For the past two days I have been resting in bed after picking up a virus on the way home from Ireland, on Friday. I am aware that since the pandemic three years ago, this was the first time of my being around large numbers of people in close proximity, especially on a crammed air flight courtesy of Ryanair. My immune system isn’t used to being around large numbers of others and a part of me was expecting the possibility of picking up a bug.
The immune system of my body has had a crash course with the world. However it will be just fine with a little care and tenderness.
The immune system of my soul is another matter. This last couple of days has helped me to make contact with my deep consciousness and how I have been experiencing life in the world since the pandemic. I am cognisant that the world has weighed deeply on my heart. I have been ploughing on with life and feeling fatigue with the world, but I didn’t really know how much it has affected me. I don’t do Pollyanna very well. Human suffering has felt all the more intense when I encounter it, (and suffering goes with the territory of my work). Life on planet Earth life isn’t alright and good. I don’t believe that the language of the soul – which includes intuition and empathy- wants me to ignore these feelings and pretend. Oneness and solidarity doesn’t come easily.
There is a cost. What has been depressing?
– indifference and sociopathy from our systems of power who are now more brazen than ever in fleecing the peoples
– economic injustice and vast levels of social inequality – especially in third world nations
– hunger and poverty
-the pay cheque to pay cheque reality of many peoples lives and the stress this brings to them
– young people who face a future of never being able to own a home
– identity politics that seems to have taken on a gargantuan and oppressive role in western culture, which is not concerned with human flourishing, economic justice and transformation but with pushing meaningless agendas
– climate change – and our global leadership failing to make the culprits causing ecocide to pay for the plague repair
And so much more
I can’t do a Pollyanna on this. There is too much suffering. I would rather face the reality for what it is, head on, and know that my soul is being more drawn more and more into compassion, than to pretend. Simultaneously with this angst I know also that we will change, eventually. I know that something inside of us will change life on earth forever. But I refuse to live in a Pollyanna mindset until this happens. I won’t refuses to feel pained by the suffering all around us. When I stop noticing, I relinquish solidarity with all life on earth.
May all beings know their value and find happiness and wholeness 