“Allow dark times to season you.” ~ Hafiz
When The Going Gets Tough…
These days, the rough patch we’re navigating has turned into a very long haul. I believe we’ll weather the changes. I believe we’re strong enough to do so. Still, it’s easy to fall into despair and wish that our journey wasn’t so rife with trouble.
Right now, we’re in a thick soup of changes that rival any changes we’ve weathered in human history. The shit’s hitting the fan — environmentally, economically, emotionally — and everywhere we look, people are losing it. Shooting up the joint. Setting themselves on fire. Totaling their cars. Blowing up their personal lives.
Now Entering Transformation Station.
Transformation is not optional right now. It is required. We cannot continue to fumble blindly in the darkness, unaware of the light we possess. We must solve the problems we’ve created.
And although this awakening is painful — like road rash, or a broken bone that hasn’t been set yet — we can’t wait for rescue. Not this time. We are the people we are waiting for. We must step up and take the reins. There is no one else. Just us.
What has always worked, no longer works.
This week it was heartening to hear that Marianne Williamson is running for congress. She told Larry King that we cannot make decisions for humanity based upon economics alone.
I agree. Capitalists are pragmatic by nature. They will never look at the long term consequences of their policies. They look at the bottom line, the current returns, the profit margins — without ever considering whether their approach is actually sustainable. In a world of limited resources, it is not.
As a result, we’re now tasked with learning to live more softly, reverently, and carefully.
Be here now, even if the thought absolutely terrifies you.
Don’t check out. Don’t go back to sleep. The world desperately needs you — it needs your talents, your passion, your ideas, your voice.
Yes, these are hard times, dark times, strange times. Yet, something wonderful and raw is rumbling and singing and coming back to life. I can feel it brushing my face just moments before I wake up in the morning. I can feel it when I focus on stories that nurture and enrich my life, instead of on those that deplete me.
I encounter kindred spirits and soul friends every day through the power of social media and my writing (blogs, magazines, LinkedIn, Facebook). It is as though we’ve inadvertently created the perfect way for those of us experiencing this rebirth, to connect or reconnect.
Not Just Changing Lanes. Taking the Road Less Traveled.
This unknown darkness where we sit — as individuals and as a global community — is slowly revealing itself. It inherently knows what the next step is. We must trust the process and allow the darkness to ‘season us’ as Hafiz wrote.
Hour by hour, and day by day, bread crumbs are left along the road.
We’ve escaped the dangerous, deliciously inviting cottage that inhabited our nightmares. We’ve managed to counter-act the spell we’ve been under, avoiding certain death. We’ve foiled our nemesis and broken the snare that has entrapped us for far too long.
We’re running free.
Can you feel it?
Any minute now, everything will change.
© 2013 Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved
Feel free to share this post with others, as long as you include the copyright information and keep the whole posting intact.
If you like this piece please share it with others. You can like me on Facebook to see more information about my writing and my spiritual journey.
