As the presidential election and it’s years’- long build-up has made so clear, there is a storm raging in the hearts of Americans. Hurricane Sandy churning up the East Coast of the Country, and the ensuing blizzard follow-up, mirrored the antagonism, violence and cold hearted ruthlessness that has left a wake of devastation and disbelief inside and out as we, in Hurricane Alley look on, helpless, wishing we could do more and could have cast our vote and, at the same time, grateful to have been spared, this time around, and grateful that Obama is once again our president.
And, as always, in the midst of what looks for some like Armageddon, there is that light that shines so brilliantly as neighborhoods band together to care for each other, keep hot food cooking on camp fires in the Rockaways, pump gas by hand so people can power up their generators and keep warm in New Jersey, help each other out in myriad ways big and smalls and get to know the person down the hallway for the first time, maybe ever. We here in the territories know this phenomena all too well – how disasters are great equalizers that have no regard for color , economic or educational status, age, religion or political persuasion. They say that, in the trenches, no one is an atheist and everyone is a brother/sister. Our common humanity trumps our differences which turn out to be surface illusions anyway once we have our vision checked – and corrected.
One of the last political slurs that I saw on the excessive amount of TV that has kept me and a case of dengue company said “The future is getting worse under President Obama.” I laughed. “What a crock ,” I thought (not that everyone isn’t entitled to his or her opinion) but the future’s not the problem and why spend so much energy creating a picture of one that is colored doom and gloom when we could be focusing on fleshing out the dream of what we really long for – a present that is rich in love and full of hope, full, meaningful employment, inner and outer peace, equal rights, affordable quality education, nourishing, unadulterated food, health care for all and the dawning of the Age of Acquarius where “peace will guide the planets and Love will steer the stars!!!” How could you not want to get on board that train and leave the projected ‘worse future’ to the annals of TV history that will be looked at by future generations as an archaic and dysfunctional way of honoring the gift of life that we’ve been given on this our most amazing mother planet earth.
The Law of Attraction demonstrates over and over again that what we focus on expands and we’ve been doing a lot of focusing on the bad stuff and on what we don’t like instead of putting on our truth telling glasses (and yes I do like a little rose coloring in mine thank you very much) so that we develop a compassionate x-ray vision that allows us to see that we are all facets of the same precious gem, that we can’t reject or neglect anyone without rejecting or neglecting ourselves and that the reason we are supposed to feed the hungry and clothe the naked is not just that we’d better if we want to get to heaven but because they are us. Underneath the trappings of what we may disdain, dislike and be afraid of – Bob Marley had it right – One Love, let’s get together an let’s get it together once and for all.
Like the storms that swirl around and within the weather is constantly changing and finding a center that holds is our work and our joy – first and foremost. Then we can get out there and splash in puddles and revel in the ripples.
Abigail Disney, a film-maker who visited St Thomas several years ago and shared her powerful film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” about the transformation of Liberia by it’s women, posted the following poem on Facebook and I just have to share it. I am a poetry lover and Rainer Maria Rilke is one of my favorites. It says more and echos further than my words and I hope it speaks to you to:
The Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII
Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.
What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.
Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.
Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.
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