Our surreal reality show

Hey dear Readers, how are you all holding up? I have been struggling to find words to describe all the myriad feelings, thoughts and questions which come and go during these peculiar days on planet Earth. Tonight’s blog post will be a bit of a ramble, I’m afraid.

The reality show we call life is becoming ever more surreal with each passing day. One incredulous thing after the next keeps happening, with increasing intensity. More and more, the veils are thinning, and people are awakening to the nightmare we’ve been living under. Dimensionality is bifurcating, which is a crazy way of saying that awakening humans continue to ascend into higher dimensions, or frequencies on the cosmic spectrum of being. I immersed myself in the 10 day live event, The Harmonic Convergence 2020, from July 5 through 14^th. No, I personally did not see starships with my naked eyes as I meditated in the park on the night of the 13^th, although according to the organizers, lots of people did. This didn’t surprise me, however I definitely communed with benevolent and loving beings from some of the star systems in our galaxy. It was the highlight of my summer, given all the factors. Check out this link to learn more about ET contact during the Harmonic Convergence.

After the blissy Harmonic Convergence days, the past week felt like living in a foggy place, which is such a paradoxical feeling! How can one go from feeling so connected to the cosmos, the star nations, and higher realms, to coming down and realizing, “Oh right, but I’m still here in this reality full of Covid fears all around, political chaos and intrigue, and an ever encroaching climate crisis in full swing?” It’s pretty exhausting. Are you also feeling the confusion of this time, dear Readers?

I’ve been paying particular attention to the very bumpy plans for reopening schools here in the United States, and especially in Colorado where I live. The school districts are having a hard time sticking to a plan, since the numbers of people infected with Covid 19 keeps changing like the tides. As an educator who is looking for work right now, I’m especially interested in what school is going to actually look like for fall semester. And it doesn’t look good. There’s a long list of what will need to change to keep students and teachers ‘safe’ in school, and it’s heartbreaking. On the list are things like, No touching. No sitting in groups. All students must face one direction in separate desks. Masks are required, and highly encouraged for the youngest students. This means students and teachers won’t be able to easily read facial expressions, nor see smiles or laughter, scared or tearful faces. Schools up until now have been prioritizing Social Emotional Learning, which in my mind requires being able to clearly read other people’s faces, body language, and to touch each other when that is needed. How do school administrators expect young students to not play together, hug their teacher, or get along well in such a sterilized, anti-human environment?

It’s a conundrum. Perhaps one of the saddest items on the Forbidden list is “No Singing.” Whaat??  They might as well just flatly state: NO FUN for the school year 2020-2021. Because with what they’ve got planned, that is exactly what school will feel like for most. Teachers are afraid (some admitted they are terrified) of returning to classrooms this fall. Parents are confused and many don’t feel they have enough information yet to make the critical decision of whether to send their kids back into school buildings or keep them home and sacrifice in-person learning. Still others have no choice—the spring was a bust, and they need their kids to go back to school and be there all day for economic reasons.

There is no clear path forward during this pandemic for the majority of us. Those of us (myself included) who prefer making a plan and carrying it out, are confounded by current events. What are some of the major life lessons of this time? The old rules no longer apply. What used to work for getting by in life doesn’t work anymore. What once felt stable and reliable no longer exists. Our government leaders don’t have many answers, and many have shown their true colors as extraordinarily incompetent. Life feels more uncertain, and in some ways dangerous, than ever before for many people. The future is wide open for interpretation. Therefore, besides being extremely disconcerting, the moment we find ourselves in is also strangely exhilarating. Because it’s like the I-Ching hexagram—Great challenge is also great opportunity. For those who are visionary, brave, and creative enough, this may be our species’ defining moment moving forward. How do we want our lives on Gaia to be in five, ten, fifty years? Will we stand for authoritarian rule to become the norm in previously democratic societies? Will we choose to create a dystopian future world that nobody wants to live in? Or, will enough of us wake up just in time to stop the madness that is plainly on display by world leaders, and create a healthy, just and joyful future world for everyone? We are on the precipice of major changeover. What do you think? Where do you stand? What kind of future world do you wish for your children’s children?  These questions matter. If you haven’t taken the time to consider them deeply, now would be a perfect moment to do so. Thoughts are things, they create our reality. What reality show would you prefer to be living in?

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Our Summer of Dissonance

image via http://earthawakens.today/dark-night-of-the-soul-quote-of-the-day-3/

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary online, dissonance is defined as:

1 a: lack of agreement, the dissonance between the truth and what people want to believe; especially : inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one’s actions and one’s beliefs;
b: an instance of such inconsistency or disagreement; “the mingling of bitter comedy and stark tragedy produces sharp dissonances”— F. B. Millett

2: a mingling of sounds that strike the ear harshly : a mingling of discordant sounds; especially, music : a clashing or unresolved musical interval or chord.

