An Essay: Our Three Challenges & What We Can Do About Them

For two decades, I have been on an intense journey of both understanding myself and deciding how I would like to show up in the world. Even if I always had a sense of the outcome, I had to navigate many competing and challenging parts within me and around me in my relationship to the rest of the world. I share this only because what follows is part of that outcome, but it also connects to what's going on right now in our world. It is relevant to the past, the present, and the future. It comes from a place of love.  

Recently, I had yet another one of my premonitions (or intuitions) that outlined the present and offered up a view of the current and coming challenges. It existed mostly as a feeling. It wasn't novel per say, but I found it helpful in order to take stock of how I will show up as we move into this next phase of human experience. We are, in actuality, already in all of this, but there is still more to come. Let me briefly summarize by saying that these three challenges aren't new; they are current and continue into the immediate future. They are Covid and the health crisis, Conflict in us and between us, and Climate Change or Earth Changes. They speak to a much larger experience unfolding right now before our eyes, a lived human experience, and to a challenge to come that offers its share of opportunities. 

As we begin our third year of the pandemic led by the Covid virus, we notice with greater awareness our health crisis that has changed our normal experience of life. As we move into the month of March soon, we notice the second challenge of conflict or war brewing the East. It doesn't have to be an all-out war as some might want to dramatize, but nevertheless, it is a conflict between competing interests and visions for the future (a verifiable power struggle). The third challenge is climate change or Earth changes to our natural environment that has existed and grown for some time. These big three issues and current threats today also speak more generally to the themes of our health and well-being, to our relationship with each other as nations and people, and in our relationship with the Earth. And each of these connect both directly and indirectly to our 'raising awareness' and 'consciousness' as human beings in this singular time in history. 

These three challenges form a sizable part of human history as we know it and they have only intensified for us in recent decades. That intensification has been largely due to more available information via the internet and new technologies; but also to our own growing awareness as people of how sensitive we are to what's happening within us and around us. We've come to realize that we are more deeply interconnected than we might have imagined beforehand with the rest of the world and for better or worse. That contrast of 'better or worse,' though just a phrase, speaks to our growing sense of an underlying union and togetherness in the unfolding struggles and situations of our current lives. While we may isolate or somehow try to secure our own future in closer quarters with those dearest to us, we still will realize that we can't fully escape our connection to all of it. If something is close, we feel it naturally. If something is far away, we also feel it now somewhat too. That feeling is in our connection to whatever occurs anywhere, often when we perceive it or hear about it, and as today's experience suggests; that circumstance actually impacts us regardless of our distance. That is due on a subtler level to our awakening awareness and our sentience as humans beyond the information we receive. It speaks to our openness now to recognize a larger truth developing in our experience of life.

                                    The Health Crisis: 

We have diseases and viruses throughout human history. It has been part of our evolution and our relationship with each other and the natural world. Think of the so-called plagues of the past, namely the Black Death. Remember the smallpox virus, polio, the Spanish flu, SARS & Zika, and now Covid-19, plus many others. Perils to our health and our lives aren't new to us. We also have cancers, heart disease, and diabetes, and so many other ailments to kill us either quickly or over time. In other ways, we've been contaminated by our choices as a collective in how we treat our bodies and our environment. Our health has been in crisis mode long before Covid universalized it in a way that touched all of us uniquely. Many of us have joined together in the fear of the virus and in the response to it, in self-imposed or directed isolation, and in navigating the brave new world. 

Covid, like so many viruses before its time, changed the way we experienced life and death. It touched us, hurt us, and empowered us. It gave us many opportunities to face our own mortality if we chose that route, at least in the physical sense; and to value what mattered most in our lives. Covid has taken many lives, but so have many other illnesses that continue today with long histories, though perceived as less abrupt or unknown versus Covid; are still of grave concern to global health and showcase the longstanding crisis behind our frequent sicknesses. Covid has also transformed many lives as many people have made visible new health choices in diet, self-care routines, and in re-prioritizing what we valued as important to our health and happiness, even if it came with loss and difficulty. 

Our health crisis, beyond Covid, necessitates a greater commitment to mental, emotional, and physical health, and to build upon the available information and awareness that we now have to choose again the types of food we eat, where we get it from, and reflect on how it impacts us in our daily lives. Beyond lifestyle changes, our focus on loving our bodies and facing our fears around death and aging goes a long way to helping others do that too. Our future is one of health and immunity if we increase our self-care, clean up our environment, and engage with a deeper love for ourselves. 

                                           Escalating Conflict: 

Throughout human history, there have been many wars, countless conflicts, and a catastrophic amount of death. It has been about conquest, self-defense and survival, to gain resources or profit, and due to ideology or belief systems. We have been motivated by fear, but also by seeking advantage, control, and more power - often underpinned yet still by more fear at some core level. We've seen civil wars, international conflicts, World Wars, and countless individualized battles across regions that pitted humans against humans. The result has been loss of life, destruction of those resources, and heavy tolls still felt today upon the fragile psyche of our human consciousness. We know this story since we've lived it many times before. We are not strangers to any of it. As Russia begins to escalate its invasion of Ukraine and the world reacts with fears of greater war between nations; we find ourselves there once again, but in intensified times. We face yet more fear that people will die, that nations will be devastated, and that the power structures and the security that we gain from them, will crumble at our own expense. 

