Finding Calm as Reality Collapses

"In my 75 years, I've never seen it this dark before."

Hearing that last month from Uncle Chuck, a friend and mentor, really hit home for me.

Yes, things are dark right now. Probably the darkest they've been since the Cold War.

Rapid deployment of AI technology, economic instability, COVID lockdown after-effects, and political polarization, have deteriorated our collective mental health.

There is growing confusion about what is real. Brain rot and declining attention spans. Fear of economic collapse. Political distrust and lack of good leadership.

These are scary and confusing times.

And in times like these, it's all the more important to stay connected to what is life-giving, healing, and true—true at a deep level.

In the Awakening Consultation Group that I run with another practitioner (Monica Robbins), Monica shared the notion that each of us can serve as an "anchor," or an "acupuncture needle" in the body-network of society. We may not always know or see how our presence in a given location effects the world around us, but when we embody the energy of love, awareness, and the peace, it emanates outward through the network of our relations.

That is one way in which communal healing takes place.

Just like fish move together in shoals, or like many cells work together to make a tree, we human beings live as part of a meta-body: the greater body of our species—and beyond that, the biosphere of our planet.

Each individual person is like an individual cell in a human body.

Together, we move within and contribute to a greater whole. A whole that has an intelligence that we, as individual cells, cannot understand, and yet feel we are a part of.

Right now, we are all involved in a collective process of shuddering growth. It is painful and scary. But to pass through this phase of species (and planetary) development beckons us to show up as anchors — nodes in the network where love, trust, truth, and calm are present.

Or, for those comfortable with this language: places where God is present.

In the Jewish tradition, there is a notion that at any one time the world is upheld by 36 righteous individuals. Although devout rabbis might disagree, the specific number isn't so important. What is important is the notion that there are good people everywhere—often unrecognized—who hold up the fabric of reality. Not necessarily by what they do, but the way in which they bring calm, goodness, and harmony into the greater network of relations.

I once heard (I forget where) that when Somali pirates were seen approaching ships carrying Syrian refugees, the people onboard would start to panic, and the boat would often capsize as a result. But if just one person on the boat remained calm, eventually the others would also calm down and they had a chance to survive.

Accurate or not, the truth in this story has stuck with me. I have felt in my own body panic rising and spreading — but if there is one place inside me that is calm, then the rest of me also, eventually, calms down. I have seen this same thing in groups. On occasion, I have been that one person.

All it takes is one person. One place of calm and stillness in the storm. And with time, that calm will spread. 

It will spread more slowly than the fear, but it will also spread more steadily. It is that steadiness which moves the larger masses of existence; it is that steadiness that sustains the curves of the planets and the arcs of history.

Find that steady place within you. Our world needs steady places right now.

Warmly,

Daniel

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