There’s still time to change y(our) mind(s).
Good Saturday and Happy New Year to all of you from a warm glowing corner of my home.
Today I have the day “off” from my 9–5 that keeps me from accomplishing more with my 24/7. (But this business of cyclical entrapment is a subject for another day.) Today I try to concentrate on my personal space and my immediate surroundings, bringing intention to this moment of solitude and newness. As usual — I find my thoughts fly to my family and friends who also endure this Pandemic, now entering its third year and entering another peak of it’s infectiousness. Also our Climate Crisis keeps eating away at my consciousness. A crisis that continues to smash us all upside the head on a daily basis… I can’t help but cry to the heavens for respite from the unrest and upheaval, because much of this — officially — sucks.
In October of 2021, I shared a #VeteransDay correspondence — in the spirit of our belonging to a larger group, nationally — imploring everyone to support the arts, health and education. I encouraged everyone to continue to reach out to one another in the coming days. Today I continue to ask you to find where these three things live in the spectrum of your daily life. Every day, for an uncertain amount of time to come, I ask each one of us to visit these three things and then decide how each of us will set an intention for more time and more presence to be and share with one another. Some days we will miss one or two of the three. Some days we will fail — all together, but most days each of us will be able to draw upon at least one of these three. And with any luck we will involve another (the number 2), close to us — creating connection and the potential for something more (the number 3). This is the synergy of six.
The trick to not becoming jaded or complacent with your practice, is the act of gratitude. Being pressed so closely together by circumstance, you may find yourself interacting with the same small group of people over and over again. That’s Ok, but do what you can to draw someone new into your circle of practice. Remember, repeated practice at any thing makes for long term habits — good or bad. Let’s create some good ones this year. I think the one thing we seek to reconcile this year is that of the monumental changes we are all undergoing. We need not and should not do it alone.
We must continually acknowledge everything around us has changed, and as a consequence, we must also learn to adapt and grow — lest we be left behind and floundering in our inflexibility to move, adapt and shift with the times. Many of us can look back — fifty years — to another age in our nation’s history when there were many truths coming to light. It is the earliest time I have the right to speak about with any verity, as it is the time I came into being here on planet earth. The age of technology and space exploration was dawning, as we stood gazing upward — but also intently at one another, coming to terms with our humanity — or lack thereof — as we pondered our role in the bigger picture.
Believe it or not, the times have not changed so much since then. Humans are still a curious and stubborn bunch. Thanks to the arc of technology and the hidden gifts of social media, humans — on the whole — are swiftly rising to the occasion — realizing our shared plight here on planet earth. We all have our dreams and desires — some well intentioned, some not. The truth is, you can still have those dreams and desires, as long as they are founded in truth and reality. We humans will embrace them with you — if you can reconcile and acknowledge the underlying intention and embrace it for what it is. We are, in fact, all HUMAN. … at least most of us are.
The reality of our times has been a hard one to swallow. It is a realization that has taken a long time and will continue to sink in, almost too long. But do not be dismayed, it is not too late for us to embrace this #NewParadigm. If every fiber of your being is telling you otherwise — to give up hope — please, do not despair. #DoNotGiveUpHope. You still belong here with the rest of us — enjoying the incredible gifts this life here on earth has to offer all of us.
Do not shy from your personal #truth. Do not run from destiny. Do not run headlong into ignorance and more suffering. Do not fly, knowingly into the arms of chaos and doubt. You are a necessary part of the greater dialog and believe it or not, we are all counting on you. Instead of escaping into doubt or fear, turn around and see the masterfulness of our works. Turn inward and feel the bright flame of your spirit, your longing and the suffering that ignites and illuminates the dark corners of misunderstanding to truth and wisdom. Despite the many millions of mistakes we’ve made along the way, it was all worth it. We continue to live under the circumstances to which we are born. We continue to set intentions for better things, for ourselves and one another. Some call it ‘praying’. Call it what you will, we continue to make mistakes and ask for forvineness. With #grace, we learn and we move on. This is because we’ve already learned to pull upon and practice these three things regularly. Our understanding of art, our personal and shared health and our education — what things are facts and which are stories used to assuage the fear, doubt and ignorance of our lesser selves.
So as a messenger and student of this five decades old ‘body’, this holiday I am elated to share with you there is — officially — nothing to fear in 2022. Even though it feels, right now, like everything — officially — sucks. Do not allow any misunderstanding or obstacle — physical, emotional, mental, environmental, psychic or otherwise — detain you from achieving your intentions. It’s transcendence time everyone — the same transcendence I spoke to you about three years ago in 2020 — and I’m here to share with you, we’re definitely up to the challenge.
If you’re not, or you have any doubts about what you are truly capable of, contact me and we’ll work our way through it. I’ve armed myself — and hopefully some of you out there— with several tools to prepare for these days. We all have our circle of friends and family who continue to work in their prospective fields- some even as professionals, because it is what they are driven to do and we support them to do so. Stay curious. Stay in communication. Seek new truths — ones that may contradict the old ones you may have held onto for too long. Do not judge yourself as you find your truth. The invisible rule book that’s been handed to us may need some revision. We are the same humans we were 50 years ago, but now we have better tools to learn about ourselves and the world we live in. In order to embrace the #NewParadigm we’ve been born to, we must adopt a new way of understanding the world we live in. This involves visiting our senses regularly and taking inventory. How are we feeling? What have we learned? It does not matter if it is bad or good — only that we are present to these two things. In truth, we are working our way out of a culture that does not place value on the process and importance of learning — about our selves and one another.
