Transcendence

As I start to write this my head is in quite a dark place…

For the past week or so I’ve been mulling over a post about the amazing acts of kindness I’ve witnessed over recent weeks.  Not the grand newsworthy gestures laced with hypocrisy but the small individual acts of giving and sharing taking place in my own village as well as on-line networks… strangers helping, supporting and taking the time to get to know each other within our Positive Earth Community… I wanted to celebrate all the beautiful things we human beings are capable of… but I hadn’t quite got round to writing that post before the world went bat-shit crazy all over again!

Instead my news feed is suddenly full of hatred, anger and more fear… as if we haven’t had enough of that already.  Events in America have fueled protests and riots – perhaps with due cause but the fall-out from this is just more division across our own communities as some sympathise while others condemn; some are afraid of a spike in Covid-19; others perpetuate conspiracy theories; friends argue and ‘take sides’ while the media, as always, pull the strings and we dance around like the puppets we are.  Meanwhile new laws are passed right under our noses, with the potential to destroy British agriculture and lower food standards with cheap imports… or make it illegal to visit our friends and families in their homes – even though hoards of people sunbathing at the coast seems to be ok and politicians can do what the hell they like.  HS2 have the nerve to hitch a ride on ‘World Environment Day’…claiming they’re “delivering miles of ecological and landscape investments” whilst simultaneously destroying ancient and irreplaceable woodland; and endless reports of beauty spots being trashed with litter or fires on the moors suggest we’ve learnt nothing over the past few months…. I feel so angry, frustrated and helpless all at the same time.

It’s very rare that I vent like this… not since my younger years at least!  But sometimes I look at the horrible things human beings do to each other, the power trips and egos, the devastation we have caused to the planet and each other… and it makes my heart weep.

I wonder how to respond… I want to add my voice, don’t they see what they’re doing?  I feel the urge to fight, to demand change, to tell them all they’re wrong….

But all that does is add to the noise.

So instead I turn off the news, walk away from social media and head out into nature.

Today I found tadpoles a few yards away from my regular route… I spotted rabbits minding their own business in the fields at the edge of the road… I’ve watched blue tits in my garden – the parents patiently teaching their young how to use the bird feeder… and in these private moments of stillness everything in the world makes sense once again.

I have no words for what’s going on right now… but I do believe if we can find joy and peace in our inner world the same will manifest in the external. I can’t change or control the global mindset that feeds into violence, hatred and wars… so I will continue to focus on that which I can change and control.  My compassion towards every living creature; my own thought patterns and the language I use with myself and others; ensuring my actions are rooted in kindness and understanding; and ‘being’ the change that I hope to see.

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change”

– Mahatma Gandhi

Jac.x