Sophia's Children

“If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.” ~ Emile Zola

Pretty much. We’re seeing this now, and it’s been bubbling underground and erupting for a long time now.

With all that’s madly swirling, it’s a challenge to discern which, or what, to write about — wild storms, wild fires, wild eruptions of uncomfortable truths and the inevitable co-arising of reactionary backlash, all with very personal effects. It’s overwhelming.

The people, animals, and places in the path of the storms, quakes, and wild fires, and the worst of human abuses of power — Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, Florida, Gulf Coast Texas, Northern California, Ireland, Mexico, Mayanmar … and more — directly and direly affected.

One of the latest eruptions of abuse-of-power scandals — with the Harvey Weinstein ‘reveal’ and the #metoo and #tipoftheiceberg voices arising out of the subterranean caves of long-hidden secret shame and silence — voicing the rage and truth that makes a lot of people uncomfortable, because it calls for greater consciousness, respectfulness, and a compassion and moral virtue that’s been sadly lacking (an understatement).

It seems a neurotic doom-sayer’s jackpot, to borrow from a quip in the movie Manhattan Murder Mystery, as swirling chaos and uncomfortable truth finding voice always seems to be. (And yes, the doom-sayers are making the most of it.)

And for each of these, too, the co-arising of generous-heartedness, real courage, people lending kindness and practical help if they’re near the places decimated, and whatever ‘from afar’ support, prayer, assistance, and solidarity might be offered.

Men like Mike Morrell , Charlie Riverman, and architect and author Anthony Lawlor — and there have been more than a few fine and good men speaking out like this — giving thoughtful and respectful voice in the face of the Weinstein (etc) big, uncomfortable ‘reveals’, not reacting, but actually listening, hearing, responding, speaking out.

People like the first-responders in Santa Rosa, California who, along with all of the other urgent and emergency needs that required their attention, noticed and saved a frightened and burned cat hiding under a car. (The feline received care and was reunited with her person.)

A small story, perhaps, but so many of these small and big stories add up to the amazing capacity of the human spirit — finding expression through human beings (and sometimes our beloved animals, too) — to prevail in the face of overwhelming circumstances.

There are stories like these all around the world — the horror and the worst of human behavior, and the co-arising generosity of spirit, kindness, and courage.

The way people, in community and solidarity and good-heartedness, join together and rise from the ashes (literal and metaphorical), like the Phoenix.

We always have a choice in how we see, but moreso how we respond to it, and any meaning or message we might draw from it (or notice arising intuitively).

To respond rather than react, to see and hear from the eyes and ears of the heart, particularly in the face of chaos and the uncertainty it stirs, can sometimes be challenging practice.

Sometimes we react, understandably, and then find our center, open the aperture of our seeing, and find our ability to respond with a generosity of spirit that might amaze even us, and certainly is welcomed by others (as we appreciate and find inspiration in it, too).

“I am proposing that we reconceive the dream. That we consider what would happen if security were not the point of our existence. That we find freedom, aliveness, and power not from what contains, locates, or protects us but from what dissolves, reveals, and expands us.” ~ Eve Ensler, Insecure At Last

The Energies of Now stir up and invite any and all of the above. Which will we choose, and which will we express?

Related Posts:

• In This Moment, I Begin Anew

• When Pulled in All Directions, Center is Up

• Inspirited Leaders: Shadow, Light and Knowing Thyself

• Out of Fear-Spin and Into the Heart, Illuminated

Big Love,

Jamie

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Featured image credit: Phoenix Rising. Image courtesy of All Day 2.