Synonyms of dissonance include: conflict, disaccord, discord, discordance, discordancy, disharmony, dissension (also dissention), dissent, dissidence, disunion, disunity, division, friction, infighting, inharmony, schism, strife, variance, war, warfare.
(Citation: “Dissonance.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dissonance. )

As any skimming of news websites clearly shows, Dissonance is now the buzzword of our current times. Those of us living in the United States are immersed in our collective dissonance 24/7, with no relief save for turning off all devices, airplane mode or taking an off-grid getaway.

Case in point: President Trump travelled to Mount Rushmore National Monument on Friday, July 3, to hold a political rally for the Independence Day weekend. I guess one could argue it was a savvy marketing campaign—the backdrop for his barely veiled, White Supremist propaganda was the faces of four American presidents carved into the granite rocks of the monument. The link to the NYTimes article is here.

As America’s POTUS denounced “dangerous left-wing fascists” who are defacing “national heroes” by toppling many statues of White Supremists (including confederate heroes) across the country, he conveniently neglected to mention that the Coronavirus infection rate increased by 90% over the past couple of weeks. Dissonance. As the Trump administration continues its deliberate denial, fact twisting and blatant lying about the pandemic’s effects on all aspects of American life, the tones and cadences of dissonance reverberate ever louder throughout our collective souls.

Then there’s America’s national shame about racism that continues to lay bare the core wound of its founding and accumulation of wealth through the slavery of and violence against Black people. Since the George Floyd murder by police at the end of May, a tidal wave of protests, opinion pieces, journalists, political voices, writers, and scholars have clamored to amplify this collective moment of dissonance in the hopes that finally, finally, White people will get it. Systemic racism is everyone’s problem, perpetuated by White silence and complacency to the status quo. One of these voices, Marvin Blakely, a civil trial lawyer, in this weekend’s NYTimes opinion section, writes,

And how could I calmly describe how people of color are penalized for not knowing and adhering to the culture of white America, while no value is placed on our culture, which they so freely appropriate for profit? How do I help these friends understand that the solution to the race problem lies with them? Ultimately a conversation is just more talk. What about taking action, no matter how small?

If they truly wanted to be of help and have meaningful conversations, with me or anyone else, I decided to tell them, they should begin by acknowledging that the problem lies in the hearts and minds of them, their brothers, sisters, parents, and in-laws.

I told them that a conversation in which you acknowledged years of undeniable oppression and then suggested Black people “move on” was as offensive as taking no action and remaining silently complicit. After the acknowledgment, I would ask that they educate themselves (and others) and, before engaging in those conversations that white America suddenly finds necessary, listen. After completing Steps 1, 2 and 3, you are ready not just to talk, but to act in a manner consistent with our mutual humanity.

Dissonance. Discord. Disharmony. Dissolution. Disrespect. Disregard. Disease. Dis. The prefix is defined as: negation, reversal. It is undeniable to the vast majority of us by now that we are smack in the middle of a collective Dark Night of the Soul. Our collective soul is being forced to face its shadow. In Jungian terms, the shadow of the soul is made up of all the unresolved, denied, repressed, hidden and shamed elements of our ego. Until the shadow is exposed to the light of acknowledgment, clearly seen and somehow forgiven, it remains as a force of negation, a receptacle of humanity’s sewage. We are in the midst of shining the strongest, most piercing light yet on our collective, core wound and its devastating consequences on entire sections of the human race. This is the most important work we must collectively do now. No matter how frustrating, horrifying, nauseating, disgusting, or dirty, facing our collective shadow is imperative for healing the unspeakable wound we must all heal.

Dear Readers, the moment we are living through now defies description. Though many (including me) attempt to describe what we are facing, ultimately we are rendered speechless. The dissonance runs so deeply through the core of our humanity, that it is tearing us apart, quite literally. What can we do, how can we hold the dissonance without breaking into a million pieces?

One suggestion is to simply surrender and let the pain of our collective wound open you. You may experience what feels like dying, a pressure so tremendous that it is unbearable. Yet, if you are willing to let the forces of dissonance break you open, what you find within the heart of that pain will astound you. Rumi once wrote of a field that exists beyond the pain of the world. And that field absolutely exists, waiting eternally for anyone curious and brave enough to find it. It is a place of utter calm, of peace beyond human understanding, and of constant love. It is not far from each one. Just as the composer understands the supreme importance of silence within a symphony, we too must learn to understand the importance of finding the depth of wisdom within the heart of pain. Dissonance leads to eventual harmony when one is willing to do the work.

Staying grounded in a pandemic

image via http://kristypace.com/

Dear Readers, how are you managing during these ultra-stress-filled days of pandemic across our world? I am sending each of you copious amounts of calm, emerald green light, silver light of healing, and crystalline light of clarity to help fortify you as you navigate the days and weeks ahead.

