I have a suggestion
Hi everyone,
I’ve been drifting in and out of a fevered state for the last week. In bed. Sick. Unable to work. Unable to go on a mad grocery shopping spree like the rest of the country (my brother is buying eggs and milk for me as I write this).
After a few days, I noticed that I was feeling really anxious. I was being affected by the social media posts I was reading, and the panic that seems to circulate as quickly as the virus does. I decided to stop reading anything that’s an opinion-piece, or anything that predicts the future for anybody else. And within a few hours, I felt way better. Clearer. Less anxious.
I went back to bed and slept, and asked the earth for guidance, and in my half-asleep state, I started to feel the deeper pulse of the earth, nudging at my edges, showing me that it was not panicked. That the trees weren’t panicked. That the squirrels, running around in the rain, were not panicked.
****
At a time like this, when the entire world feels like chaos, and we cannot for a moment determine what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone a month from now, we are all scared and scrambling for reassurance and answers.
We want certainty. But certainty doesn’t exist.
In times like this, we turn to people we perceive as authority figures for answers. And how those people, despite maybe not having the answers themselves, somehow feel compelled to come up with answers, because they feel valued when they have the answers, and we feel safe when they have the answers.
And this is how the world turns; how society moves forwards. We ask for reassurance, people step in as authorities. It's the entire 'system' in a microcosm.We give them power, so that we can feel safe.
And when we do this, we're all holding up the system as it is: supporting it, reinforcing it, feeding it.
The reason we do this, is that we don’t know there is another way:
Something deeper.
More profound.
And accessible to all of us.
We’ve been taught that it doesn’t exist, and that we need to ask our authorities, or other people, how to feel, but in reality it’s been there the whole time, giving us little nudges and reminders.
What is it?
It’s magic.
(or whatever word you’d rather use for an invisible force that is constantly there, underlying everything, and so much vaster and more powerful than anything we can see, name and understand).
In the face of all this, I have a suggestion for another approach:
Be uncomfortable.
Un-know.
Survey the unpredictable future, as unexplored terrain that might get rocky or dangerous, but might also just fade into an easy ramble.
None of us know where it's going. We CAN'T know. But we can stop running from the discomfort of it, and feel the flutters of fear that we get any time we face the unknown.
We can learn to stand in that uncomfortable space, and to feel empowered within it... Maybe even enjoy it.
When you can learn to do this, you’ll find that the space created is filled up, like water rushing in across a parched riverbed. You become filled, held, and supported by magic. And all of a sudden, this time of uncertainty becomes one of great power: a nexus point, poignant in its significance.
Does this sound like something you want to learn?
Then make sure you’re signed up for my emails (see above, under ‘connect’), and check your email tomorrow, because I have something super special for you.
In the meantime, I want to hear from you:
-What’s your biggest fear right now?
-In lieu of reassurance about the future, what else do you think would make this time easier for you?
-If you could somehow have trust, despite not knowing what’s going to happen, would that help?
-How would you feel if you were connected to a deeper sense of magic and poignance in this de-stabilizing time?
And, most importantly:
Would you like to be guided, over the course of a few days, into feeling less anxious, more rooted, more surrendered, and more trusting of the bigger picture and your place in it?
I read every response that you all send me, and am really looking forward to hearing your answers.
See you tomorrow for some fun…
And for now, check on your neighbours. Wash your hands. Come and join in the fun conversations on Wonderkin. Share your stockpiles of toilet paper with strangers. Focus on keeping your immune system healthy by laughing a lot. We are all just fools, stepping into the unknown, on this wild ride on a sentient rock hurtling through space, somehow missing the orbit of all the other rocks and fireballs out there. Maybe it's a rollercoaster track that none of us can actually see...
*big hugs from afar, which are the only type of socially acceptable hugs right now*
-Rebecca