources, and the utter shock of this all can inhibit or hinder access to connection and feelings or realities of safety, security and met needs. We all exist in a complex makeup of systems that are designed to devalue and cause substantial harm to some, obstruct access and safety to some, and give power and security to others. In times like this, these pre-existing inequities become more visible and more pronounced and we're tasked with becoming more cognizant of our privileges and positionality. How can we create safety and security and wellbeing for everyone? If you do not feel as though you will personally be impacted by a threat, remember that others will and that we have a responsibility towards one another.
You belong to yourself and we are for each other.
Let us make space for one another’s very real feelings, whatever they may be. There is no "how we should feel", there is just "how we feel". Anxiety is high right now. Fear is a very real human experience. In response to a threat, the creatures that we are respond diligently with very old wisdom. We are wired to fight or flight or freeze for our own survival (therefore, for our collective survival!). Fear can be honored, as its role is to keep you alive. Recognize it, be thankful, let it move through you, and, eventually, it will move beyond you. Focus on taking care of you, first. If we have access to feelings of peace, let us offer that to our dear ones, neighbors, and the wider community. Reaching out from a grounded energy can be the most valuable contribution. Presence is massively healing.
You belong to yourself and we are for each other.
The truth attempts to pour through us at all times. The truth looks at us as vessels, as portals, as entryways into the world who yearns to be full of only that. When we don't let it through, we are asked in louder and louder ways. Friends, we’re being called. We’ve been being called for a long while now and it will just keep getting louder. Let’s listen and find new ways of holding one another and creating space for one another. Let's cultivate connection through common humanity and shared vulnerability. It's the way in and the way through. Coronavirus is a crisis and an opportunity steeped inside of other crisis and opportunities (such as climate change). We're experiencing such great loss right now, and the truth is that we've already been experiencing such great loss. Crisis is a catalyst. It asks us, what ways have we been living? What ways have we not been fully alive? In what ways are we acting as separate "individuals"? What does community care look like? Who is suffering and how can that be alleviated? What systems need to be dismantled and transformed? How do we transform them? What are we willing to leave behind? What were we not seeing and how can I be more attentive? How can we be more ethical, more responsible? More caring? What are the old ways and what will be the new ways?
This is a potent space in which we will grieve, remember, dream, create, and get closer. What questions are you asking right now? What are you understanding that was previously unclear? What do you hope for and commit to in this transformation? What do you need? What gifts do you have to offer to others?
Remember: You belong to yourself and we are for each other.