As I write this blog I’m watching the cedar waxwings cascade around shrubs in my backyard as they feast on berries. Sometimes they get intoxicated on the fermented fruit and put on wild displays. Their plumage is so smooth and beautiful that it looks like it has been painted on, and their sulfur yellow tail tips flash as they pass.
I celebrate the coming of the waxwings each winter because they are an affirmation of the grand order of things. No matter how chaotic or confusing circumstances become Nature’s flow and rhythm reminds me that all is well.
I need this assurance right now when there is so much apparent confusion and uncertainty in our nation and our world. There is a wide spread erosion of common courtesy and respect for other points of view.
Propaganda has been with us since the first man pulled the first wool over his first rival’s eyes, but now we have “alternative facts” that call us to question our common sense and even our reason. “Shock events”, as they have been called, seek to destabilize and confuse. It can make you crazy!
Many of the groups rallying in opposition to the new administration are gathering under the word “Resist.” That’s a difficult one for me and perhaps others in Unity and allied paths because we believe that, “what you resist persists.” To resist something is to acknowledge that is has power over you. Jesus taught non-resistance, the turning of the other cheek, but this is often interpreted as passivity.
So how do we respond to that which challenges us without becoming fearful and angry, and without inadvertently giving our power away. The stakes are high and we want to get it right.
Here are seven suggestions that I intend to practice myself this week:
- Focus on the good. Take solace in all that is right and well in your life: your family and friends, the beauty of nature, simple everyday blessings and pleasures. Doing this will keep us sane, calm, and optimistic.
- Ask questions; stay in touch with the flow of events without being consumed by them. Contact your elected officials and make your views and concerns known.
- Choose to stay civil and courteous even when provoked. This is especially true on impersonal forums like Facebook and Twitter.
- Join one of the many groups no forming, attend a rally, or encourage your faith community to make a difference.
- Stay creative. There are always more ways to approach a challenge than are apparent at first viewing. Tap into the wise, ingenious, and playful being that you are!
- Affirm for yourself, “I am capable.” Whatever is ours to do we choose to, and can, do it well.
- Stay the course. Take a panoramic view beyond news cycles, shock events, and the minutia of decisions made.
Remember, we are all in this together. Which ever side of the apparent divide we stand there is one nation, one world. Our task is not to make someone else wrong but to see the greatest good for the greatest number prevail.
Photo credit:
By John Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikipedia