Balance

Hold On – Day 497

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Cloud Shark – Photo: L. Weikel

Hold On

I’m not going to sugar coat it: last week was pretty awful. And each day seemed to take us a couple steps further down the road to – where, exactly? I’m not sure. But no matter how you look at things, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree that they’re going to get worse this week. And all we can do is hold on.

One reason things will get worse this week is because this is the first Monday of a week in which, almost everywhere, if you’re not considered an employee in an ‘essential industry’ then you will be home.

Shock to the System

This whole concept, the very idea that so many of us will no longer have an office to report to, will come as a shock to not only ‘the’ system but ‘our’ systems as well: not only our national, regional, and local economic systems, but also to our internal systems, our sense of who we are and how we personally fit into the world.

I’m not saying this to be doom and gloom. I’m saying this so you can prepare your internal system – your navigation system, your system of balance, your sense of self and how you go about your day, your comprehension of your place in the Universe. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to arrive and people are going to feel like they’ve been playing The Game of Life and their dog just bounded into the room and upended the game board, scattering the pieces to the four winds.

Boom.

We’re In This Together

If I can assure any of you reading this right now of anything, I want you to know that we’re all in this together. Every single one of us is going to be impacted by either the Coronavirus (Covid-19) or the economics of basically having our entire economy slow to a point where it’s a shell of its former self. And let’s face it: many if not most of us may ultimately end up having to deal with both.

As the week starts off, I’d like to suggest that you smudge your home. You’ll recall that smudging is a cleansing ritual in which you use the smoke of a burning bundle of sage (or of some leaves of sage burning in an appropriate container) to cleanse and purify your environment. Even just lighting up some sage and breathing in the scent can clear your head and help shift your perspective.

I feel we could all benefit from setting ourselves up for success as we set out on our quests this week.

And quests they are: discovering who we are when all our familiar touchstones (for us adults, our jobs or vocations, our workplaces, our favorite places to work out or be with friends, and for our children, our schools, our sports and competitions, our musicals and school plays and band practice) are suddenly gone or unavailable to us…

Pondering the Questions

Who are we when all the things we’ve done almost without thinking for as long as we can remember are taken away from us? Who are we when we have no errands to run? No clients to call? Who are we when we suddenly have the time to do those things we’ve told ourselves we’d rather be doing? Maybe those yearnings should’ve been updated a decade ago. Maybe they’re no longer a reflection of our dreams? Maybe they were an illusion, a fantasy that simply kept us from loving our lived experience.

As we figure these things out, it’s important we remember: we’re all in this together. We’re going to get through it. It’s true, we may find that some people and situations – including ourselves – are a disappointment. These realizations will call for adjustments. But all in all? I’d wager we’re going to discover some amazing treasures along the way. Precisely because we’re all in this together.

So hold on. Take heart. Wash your hands; keep your distance; and know that together we can get through anything. And we’re going to come through it all transformed.

Magnolia buds – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-614)

Feeding the Birds – Day 496

Posted on by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment
Feeding the Birds – Photo: L. Weikel

Feeding the Birds

Some of you may remember my semi-flip out back in September when suddenly all the birds not only went silent but actually left the premises. It was a long 20 days or so before they finally started returning, much to my huge relief. It’s possible, I suppose, that they all just suddenly discovered plentiful seeds and other treats somewhere else. But the abruptness and totality of their departure – and the similar abruptness of their return – just seemed kind of weird.

I do intend to pay attention this fall, to see if they make it into an annual habit.

Looking For Normal

This past week felt like I was trapped in a time warp. Every day I had to make a concerted effort to steady and ground myself – almost as if I’d awakened in the midst of an ocean and had to regain my sea legs before I could walk into the next room. But it wasn’t a physical wavering. It was a psychological one – or perhaps even deeper; perhaps an existential one.

So many assumptions and fundamental beliefs I’ve held about our country and our ability to respond to any challenge – no matter how grave, how daunting, or how threatening – have been shattered this week. And the worst part about that? The worst part is knowing that it was completely avoidable. The worst part is knowing that our lack of preparation and ability to respond (responsibility) was facilitated by the deliberate obfuscation of those at the highest levels of our government.

And people are starting to get sick and die in numbers that grow exponentially, daily, as a result.

So? Having no real power to effect meaningful change until Election Day, I need to look for normal amidst the chaos. Looking for normal yesterday afternoon meant feeding my birds.

Everyday Joy

The temperature outside climbed to 78 degrees yesterday. Needing to ground myself and reconnect to what’s real and sustainable, I found myself sitting on my porch in the sunshine, reveling in birdsong. For a precious few minutes, I was able to wrap myself in a cocoon of delight as I listened to the robins and the fish crows trill and grok, respectively. I watched both two red shouldered woodpeckers and a downy cling to my front feeder and push around a chickadee, then heard but could not see-to-save-my-life the producer of the unmistakable, heavy-billed <<thwacking>> of a pileated just beyond the garage.

I watched goldfinches, house finches, sparrows and wrens flit and flutter amongst the shelter of the carcass of our Christmas tree, which we prop against one of the maples in our yard each year to give them additional cover from the sharp-shinned and red-tailed hawks that patrol the area. Nuthatches marched upside down on the maples and I even glimpsed either a blue bird or an indigo bunting before it disappeared into the thicket along our driveway.