This second challenge speaks to our relationship with each other in a larger sense in that it suggests a lack of cooperation while highlighting or hiding the motivations of our leaders and our governments. It also suggests a conflict within us if we consider the role of fear and love in our evolving history and present circumstance. If we read history, we will see that similar themes have played out in comparable ways. Today is no different than in the past, even if the people and their circumstances or regions are distinct. Two sides, or many sides, feel threatened by each other and have competing interests (political, economic, social) that they perceive to be at risk and so they feel as if they must advance, attack, or 'double down' in their response to secure their future. There is an 'us verse them' mentality, etched in the minds of the human psyche, and entrenched in the deep negativity we have sadly experienced. It too harkens back to that fear. We have been at the whim of many choices by our leadership evidently for much of our history. While we too have been wrapped up in it and fought these wars, we weren't always as aware as we are now or as empowered to make a change. 

In recent decades, that willingness to embrace a different story has slowly shifted. More humans are less inclined to support war and instead we have begun to know in our hearts and actualize in our own lives that we want to live in peace, and even if it is still elusive. Many are willing to stand up for that vision and even to risk their lives. In some ways, the past has been no different and we don't want to keep repeating it. We want a new future, our peace secured, and our freedom granted without fear of insecurity and imminent danger. We want to tell those that still seem asleep and convinced that war and conflict are the only solutions to our perceived challenges; that we want a new approach beyond these old decaying grievances or negative attachments once and for all. A majority clamors for a different, more loving path in the wake of the last decades, history in general, and in our experiences of awakening.  

We move into another phase of recent human experience with the potential of more conflict to come among nations; with leaders on both sides of the equation holding onto an aged paradigm largely based on the past, often self-motivated, and staunchly conditioned to programmed responses of aggression or attack. The fear in these leaders and the fear still in us, just as with Covid; encourages us nonetheless to 'dig deeper' again within ourselves for more answers and to make necessary changes in our own lives to support a different outcome. If we currently live in an environment of conflict, not between nations; but with family, friends, community, races or cultures; we also have a chance to recreate how those conflicts end. We can show ourselves and others, through the power of our new words and actions; that living in conflict no longer supports our desired outcome anyone. It has taken a large enough toll. We could instead mend those fences and forgive the others, or open up dialogues for cooperation and understanding toward reconciliation. We show ourselves and others again in that action that we seek another way forward and empower others to do the same. We may not be able to directly influence the governments and citizens who are still committed their war games, but we can, at least, impact our little piece of humanity in a positive way. 

The possible future is that we no longer fight over resources or act out our own trauma and past conditioning in aggressive ways. That we dispense with and heal our own grievances together in constructive ways and become enlightened by the love that comes from each one of us wishing it to be so. Our future can be one where humans no longer give value or importance to those forces that want to fight because we see it less in ourselves. In that growing sense of love and peace that occurs in our own lives, we actually create that new reality, since what we give attention to will grow in us. The present potential for conflict might be strong, but even if we feel powerless; we will not be powerless in our choice to love instead. 

The third challenge is climate change or the Earth changes. Once again, we are not strangers to these forces. The Earth has been shifting and evolving for a long time and we have lost our lives in those changes, some of them by our own making. Earthquakes, floods, erupting volcanoes, rising seas and severe weather have killed us, moved us around, and forced us to adapt to new ways of living together. In recent decades, once again with the intensification of information and human awareness; we have learned about how we adversely impact our Mother Earth and we have sought to make some changes. Our changing weather patterns, the loss of infrastructure, and human life continues to show us that major changes are needed. We read about the oodles of professional research by independent scientists and government-funded ones (by the way), who tell us that our lives are in peril and at extreme risk, and also because of the melting ice caps, rising seas, and coming climate consequences.  

We are afraid by this news and what we see happening around us. If we lived through a terrible climate event, and many have; we are even more worried about our future. We contemplate that the Earth might end soon or change so much without us that our livelihoods will be lost. We face our own demise once again in the climate crisis; the real possibility of our death by some outside or other force. History suggests that these changes in the environmental are complex, cyclical, and created by our own actions in how we treat our precious ecosystem and its once abundant resources. These realizations have influenced many of us to become more active in taking care of the environment because we recognize that our own lives are tied to Hers. Maybe we can't directly influence the big companies, individuals, or the governments that allow this pollution to continue without swift action, but we Can alternatively care for Her in our world close to home and demand action in that love for her and in our willingness to change our own individual ways. Our words and actions in this regard will motivate others to do the same and we can beautify our little piece of the Earth.  

