Initiation

Tree Gnome/Wisdomkeeper – Photo: L. Weikel

We are entering a time in our evolution, as humans, in which we are facing some fundamental, existential choices. And this ‘time’ that we’re entering is not some epoch or age, some grander than our mortal lives massive measurement of time. No. We are in the initiation. The existential questions are being asked now. Right now. Right in the midst of our tiny, very tangible and measurable lifetimes.

I’ve mentioned before as this pandemic started looming on the horizon (before it was even characterized as a pandemic) that I sensed some major shifts in our reality coming toward us. Shifts that make us realize that the course we’ve been following not only is unsustainable but has hit a wall. Shifts that tell us, “Nothing is going to be the same.”

Self-Inflicted 9/11

In some ways, we might look upon what’s happening as a self-inflicted 9/11. When the United States was attacked by those three hijackings that gorgeous, azure-skied September morning, and we watched the twin towers crumble before our eyes, we knew instinctively that nothing would ever be the same.

And yet…in many ways, we humans resumed our blind and tone-deaf ways. While the world stood with all of us in the U.S. in the days and weeks following 9/11, eventually we – our government, our leaders – turned those events into the perfect justification to not only continue on our selfish, unsustainable path of war and greed and abuse of power, but to double down on it.

Greed Unchecked

Indeed, our selfishness and greed roared back to life, seatbelts or restraints on behavior that could easily get out of hand were removed. Everyone in the U.S. celebrated the amazing recovery we were enjoying, not a little bit funded by the seemingly never-ended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, neither of which had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks, which supposedly justified them in the first place.

And then the 2008 financial debacle happened.

That, too, was going to change everything.

It didn’t.

Not only didn’t our over-consumptive, unsustainable, greedy ways continue. No, we flouted the existence of climate change. We pursued fracking here in the United States, a process of injecting unbelievably toxic materials into Mother Earth all in the pursuit, not only of unsustainable energy to burn but also money to burn. Climate effects be damned.

Out of Balance

All of these opportunities to make choices on how we are going to proceed in our evolution (or not), have resulted in us making choices that have caused us to grow more and more out of balance with everything else on this planet, including the planet herself.

The virus we’re facing right now is ravaging our species – all over the world, without care of nationality, skin color, religious affiliation, sexual orientation – because we have no natural immunity to it. And because we’ve lied to ourselves and willingly swallowed the lies being told to us. In order to deal with all of this, without losing massive numbers of our own, we must work together.

So far, our reaction, the reaction of the United States, has been barreling along on the trajectory we seem to have been following for many years, but most especially since entering this century.

We can still turn this around. But we need to do it now. We need to take to heart this dramatic, unprecedented challenge to what we think of as our lives and our societies and make some drastically different choices.

A Wonderful Perspective

I recommend this lovely thought-provoking piece as a completely different way of looking at what we’re experiencing right now. I, for one, would love to continue reflecting upon the questions posed here as the days, weeks, and months of this new life of ours unfolds.

Let’s reflect together.