I know you’re saying, this is ridiculous — to conduct your day to day life in this manner. But the idea of personal and shared health has never taken a more prominent role in #GlobalSociety. The Pandemic has brought new recognition to the practice of science and strengthened the long established perimeters of our frail humanity, under which we must continue to operate, cooperate and attempt to function — as a sentient species — under. With the fragility and fleeting willingness some of us may currently have to examine and practice consciousness, it would seem that some of us — who continue to struggle with our own self-awareness — will most likely not survive, for an inextricably long list of seemingly trivial and avoidable reasons.
In truth, our ability to navigate the renewed constraints of the realities of our shared world may simply be too much for some of us. And that is why I reach out to you today. Do not despair. This is the one health obstacle, for which we have only just begun to place any sort of importance upon — honestly, just within the last few decades — is the strength of our mental, emotional and psychological wellness. With the proliferation of #MisInformation and the un-policed, preposterous preponderance of propaganda we are subject to navigate with each passing day, our personal and shared health has never been more compromised. We should no longer be quibbling and quarreling about the reality of #ClimateScience. There is a direct correlation between our “ego-system” and the ecosystem. The act of us humans finding homeostasis with our host, planet earth will need to be tended to in the coming days, weeks, months, years and yes — with #grace, for decades to come. It will be a frontier of new challenges for all of us who strive to be self aware — to share. I weep for the incredible losses we will continue to suffer, but I also rejoice in the revelation of truths we will come to embrace — in a relatively short period of time.
Why do I say this? Because I know we are not individual beings who face the challenge of our times alone. Despite what you may have learned and been told about our kind — we are, in fact — one organism, us humans. And once we embrace this and get the hang of this thing we call compassion, forgiveness and understanding — it will make so much more sense. Trust me. Your mental, emotional and psychological health is as important as your physical health — which is as important as the health of our planet, our home and the great progenitor of all organic matter and every living thing. It is paramount that you understand and embrace this, if you do not already. Don’t put it off one more day. We need you, here — with us — now. Don’t know where to start? #PracticePresence. I’m sure there’s a program near you where you can learn how to slow down, come away from what ever you think is dictating your circumstance, and just be in your skin. There are even apps for it. The answers — or questions, if that is what you require — will come. If you find you do not have the support you need from those you live with, find help from your employer, find a new environment to ‘be’ in’, and practice these three things:
1) Appreciate Art. It is the road map and history of our personal and collective longings and understanding — of everything.
2) Educate yourself and one another. Find a program to attend — any program. There are many, many competent teachers out there — perhaps you are one of them! Learn something new. If you bump up against some thing you do not recognize as truth, do not shy from examining it closer. Do not succumb to lesser intentions such as fear, doubt, anger or grief — although these may be present in your discovery of the truth. Don’t be afraid to choose to learn about something you’ve never had any interest in before. You may find you have a knack at something you never knew about yourself! There are literally billions of frontiers to explore. Pick one that suits your interest and your intention. The best part about these learning environments is that you’ll find comradery there — amongst others like you.
3) Examine and cultivate your personal health. What is it you suffer? Why is this so? Many of us function physically, well enough — but there is so much more to our well being, satisfaction and overall health. Take a moment to consider these Six Principles of Health;
- Physical
- Mental
- Emotional
- Spiritual
- Social
- Occupational or Work
Not ALL of us will be able to fulfill all six of these human frontiers of experience even during the course of our lifetimes, but we can certainly strive to visit and consider each of these frontiers of health regularly. Remember, learning usually only happens with the acknowledgement of mistakes, misunderstanding or perhaps the recognition of mis-information. And technically speaking, there’s no excuse for any of us to have access to the wrong information in this day and age. Anything otherwise is simply criminal activity and should warrant personal and public consequences.
Once again, I’m only stating the obvious. This year I am leaving you on your own, starting today. I’ll be here, doing whatever I can to help make sense of everything … you know — my chromatic dance practice, my astrological readings at Star Sense, and a new project I will soon be adding to my list; HeARTSpace. If you don’t know about it yet, I’ll be sharing more about it here and in the interwebs in the near future. I endeavor to provide ways for you to learn about the idea, acknowledge and support it. (Basically it involves cultivating safe spaces for learning and expression.) I want to believe the Medium platform is one of them. ❤
With that, I wish all of you an incredibly synergistic 2022. I can’t help but point out to you that the year resonates a ‘6’. That’s THE number — that’s OUR number, the number of synergy. When you close your eyes and imagine what ‘synergy’ feels like, shoot for finding that feeling each and every day as you appreciate the arts, advocate for your health and shared education this year. Let’s see what we can accomplish #Together. #FindGrace. #BeGrateful. #BeBlessed. Just be — and know you are appreciated, desired and loved. You are not alone.
~ Written 1/1/22.
~ Published on Medium 5/14/22, the week the U.S. hit 1,000,000 deaths due to the SARS 2 Coronavirus Pandemic.
~ Edited, 9/5/22 with an impassioned plea to those who have yet to learn that making mistakes is inevitable. Be courageous in changing course, if necessary. Our shared existence on earth needs your undivided attention and divine intuition. We are all counting on you.