The possible future is one where we use the power of our stewardship and our loving thoughts for Mother Earth to recreate Her and allow her to rejuvenate. The future is living life in balance with Earth because we are attuned to her needs and because we love Her. That decision to care for Earth in our backyard multiplied by countless others is what gives Her the strength to reconnect with Her own deeper self, which in turn empowers us. Our thoughts, words, and action toward Her are valuable beyond what we believe them to be and while they are happening already in many of us or through us, She needs us to move past our past relationship of dominance over Her to one of cooperation with Her. This is no different a response than the challenge of conflict today or the challenges to our health. To get to that brighter future, we may have to experience dramatic changes, even more than now. Yet, the more of us that choose this new path of love for Her right now, the more that reality falls away and we/She are restored. 

                                                 ---

We are in a health crisis; we have the potential of an escalating conflict, and we see the peril to our Earth. What do we do? While many suggestions have already been made, there is a little more to share. 

First, I want to encourage all of us that might read this to expand our own research in the pursuit of deeper truth in order to seek out the root causes of our past and current health crises (if we have not already), of our past conflicts as nations or peoples, and the one now between Russia, Ukraine, and NATO; and to delve into the situation with the environment. In doing so, it is important to avoid negative emotion about it and any blind faith in the sensationalist reporting hanging over us. I want to encourage us to look past the 'sound bites' to follow by reading and educating ourselves to try and understand with more awareness, compassion, and most of all, love; any or all underlying meaning behind it. Such an exploration requires time, care, and commitment; but it will be a revealing process that deepens our individual and collective awareness. 

Second, I want us to consider that the fear we feel and the triggers we experience with the current world situation to be partly and even largely subconscious or hidden; now rising to the surface into our conscious mind, and thus creating the trigger. Covid triggers us. The possible conflict triggers us. And so does the climate danger. When we are afraid or triggered oftentimes, we are reliving past hurt, pain, or trauma, and also fearing that we might experience it again soon. There's anxiety in that. The current virus, conflict in eastern Europe, and climate reality once again are not new to us. They form part of a collective past and present memory of lived experience and they express themselves in a collective and individual way. In our fear of what is to come, we connect with the fear of the past repeating. I want to sincerely encourage us to be gentle and loving with ourselves when we are afraid or continue to be and to seek out the types of outlets that help us feel good - not drugs and alcohol, but the ones that support a fuller, healthier expression of our well-being. We know what those things are; we just have to move into them more resolutely and with the support of others.  

Third, I want us to consider that we are much more powerful and capable in our thoughts, words, and actions than we might have imagined we are to actually support change on the many levels of our experience and that of others in the world. If we choose now to only focus on the anger, fear, grief, sadness, and negativity that we might feel right now; though absolutely understandable given the ride we've been on lately; we will still nevertheless add to sustaining of those types of thoughts, emotions, and feelings in us and around us. This is an encouragement not wallow in our possible role in what's unfolding in these ways, but instead, to suggest that we are able to heal and ease what is happening in different ways both subtle and direct. 

If we focus more on "loving what arises in us" (also the big Us) as we would a hurt child or group of children or adults we care about, and then, from there; also choose to expand outward that feeling of love from within us and to others; we will support the sustaining of more positive and loving energies for the future. Start with what or who is closest to us and then later, if we feel compelled to do it; move further out to our communities, to our leaders and all nations on all sides, whether we agree with them or not, and to the Earth. Send love instead of fear and be grateful. At the very least, we will experience it more in us, though others may choose differently. Believe that we are part of that change all along the way. 

We all have fear and love in us. These are two forces that animate our lives and our history. They give birth to life in many of its forms and expressions with much in between. If we believe, however, that we have lived much of our lives so far in fear; I ask us to be gentle and loving again in that recognition and with ourselves. I've felt great fear in my life too. It's normal and not to be afraid of. If we also see a lack of love in our lives, I want us to consider that we can create more love in us instead and around us too. It simply begins with 'choosing love' consciously and with implementing it in the places in our lives where we feel love and want it to grow. If love doesn't align with many parts of our current lives or our relationship to others and the Earth right now; then how might we change that? Baby steps; one foot in front of the other. 

We will see that the more we harness our love for what brings us love and peace, the more it will expand and flourish. This will empower us to see through and beyond the difficult realities of today and to begin to create a new one, slowly but surely. It does start at home in all senses of that statement. Trust in that truth. And in everything we do now, we can intend that we do it in service to our own highest well-being and to that of those around us and far away as well. What we do lovingly for ourselves, we do lovingly for them too. 

In the face of all that arises in us and triggers us in the coming days, weeks, months, or even years of our awakening, and what has also come before; lovingly but firmly just say 'no' to what wants to pull us down and keep us from that love. Even when it is the hardest, try to be loving and do the best we can. We are capable of a much greater love than we can possibly imagine, if we could only recognize it once more. I suggest this only from a deeper inner knowing that has become stronger in recent years and in my own experience. We are that love that wants to arise. We have nothing to lose to try it out and see how it fits, even in small steps and over gradual time. We've come this far; why not give love a chance? 

Much love to all!