What We Hold in Our Hands
Most everyone I know is struggling with the state of the world, especially the deconstruction of the country I call home. Add to that the Climate Crisis, which is not only being ignored but worsened by the current administration, and species extinction occurring at an alarming rate, desecration of oceans, lands, national parks, national forests…there’s no need to expand the list because if we are paying attention, we know. Oh….how painfully we know.
With some of my friends, we’ve collectively pondered, “How do we maintain our joy? How do we maintain our sanity seeing the things we hold most sacred destroyed by an administration that has one goal and that is to elevate itself above everything and everyone and fill their coffers with money. It’s challenging to maintain balance and to even breathe when every peek into social media or a news feed exposes another crime against humanity, against Nature.
But….I think I might have discovered a way to help maintain balance within myself. Two things happened recently that have shifted my concept of how to practice self-care while staying informed.
First, I watched a short video by Ron Griswell and the basic message was “My joy isn’t separate from my resistance. It’s the core of it.” My joy is the greatest resistance. Nobody can take that from me! If they do, I’m giving them power over me and that’s just not going to happen. Our minds can be our greatest strength (or our biggest downfall).
Second, I listened to a podcast with Parker Palmer and Carrier Newcomer with their guest, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. She talked about the death of her son by suicide and how she holds her grief as sacred while at the same time holding space for beauty. She presented the idea of holding grief, rage, anger…whatever is ‘eating’ at us in one hand and sitting with that while simultaneously holding beauty and love in our other hand. Rather than denying our rage, our anger, our grief keep it in our hand, hold it. Acknowledge it. And then hold what brings us joy and beauty in the other.
This brought a solution to a visceral level for me where I could sit with all of my emotions and allow each one to be honored. By doing this practice, I’m not denying any feeling. I’m not gaslighting myself into thinking everything will be okay. I don’t think everything is okay. In fact, everything is far from being okay. But I also think there are things that are right…like practicing compassion towards others, opening our hearts to the people and places and creatures we love. Why do we think we can only feel one way or the other?
For everyone suffering anxiety, grief, anger, rage right now about the state of the world, know that holding our joy and love is the core of our resistance to the meanness and destruction happening all around us. We don’t have to dismiss one feeling to have another. The key is to welcome them all and create a loving space for all emotions to have a home within us. We are, after all, multi-faceted gems of light at our core. So let us be a lighthouse and shine.
