The Impossible and the Unthinkable

I have been silent for a while – again. I have been grappling with some very deep and challenging stuff – still.

I have been “stuck between the impossible and the unthinkable”* and it has been trying hard to render me speechless.

Clearly, sometimes succeeding.

The “unthinkable,” to paraphrase David Roberts, is the future into which we are heading if we continue on our current path – especially regarding “the brutal logic of climate change”.

The “impossible” refers to what appear to be insurmountable “forces that retard or prevent (necessary) change.”

In other words, the ultimate rock and hard place. 

But when I ponder being between the impossible and the unthinkable, what gives me a spark of meaning and purpose, what makes me want to get up in the morning, is

the word

“between.”

I've been pondering this for some time and I am finding that “between” is vast and it is timeless; it conjures up soul and presence and healing and possibility. It implies mystery and awe, and energy, and creation....

I have been pursuing for years the question of how we are being called as human beings in this planet-time. I think there are clues in the “between” if we can free ourselves enough from the impossible and the unthinkable to discern them.

A key, for me, is “essence.” What is essentially mine to seek, to know, to give? What is uniquely mine to live? What will empower me to not give up on life, on the future, on the mystery, no matter what? “There may be no better time to learn the inner story that our souls carry and find the ways we are intended to be in this world of uncertainty.” **

The BeingChange mission is, essentially, to bring together people who feel this call to discover and live their soul story in service of the Great Turning. This year I will be searching for more and better ways to make this mission a reality. I invite you to join me in whatever way you can.

*  From "Hope and Fellowship" by David Roberts

The following link takes you to the article and a Ted Talk by David called "Climate Change is Simple."

If the link doesn't work, email me and I'll send you a copy of the article.

http://grist.org/climate-energy/hope-and-fellowship

 

** From "Fate and Destiny - The Two Agreements of the Soul" by Michael Meade (pg. 9)

Photo by George Hodan

In the Dark Times, Will There Be Singing?*

 

I think I've been afraid to speak my deepest truth. Especially since, when I have, it hasn't been well received. People don't want to talk about changing and dying, even though that is the nature of all things, even though changing and dying can lead to healing and initiation and rebirth. And even though I believe with all my heart that being able to talk about changing and dying is profoundly necessary for guiding us into the future.

I started to touch on this in previous posts and since then I've discovered that I'm not alone.

Consider this from The WorldWe Have by Thich Nhat Hanh: “The wisdom offered in the Buddha is that we accept impermanence – our own death and the inevitable death of our civilization. And after having accepted that, we will have peace and strength and an awakening that will bring us together. Then we will have the opportunity...to save our beloved planet.” (pg. 56)

Or this from Coming Back To Life by Joanna Macy: “Pain is the price of consciousness in a threatened and suffering world. It is not only natural, it is an absolutely necessary component of our collective healing...Pain has a purpose: it is a warning signal, designed to trigger remedial action. The problem, therefore, lies not with our pain for the world, but in our repression of it. Our efforts to dodge or dull it surrender us to futility – or in systems' terms, cut the feedback loop and block effective response.” (pg. 27)

In The Green Boat – Reviving Ourselves In Our Capsized Culture, Mary Pipher talks about the Trauma-To-Transcendence Cycle – a process which “requires us to face the truth, feel the pain of (our) experience, and ultimately transform that pain into action and authenticity. As we move through this cycle, we can acquire the skills we need to overcome our sense of doom and discover our own capacities for transcendent coping...we can find deep within ourselves new strength, deeper courage, and an enriched capacity to love the world.” (pg. 4)

In So Far From Home – Lost and Found In Our Brave New World, Margaret Wheatley writes: “If we fully accept the world as it is – in all its harsh realities – then we can develop the very qualities we need to be in that world and not succumb to that harshness. We find our courage, morality, and gentle, non-aggressive actions by clear seeing and acceptance. As we accept what is, we become people who stand in contrast to what is, freed from the aggression, grasping and confusion of this time. With that clarity, we can contribute things of eternal importance no matter what's going on around us – how to live exercising our best human qualities, and how to support others to discover these qualities in themselves.” (pg. 11)

Mary Pipher, in another of her books - Writing To Change the World - tells this story:

In September 2003, when I was fifty-five years old, I visited the Holocaust Museum, in Washington, D.C., to view the Anne Frank exhibit. I looked at the cover of her little plaid diary, and at pages of her writing, at her family pictures. Meip Gies, Otto Frank's employee, who brought food to the family, spoke on video about the people who hid in the attic. She said that Anne had always wanted to know the truth about what was going on. Others would believe the sugar-coated version of Miep's stories, but Anne would follow her to the door and ask, “What is really happening.?”

Even though Anne Frank ultimately was murdered, she managed (through her writings), in her brief and circumscribed life, to tell the truth and bequeath the gift of hope. She searched for beauty and joy even in the harsh, frightened world of the attic in which her family hid from the Nazis. Her writing lived on to give us all a sense of the potential largesse of the human soul, even in worst-case scenarios. (pg. 20)

We are now facing a potential “Worst-case Scenario.” If pain is the price of consciousness in a threatened and suffering world then perhaps these are the gifts: peace and strength and an awakening that will bring us together...new strength, deeper courage, and an enriched capacity to love the world...(becoming) people who stand in contrast to what is, freed from the aggression, grasping and confusion of this time... the potential largesse of the human soul....

Is it possible? It sounds so compelling I'm willing to go there. And it looks like I'm in good company.

*In the dark times, will there be singing?

  Yes. There will be singing about the dark times.

- Bertolt Brecht