My own mental, emotional and physical bodies seem to be continuously cycling through stages of calm, feeling grounded and able to handle the latest news cycle, to experiencing the effects of stress and anxiety on all levels, and then eventually cycling back to peace again. This is happening at least daily, if not hourly sometimes. As the situation becomes more extreme and challenging, we will all be stretched in ways we probably didn’t even know we could be—and it doesn’t feel good! My physical body is certainly feeling very uncomfortable and in pain in certain areas. I’m not ill, and don’t have any symptoms of the coronavirus, thankfully. Yet, it is extremely disconcerting to hear what news reporters and government authorities are telling all of us. Within the past 48 hours, Spain and France have been put on lockdown and quarantines are in place for nearly all their citizens. Today (Monday, March 16, 2020) here in the United States, the president announced that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that no groups of more than 10 people gather, people refrain from going to restaurants and bars, and practice social distancing (standing at least 6 feet from the next person). This afternoon, the city and counties around San Francisco went into quarantine, as the mayor asked all residents to stay home except for getting essentials like food and meds. The greater San Francisco area has around 7 million people. New York city likewise has gone into quarantine, with all the normal activities of that metropolis coming to a standstill. One by one, large cities across the United States are following suit and it is very likely that nearly all of them will be in quarantine status very soon.

I think it is not an exaggeration to state that almost no one alive on our planet today has lived through a time quite like the current pandemic. Surely, many millions have lived through horrific wars, intense natural disasters, and epidemics of various kinds over the last decades. But there is something unique about the spread of the novel coronavirus that is leaving millions of us in shock and awe. It feels like we are in a bizarre, dystopian reality show, which is being written by the human collective minute by minute.

Dear Readers, part of the mission of this blog is to encourage you to find the interrelatedness between us all and the natural world. To make the connections we have to each other and Mother Gaia as strong and as compassionate as possible.  To inspire you to dig down deep into your heart and soul for answers to life’s perplexing and confounding problems. At this pivotal moment in time, we have reached a true crossroads. This coronavirus pandemic is asking each of us, and all of us, to fully grasp how utterly connected we are with one another and with our planet. We are being challenged to go beyond the old paradigm of separation and to see with new eyes just how profoundly we are one people who share it all—down to the very smallest living particles in our bodies. This is a moment. We, who are willing to see clearly, must understand that this virus pandemic is forcing us to confront this truth, and let down our egoistic self in favor of raising up our collective self. In our mandated “social isolation” from one another, we have the tremendous opportunity to reach out in every way we can imagine—in the virtual world of conferences, classes, church services, human services, workspaces, as well as entertainment, sports, shopping, and socializing.

How creative can we be in the face of crisis; the pandemic is asking us. We already have excellent examples all around, both of generosity and pettiness. What of the Tennessee brothers who bought up tens of thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to sell for inflated prices on Amazon.com, only to be told they couldn’t do it? They ended up, shame-faced, donating them all to the greater good. Or the lyrical story of Italians who, unable to come out into the streets like they are accustomed to do, instead opening their windows and balconies to sing together? People across the world are helping each other in ways small and big. Many thousands of health care workers are dedicated to helping the sick and infected, at possibly huge cost to themselves.

It has been said, it is only when confronted with an emergency that the best in human nature presents itself. Therefore, Crisis is also an Opportunity. I believe this is a moment when we can each choose to find our core strength and courage, when we can step up to the opportunities presented to us for showing compassion and love in the face of adversity. We have a real chance now to lay down the old games of greed, selfishness and pettiness. Life is giving us a new gameboard and we can make up new rules for how to live on Earth. All the things we have been dreaming of—a world based on freedom, love, truth, justice, peace and goodness—are within our grasp. This pandemic could be our grand opportunity to create the new rules moving forward. We don’t HAVE to return to the old normal once we’re on the other side of it. We can forgive transgressions now, we can live justly now, we can give generously now, and build on that momentum moving into the future.

Dear Readers, I encourage each of you reading this post to dig down deep and find your true strength and reason for being alive on the planet. What are you here to do? What are you living for? What kind of world do you wish to build for your children and great grandchildren? This crisis moment can show us in stark terms that not only is a better world possible, but it can happen with lightning speed. In just one month in China, because manufacturing came to a standstill, carbon emissions were cut by 25%. That is an enormous amount of pollution that didn’t occur in a very short period of time. We have the solutions to the problems humanity faces. Perhaps, a year or two from now, we will collectively be able to see the real path to solving them as one of the great learnings from our current pandemic.

Please take all the precautions you can at this time to keep yourself, your family and your community safe. Keep calm, be brave, and shine your light for all who are still in the darkness.