As much as I try not to become fixated on the news, the fact is, as an admittedly self-described modern mystic, I feel I need to understand what is happening in the world in order to make spiritual sense of it. So I make spot checks of network news, the front page of the newspaper, and PBS NewsHour, not to mention what comes across my computer screen. And this morning, I thought to myself, someday all of us may look back on this time period and see it as a turning point in human history. For today, I'll only say it's a turning point in my history.
When you start to believe that the only active power in the world is the power of love, many dominos begin to fall down. I don't believe most of us can even fathom what such a powerful stream of love feels like, much less what it would look like operating at full volume in the world, but somehow this autumn seems to encapsulate all the things that it would not look like. A second ago, I was planning to list all those things, but I don't think I want to honor them even to the extent of naming them. We may not know what love is, but, to skirt rather close to another allusion, we know in our hearts what it is not.
The blessing in this is that ultimately, if love is the only actual power in the Universe, these other traumas and terrors actually have no power to hurt us. I think this morning was the first time when the news elicited not the slightest frisson of fear or revulsion in me. It's not that I don't understand certain people and events' superficial power to instill fear, and cause potential physical harm, but that somehow I finally understand on a deeper level that they almost literally do not exist. And once you know that, it becomes easier to be courageous, to make the choice to be fearless.
The "news" is beginning to feel rather old, isn't it? We've outgrown some worn-out fear garments and are growing more love-filled as a society. The old "clothes" are feeling tight and restrictive, and don't really fit. There are tumultuous times ahead, but I firmly believe that it is the old fabric bursting at the seams; even on days like this, let's listen to our hearts, and get out the ol' sewing machine and sew some designs to beautifully adorn the new "us."
