One of the axioms of life is that the essence of existence is dependent on diversity and reciprocity. No matter how much we might try to tilt the scale, like pooling water, life will balance itself out. This is especially true when we as a people, autonomous and interwoven, choose self-renewing love and radical acceptance.
We all need each other and love, so very much.
Personally, I understand tough love. It’s one of the traditions of our diverse nation and it can be effective if it is borne from a foundation of affection and clear communication. Sadly, this essential step is missing in the current administration. Instead of projecting love toward the entire citizenry of our nation, important members of our national family are being excluded by disorienting bluster designed to injure those already wounded.
That is not tough love, that is abuse.
I simply do not and cannot understand the intention behind referring to refugees and migrants as animals. Our president’s own family migrated here from Germany and Scotland. His wife was born in Slovenia. I hope that he is able to heal and build on what empathy he does have, because by further separating us, he is wounding us all.
Fear of the unknown and fear of change is an understandable, perhaps even undeniable aspect of humanity. Still, a stone that melts into magma can and does reform into a new igneous rock. The phoenix can and does fly again. During the brief respite allowed by the quietness of the Covid quarantine, dolphins returned to swim in the canals of Venice. In many ways, we and our earthly home are a complex, self-regulating organism. Dependent on diversity and symbiosis, the masterpiece that is our earthly home shows us the way to thrive. Nature can and does recover when time and space are given. Things must die so they may be reborn. All aspects of life are equally necessary and nourish each other.
There is something stronger than aggressively blind projections (unconscious assumptions or beliefs that a person projects onto someone else without awareness) and politics and power. There is grace, there is acceptance, and there is love.
I feel that we are in a period of liberation. Liberation of destruction (the freedom to dismantle, to make a mess in order to clean up) and liberation of demonstration (freedom to demonstrate through actions what we can create when the soil has been prepared). The fire is burning, and the ground will soon be cleared so that we can and will create anew on a foundation of nourished soil. In my waking dreams, I see us as neighbors gathered around our sacred well and actively listening to and caring for each other.
A dear friend of mine once told me, “Forgiveness is never earned, it is only given.”
I believe this is true. And we need the gift of forgiveness now more than ever. For the harder that forgiveness seems, the more it is needed. My hope is that collectively we will see the value in this. I encourage us to all remember our commonalities. I encourage us to not ever be afraid to speak our minds. If we cannot talk with our neighbors and ask questions, then we will remain stagnant as a people, mired in false projections and grief.
Real change in the world begins within each of us. If we can work from a grounded place of love, forgiveness, and clarity, we have a better chance of co-creating the world we all dream of. No one person can do it alone.
A beloved member of the Wa she shu tribe taught me that when something needs healing, it is not always about what we remove, but what we give that facilitates the healing. I hope we can all find a way to give each other sincere love and move past our ego-driven resentments and start focusing on compassionate and compromising solutions. Make our focus the love we have for our home and for each other.
~ Angèle Carroll emerged from the backwoods of Maine and has been singing, writing, and painting her way throughout life in Truckee for 16 years. She has had a great many teachers who saw fit to share their experience, strength, and hope with her. This wisdom and guidance informs her creative output. She works always from the foundation of love and radical acceptance.
