We're heading into a very hot weekend in northern Minnesota, the hottest of the year. It's pretty rare, apparently, to experience the hottest stretch of summer in the month of September. But the again, a lot of rare things have started to happen, right? A lot of bizarre, even surreal things.
"Surreal". I mean, my whole life has been surreal. It used to be that I thought it stemmed from being an American girl (then woman) wanting to sing English church music. That's surreal enough in itself. Then, for decades, it seemed to be about looking out at an economic/political/social landscape that made no sense to me, and having to hang on for dear life to my physical health, sanity, and sense of humor. But in the last few years, I realize that the core issue has been that I was operating from a Goddess-centered "place" in a non-Goddess-centered world. You're moving ahead side-by-side with other people, but on a completely different track that has no institutions or solid road signs. Your life is parallel to everyone else's "real", but completely different.
Take this morning. The news items ranged from the beginnings of "the recovery" from the fires on Maui and hurricane in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, projections about good employment numbers, people buying one-time-only outfits to wear to pop concerts, and -- of course -- politics. I listen to all this and just feel lightheaded. To me, there is only one "issue", one "item". It is the health of our earth home. And my perspective isn't, how do we address it by building more stress-proof houses, or creating a "green" economy, or studying species loss. It isn't about fighting what's happening. It is simply recognizing that for centuries, virtually all our major thought processes discounted the value of the earth itself, and now, inevitably, that boomerang is coming back to hit us. Even if all eight billion of us were to start to think and act differently tomorrow, I doubt that it would change the trajectory of the transformation that is at our doorstep. And that transformation will probably include spiritual growth elements that we have no control over anyway.
Having somehow hung on to what's "real" to me (beauty, music, art, harmony, love, and the wisdom of the divine feminine), that's my only path forward. Believing, knowing, that the eventual outcome will be centered on those qualities -- whether or not I will be around to see how it all turns out -- keeps me calmer than I might be otherwise. In this blog, I've tried not to tell people what to do (!). So I won't start now...but to those of you who have walked some variation on this path, thank you for being out there too. Surviving this long has been a gift to the world. We've been a preview of the future. I "really" mean it!
