How Do We Show Up?

01 Mar How Do We Show Up?

If you study the long arc of history, you can see its cyclic nature. Beginnings strike out in a new direction, leading to new awakenings as they develop.  

Fruits are harvested from those awakenings, and then, the inevitable decline.

Just like the seasons or the stages of life, these cycles are bigger than we are. 

We can’t make flowers bloom in the midst of winter, or give birth to babies in our elderhood. We can only learn from each stage and evolve as best we can.

There is little doubt that we are living in a time of decline. Our leaders fail to uplift us and instead fall into squabbling with each other. Dictators, liars, and swindlers are enabled in plain sight, while nobility is attacked as weakness. 

Children are torn from their parents and priests molest them in shocking numbers. Meanwhile, the daily news rumbles around in the gutter, filled with topics and language that children shouldn’t even hear. 

Failing to address the catastrophic effects of climate change that our children and grandchildren will face is a moral failure of epic proportions. Enabling the rich at the cost of the poor is a moral failure. And falling into complacency behind a screen, whether it be a TV or a cell phone, is a failure that even an aware, caring person can succumb to.

What are we to do in times like these? How do we avoid despair?

Personal challenges are the instigators of our awakening. Global challenges are the catalysts of evolution. In both cases, difficulties force changes that might not otherwise happen. After the change, one discovers how much better life has become. The cancer survivor feels better on a cleaner diet; the failing marriage sends one into therapy where old wounds are healed.

What change is being evoked by this period of decline?

To serve something greater than ourselves.

We who are alive today have had the greatest privilege, abundance, and ease of any generation in history. Nearly everything has been provided for us: the roads, the food, the technology, and the infrastructure that provides a life most of us take for granted. We can order most anything we want from the Internet and it appears on our doorstep two days later, without even leaving the comfort of our home.

Through a palm held device, we have access to the world.

But as an indulged generation, we have both a trap to escape and a debt to pay. The trap is the lure of ego and individualism that says the purpose of life is just to enhance ourselves. The debt is to the welfare of the common good.

Sacrifice of our indulgence is inevitable. Climate change will alter life in every way that we know it. Nature will not continue to supply our every need. 

We can sacrifice willingly, curbing carbon emissions, buying less, living lighter, and helping others in need, or we can be forced into a greater sacrifice by our selfishness, where the privilege we take for granted will be pried from our gripping hands.

What the cesspool of our times is calling for is not only a new morality, but an inspiring vision. The morality needs to set an example of integrity, kindness, and service. The vision needs to articulate what life could be like with these things in place: a world we can treasure and take care of, a world that’s green and healthy, in short, a world we can love.

At this time we’re being asked to refuse despair, complacency, and obsession with ourselves, and find joy in service to others. 

We can lead with compassion and an open heart, wherever we are. We can live life boldly and creatively, seeking those who inspire us and endeavoring to inspire others.

And as we do, we make a shift that brings a fuller satisfaction, a deeper joy, and a greater dignity. Knowing that decline is a stage that eventually passes, we can plant the seeds of the new world in the compost of the old. And this begins the process of a new cycle.

It’s all in how you show up.

Anodea Judith
3.1.19

P.S. Tools for Conscious Evolution is an information-rich package that spans personal practices to global evolution and will help us change the world together! Click on the link above to learn more.