My effort to reclaim normal consisted of the measured, meditative act of filling our birdfeeders and feeding the birds.

Pandemic Partners

I hope I’ll be able to keep my feeders filled over the coming months. The joy and sense of connection with All Life that birds give me is abundantly healing and centering. I recently came across this great article with excellent tips on how to make our yards welcoming, safe, and enticing to these wonderful creatures. It affirmed why Karl and I are so lucky to have so many feathered friends sharing this land we call home.

So many of the suggestions in this article are sound common sense, but they’re also little ways of changing our relationship with birds and Mother Earth that help bring us into balance with Her.

And ultimately, as we make our way through the devastation of this pandemic, coming back into balance with Mother Earth will be key. Celebrating and appreciating our birds can remind us of that.

Goldfinch – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-615)

Maintain Our Balance – Day 474

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Storm – Photo: L. Weikel

Maintain Our Balance

Wow. Based on everything I’ve seen and read, the single most important thing we must do for ourselves and each other is maintain our balance.

As I sit here contemplating what I want to write about tonight, the conversation taking place on the program I’m watching is interrupted to announce that just within the past few minutes two new cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed in the state of Washington. These cases are in addition to the new (first in that state?) one in Oregon that was announced about an hour ago.

This announcement follows on the heels of a recitation of some astounding developments throughout Europe, where major events are being canceled or postponed, heads of state are infected, parliaments are suspended, and major corporations are suggesting that employees simply take unpaid leave and ‘go home.’

The World Health Organization has raised its threat assessment to the highest level they have and are declaring in no uncertain terms that every government on the planet must take heed and act with all due speed to get this pandemic under control.

Perpetrating Harm

And the leader of our government is deliberately minimizing the number of reported cases and telling all of us that this whole Coronavirus ‘thing’ is yet another ‘hoax’ manufactured by the Democrats and the media.

We have never had a president – or a party of sycophants that appallingly bolsters his out-and-out lies – who would fail so blatantly and spectacularly in caring for our own citizens. And, to be honest, who would fail the entire world, as the willful ignorance and allowing this virus to spread undetected and unchecked for far too long in our country will almost certainly lead to further infections when our people travel elsewhere.

I literally feel as though I must’ve accidentally rented an apocalyptic movie from Netflix or something. The reports from around the world (the number of countries that have confirmed cases just keeps growing, for instance, I heard Iceland and Northern Ireland were added to the list tonight) are no hoax.

A Disturbing Similarity

One disturbing similarity that screams out for attention is that the behavior of the current administration is shockingly similar to that of the governments of China and Iran. Read up on it. In denying the facts about this virus, bungling the testing (why haven’t we secured perfectly acceptable test kits from South Korea or Great Britain if ours are flawed?), lying about how many cases there are, and almost certainly lethally exacerbating the spread of the virus here in our country by sending HHS workers into quarantined areas without protection or protocols (thereby creating new ‘ground zeros’ for transmission of the disease), this administration has put its re-election priorities ahead of the lives of our fellow Americans. They’ve put your life at risk. My life. The lives of our children, grandparents, and grandchildren.

It is unconscionable.

But we can withstand this. We will maintain our balance. We will wash our hands and seek out reliable sources of information – and share it with each other.

We will have each other’s backs. It’s up to us.

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-637)

I’m Parched – Day 316

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Reflected Balance on the Tohickon – Photo: L. Weikel

I’m Parched

I was going to write about the weather tonight. But brother, how boring.

And yet…with the rain arriving earlier this evening, it was as if I could feel the Earth opening up her mouth and just allowing the moisture falling from the clouds above to flow into the cracks that have been showing up in our lawn.

It feels like there’s a metaphor here – perhaps we will soon begin to witness a quenching of our collective thirst for action, for justice, and for a reckoning.

It makes me think about my comment to Karl as we were walking this evening. For no apparent or easily discernable reason, I felt bombarded by waves of anxiety. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach. It was hard to tell whether it was emanating from within or whether I was responding to ‘the outside world.’

An Upshift In Energy

I was taught a long time ago that on every seasonal shift of the year there’s an upshift of energy. Sometimes this can lead us into greater awareness; sometimes it can lead us into greater anxiety and agitation. Usually whatever way we shift is associated with how we’re feeling when we enter into the energies of the solstices or equinoxes.

I get the feeling that this particular Equinox’s energy upshift is having a profound effect on the world at large. So many ‘big’ things have been happening over this past weekend and even more is in the process of becoming ‘breaking’ news tonight, that it’s all becoming hard to ignore.

My sense is that this Autumn Equinox is attempting to pull us all together into a state of balance. That very well might result in some seismic shifts.

Are WE Balanced Within?

So even when course corrections are being made and the world is trembling beneath our very feet, it is important that we go within and pay attention to our inner landscape. Are we balanced within?

Sometimes, in order to come back into balance we need to first undergo great upheaval.

I get the feeling that in the days ahead we’re going to need to make an extra effort to find and maintain our balance and equanimity.

We can do this. We just need to remember Who We Are.

(T-795)