“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.”
~ Nelson Mandela
In the Time of Compassion
As we celebrate Equinox/Mabon, my attention is focused on balance. I am grateful for the reminder as it feels like we need this more than ever. Then again, Nature always offers us solutions and reminders if we are willing to listen.
The pandemic has provided us with a large opportunity to listen and re-balance. I am curious to know what you have learned during this pandemic. How have your priorities shifted? What did you miss the most during the quarantine? What were you grateful to give up? What did you discover that you (or your community) need? How has your life changed during this? Please do share your heart-centered reflections (you can email me, comment on my blog, or comment on FB.) I think it is important that we have these conversations. I’ll share some of my reflections at the end of this article.
When I get overwhelmed with world events, “news”, the pandemic, or anything, I turn to Nature. I spend time walking, sitting, observing, gardening, whatever I need to calm and experience Nature. I say that I am going out to get the real news. For when I am in Nature, my perspective shifts, my breathing slows, my shoulders drop. The longer I am there, the more I can simply connect and listen, the bigger the effect. If I have a particular issue that is weighing on me or a question in my Heart, I often hear the solution. If I am simply overwhelmed with life, I am held and shown the bigger picture. For the last six months, when I have asked about the pandemic, I am told to focus on compassion, that compassion is the biggest lesson for us now.
Compassion
In our culture compassion is often seen as a weakness and something that some people have while others lack it. In reality, each of us contain compassion within our bodies. We see how easily this is activated during large local tragedies where communities come together to support one another. Compassion is active; it is cultivated. Sometimes we choose to engage in compassion and other times we choose to engage through our wounds or ego. However we choose to engage, it is a choice and we each have the option of choosing compassion.
The truth is that it takes great courage to respond with compassion, to witness someone in their wounding, or to be willing to respond with Love when someone causes harm to you or others. When I think of compassion, I think of John Lewis and the other Freedom Riders, people who trained to withstand violence and respond with Love. I also think about a powerful podcast that I heard years ago with Ruby Sales who asked, “Where does it hurt?” When someone is acting out or causing harm, we know that they are hurting. Rather than turning away or demonizing them, we can lean towards them and ask (literally or metaphorically), “Where does it hurt?” At the base of this is an understanding that if we had the same life experiences as another, we would most likely make the same choices and actions as them. There is also the understanding that we are all connected and what happens to someone else affects us as well. The good news is that compassion is a positive Heart impulse meaning that when we engage in compassion we experience positive emotional, mental, and physical effects. Also the more we engage in compassion the easier it becomes.
Healing Trauma
At this point in time it feels like there is a lot of hurt in this world. If we pause and reflect, we see that trauma has been passed down for countless generations. That is the trauma of war, slavery, colonization, poverty, oppression, persecution, patriarchy, the inquisition, sexual abuse, and the list goes on. Many people have done healing work through the generations and this has also been passed down. Now we are at a point where the trauma is being seen for what this is and we are given an enormous opportunity of healing and choosing a new way of living together with respect and reverence.
Of course this trauma (and healing opportunity) also includes the destruction of Nature and our perceived separation from Nature. We have been living out of balance with Nature for years. So long in fact that often this seems like the only way in which humanity and civilization can exist. We are told that cutting down Forests and burning fossil fuels are required. Our lives are centered on consumption. I heard David Orr speak last year and he said, “Consumption ironically once was a term for a fatal disease.” It appears as if this continues to be true. For as we witness our Earth’s changes, we see that we cannot continue consuming the Earth’s resources as we have been. We are literally killing ourselves and our future generations.
Recovering the Sacred
I recently hosted a Teleseminar with Jerry Tello. Jerry has been working for the past 40 years to help people to recover their Sacredness. Much of his work has been with incarcerated boys and men including violent criminals. His message is a message that his grandmother shared with him every day, “You are sacred. You are a blessing.” During our conversation, Jerry highlighted that it is our responsibility to treat ALL Beings as Sacred, even the wounded ones, even those we do not like, even those who have hurt others. They too are a blessing. As is each of us. It is by treating each other (and ourselves) as Sacred blessings that we heal. When a person commits violence towards another, they have forgotten that they are sacred. Part of our role as community members is to see the Sacred in one another and remind each other of this. This does not mean that we excuse hurtful actions; instead we acknowledge the trauma and remember that we are all more than our actions.
