Dare We Go Back to Sleep

In times like these...

The human heart can go the lengths of God… [ A Sleep of Prisoners ]

Dark and cold we may be, but this

Is no winter now. The frozen misery

Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;

The thunder is the thunder of the floes,

The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.

Thank God our time is now when wrong

Comes up to face us everywhere,

Never to leave us till we take

The longest stride of soul men ever took.

Affairs are now soul size.

The enterprise is exploration into God.

Where are you making for? It takes

So many thousand years to wake…

But will you wake, for pity’s sake?

Christopher Fry

As we say good bye to another month, the merry month of May, things seems so far from ever being merry again.  Struggle after struggle has come to greet us.  While we have tried and tried again to keep putting one foot in front of the other, it has not been easy.

In one way or another, perhaps we are being shaken awake, reminded we are not to go back to sleep, that the time has come for big change and not band-aids.  Perhaps this awakening is meant to help us find our way home, back to our true selves, and not these complacent, tepid versions.

Are we On the Brink?

No more excuses.  No more yearning to go back to the "way things were".  No more sidestepping all our brokenness.  We are poised on the brink...and it is only by a fearless examination of all our deeply cherished beliefs might we find the real truth of the house of cards we have been living in for so long.  Why don't we choose to wake up and stop pretending everything is ok.  It's not and it hasn't been for a long time.  The breaking down can be the start of a building up.  What shall we build?

Leaving behind everything gives us such a clean slate.  So, if you had that option and you were designing our next phase, what would you be sure to add to the mix?  Kindness, honesty, compassion, fairness, prosperity for all...

What?  Why don't we, upon waking to a new month, wake up and stay awake.  Let's take the steps we need to take.  Let's define this new slate, our new society, the one we really do long for when we are not experiencing fear, and hate, and envy and all the other emotions that lead us down a dark path.  

When we are awake, we have knowledge of that deepest, truest part of ourselves, our souls.  From there we can hold steady, resist temptations, and take the steps necessary to ensure that our elected officials to do the same.  It's no longer ok for self interests to call the shots.  Not for any of us.  

We are part of a collective that must stand together, even with different ways of seeing the world.  Basic human rights; yes back to the basics may be the first step. We have been feeling the tug of the heart string that binds us together.  That is not a bad thing.  It is waking us up.  

Here's to eyes wide open...from the soul.