Sea
Change
“When
you can’t go forward, and you can’t go backward, and you can’t stay where you
are without killing something deep and vital in yourself, you are on the brink
of creation.”
Sue
Monk Kidd
Have
you ever been at this juncture in your personal life? Paralyzed, can’t move
forward or go back to where you were just yesterday? Often, it happens when
denial stops working, and you must face the facts at last. I have been there
a couple of times in my life—thankfully, only a couple. It’s a terrifying place
to land, and yet, I believe it’s the most creative life-space we have. I know
so many people, some in my own family, who found themselves here, where the
choices are life, death, or something entirely new. It’s the choice I imagine our
ancestors five or six centuries ago faced when they set foot on a small sailing
ship to cross the vast Atlantic or Pacific, to come to “the new world.” There’s
no going back; there is only forward if life is to continue.
That’s
where I believe we are today as a country, and even as a world. Call it a
crossroads, or a nexus, or an inflexion point; it’s where change is
inevitable, and denial no longer works. And it’s where creation begins. We have
an opportunity, not to rewrite history, but to face it squarely, and decide how
to move forward differently. What we need in this moment are our very best,
most creative thinkers and doers to lead us into a new consciousness. It’s an
exciting and dangerous moment and one we can’t afford to mess it up.
In her
recent, pandemic-era, zoom-from-home videos, Caroline Myss said, (and I
paraphrase)—"this is the one; this is what we’ve been waiting for and
holding our breath about.” We all knew something major was building because it made
us anxious, but we didn’t know what form it would take. And then, in the middle
of the pandemic, George Floyd was murdered as the cameras rolled and the whole
world watched. In that nine minutes, the world changed. After all our stupidity
and brilliance, the world changed because of one black man’s death. Imagine
that! (hmmm…when has that happened before?) We could not deny what was right
before our eyes. And so, we had to change.
I feel
the deep sadness that one faces at such times. Something besides the man,
George Floyd, has died. Our delusions of grandeur went with him. And while he
died unnecessarily, what we have held onto all these centuries must die by our
own hands. Like the confederate statues, we must tear it down and clear the
ground. We must put our feet on the deck of a small, wobbly ship and face a
vast ocean of change. What we create now is up to us. It’s a pretty exciting
time, don’t you think?
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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