“You are Sacred. You are a blessing.”
Forgiveness is an important part of recovering the Sacred, forgiveness of others and just as importantly, forgiveness of ourselves. We so often allocate acts of forgiveness to Spiritual masters such as the Dalai Lama. In my Apprenticeship programs when I talk about forgiveness, I often hear people say, “I am not as evolved as you.” Forgiveness is not about spiritual evolution, forgiveness is about releasing us from the burdens of our traumas and wounds, forgiveness is about self-Love, forgiveness is what allows us to truly heal. When we do not forgive, we keep the wounds alive in our body. They fester affecting us energetically. These affects ripple into our experiences of the world along with our relationships. Eventually these wounds can cause physical illness as well as mental and emotional anguish. True forgiveness releases the energetic effects of our traumas and wounds, lifting the weight from our bodies. We are the beneficiaries of forgiveness.
“… it is important for us to understand that unforgiven acts take up spiritual and energetic space within us, and in the end, make it very difficult for us to see and accept new blessings.”
~ Jerry Tello
Jerry Tello reminded me that in order to honor one another as Sacred, we need to learn how to treat each other sacredly, which is different for different people. As we talked, I realized that this is the big question and opportunity we are being given now, to get curious and ask one another, how do I treat you as Sacred. What should I never do? What should I always do? What makes you feel Sacred? What a beautiful gift, for as we learn how to treat one another as Sacred, we in turn remember our own Sacredness. Of course, I suggest that we widen this out to learn how to treat the Earth and other Beings as Sacred as well. When we do this, we begin to live in a world where all Beings are honored and we begin to recover our role as part of Nature or what some would call a good relative.
I think that it is important to keep this perspective in mind as we read the news. Media wants to portray our collective experience of uncovering trauma and learning how to treat each other as Sacred through the lens of fear and anger, which incites more fear and anger in people. (It is a method for maintaining consumers.) However, if we can pause, connect with our Heart, and get curious, we are able to see the wounds and the great gift of learning how to treat one another as the Sacred Beings that we are, which encourages us to respond with compassion.
As we continue to move through this interesting year, may we take guidance from Nature: find our balance, heal our traumas, and act with compassion. Acting with compassion most definitely includes compassion towards yourself. When the world seems overwhelming, may we pause and listen to the real news in Nature. Remember that the Plants are always there to help if you need them, we just need to ask.
Lessons from the Pandemic
Elecampane
Now, as for the pandemic, I have learned a lot and I’m sure that there are still more revelations that I haven’t processed yet. I was reminded of how important my family and close friends are to me and especially being able to hug and touch them. I love to travel and I realized that while there is still much that I would like to see and experience in this world, what I need most is Beauty, time in Nature, and time to rest which I can experience close to home. I discovered how very tired I was and since the quarantine, I have been getting around 9 hours of sleep a night. What became very clear to me is that the quality of our indoor air is poor and we need a better system for heating, cooling, and air exchange. I was reminded again of how fortunate I am to live in an area that has an abundance of high quality food and as wonderful as that food is, it is amazing to eat food grown from the Land where you live (another way to connect with and experience the Nature Spirits). I also was reminded that food is precious and not something to be wasted. I was amazed to learn that you can have really deep meaningful connections via a computer screen. And there are some things that you need to experience in person such as a hug or connecting with Nature. I was reminded of how precious it is to laugh with a group of people. I realized how important community is, including community artists. It became crystal clear how sick our society is and how our current healthcare system does not work. I (like many of us) discovered that we can respond quickly and make changes if we want to and that Nature can recover and heal faster than we think. While this is not a new understanding, I discovered once again that Plants are powerful healers and that Nature can guide us if we listen. I was reminded again of how vital it is to know how to communicate with Nature and to work co-creatively with Nature to find a better way of living. I was amazed at how many people took this opportunity to dive deep into their own healing and trauma, this filled me with hope. On many levels I feel that we are healing collectively. I observed that when given a chance, people instinctively turn to Nature to heal. I discovered an even greater commitment to my work and helping people to heal and to connect more deeply with Nature . These are some of my revelations. Again, I’d love to hear yours.
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”