holding the center

Job Well Done – Day 588

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Guarding Our Backs – Photo: L. Weikel

Job Well Done

OK, I’ll admit it; I don’t want to speak too soon. But that being said, I also don’t want to overlook the small steps we’re all taking, collectively, to not only survive the insanity of the present times but also incrementally make things better. And that’s why I’m inclined to give us all a “Job well done!”

This was a big weekend energetically. I’ve written about it, as have a bazillion other people more adept at reading signs and placements and aspects.

But the call to those paying attention was made: Strategically holding space. Holding the center. Maintaining calm and peace in the midst of discord, disharmony, and the deliberate instigation of chaos.

Volatility Index

If there were such a thing as a volatility index, my guess is that it would be hovering at the top of its scale since May 25thor so, when George Floyd was senselessly murdered by a policeman (and callously observed as he did so by three other officers) in Minneapolis. And the needle hasn’t moved much since then, as incident after incident keeps happening, reminding us every day that even when the spotlight is shining directly on our society, ugly stuff just keeps piling on.

As we were approaching this past weekend, we all knew DT had initially planned a ‘comeback rally’ supporting his re-election on Juneteenth in the city of Tulsa, where 99 years ago an absolutely heinous attack was made on Black people by Whites. Yes, amidst calls that this was utterly tone deaf and provocative, he postponed his rally by a day. Thus it was scheduled for this Saturday, June 20th, the arrival of summer and the beginning of an annular solar eclipse.

A lot of signs point toward unrest, massive protests, and possible radicalism. And there’s nothing to say that the danger of seeing these things is past.

But by taking one day at a time, cooler heads have prevailed – so far. And that, in my opinion, borders on miraculous. Especially when taking into account the incendiary rhetoric being tossed about by the DT, the President of the United States.

Surprised?

While part of me was surprised by the outcome of Saturday’s rally in Tulsa, another definitely was not. I felt the sense of protection that was coming forth to keep the peace in Tulsa and around the United States and the rest of the world. There definitely was a calming presence, which may or may not have been a collective presence created by the intention of many loving beings on the planet.

Indeed, I was reminded of Beings, seen and unseen, watching over us – not unlike how we are taught to have each other’s backs when we approach a sacred fire. One of the first rules of etiquette at a sacred fire is that no one approaches a fire to do personal work without another member of the circle standing behind them, arms raised in protection. This ‘having a person’s back’ enables the person approaching the fire to freely interact with the element, have a conversation with it, and allow it to guide and heal them without fear that they will get blindsided or accosted from behind when they are most vulnerable.

That knowing that space will be held and a person’s back will be protected is essential to creating the trust and vulnerability necessary to effectuate true healing.

Larger Forces at Work

When I saw these huge clouds forming in the sky on Saturday afternoon, they reminded me of what it looks like when a person guards the back of another at a sacred fire. I hoped it meant that protection was being afforded on a higher level; that space was being held on a much larger scale than human, and that we were actually setting the intention by holding that space for our brothers and sisters ourselves.

The cavalry was hearing and responding to our call.

While situations can change in the blink of an eye, and the volatility index is not slated to decline much, if at all, this week, I take comfort in knowing that our efforts are being recognized and reinforced. Certainly it’s undeniable that a potential tinderbox was not ignited in Tulsa last night.

For that, I am grateful, and consider our efforts a job well done. Let’s not lose our focus now.

(T-523)

Doing or Being – Day 419

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments
Photo: L. Weikel

Doing or Being

It was suggested by one of you (my wonderful readers) that we need to affirmatively do something – ideally shamanic – in order to be of assistance in the midst of all of the turmoil we’re witnessing unfold here and around the world. The question was asked what we could do collectively to help the situation(s).

I responded by saying I would ask. That meant, I will ask Spirit, my guides, guardians, allies…those unseen Beings/energies who work with me to be of service in the ways asked of me.

I did not get a chance to formally do that asking today, although I felt like I was being given hints as the day unfolded. Sometimes that happens. There have been times when I will state something affirmatively, such as an intention to say or do something on behalf of another, and it’s as if I open the floodgates.

Asking and Listening

I’ve learned that when I either ask a question or affirmatively ask for guidance or a message – particularly if I do so out loud – the act of stating the intention is sometimes more than enough to get the ball rolling. In other words, I’ve learned that I need to open my eyes and start paying attention (i.e., listening) as soon as I’ve asked.

Which leads me to reflect on the sense I received as the day unfolded.

Interestingly, someone specifically kept popping into my head for no apparent reason. It was the person I’ve written about before, who asked for me to come visit them in the critical care unit at a local hospital after having an aneurysm. It might be recalled that they ended up asking me to place a buffer into their auric field to protect them from the onslaught of presumably well-meaning but exhausting, and in some cases conflicting, energies being ‘sent’ to them by friends, family, and even people who didn’t know them at all.

I’ll admit that experience made a dramatic impression upon me.

Our Inclination to Do

Perhaps it’s our nature as humans. Or maybe it’s the type of people I hang out with or who resonate with me and my energy and approach to the world. Whatever it is, I do seem to know and care about some extremely passionate and affirmative individuals who equate caring with action. We want to do something to make a situation better. We want to help; we want to help set things right.

Very often, with this sense of doing something to help comes the corollary to that: if we’re not taking action, then we’re passively (and weakly?) allowing bad things to happen. In other words, the sense that often accompanies our desire to do something is the fear that if we don’t, we will have aided and abetted awfulness by idly standing around doing nothing.

To be sure, some of this action anxiety is stoked by the exhortations we see floating around via meme or otherwise that entreat us to not stand idly by while injustice or cruelty is inflicted upon others. For those who did nothing, we’re told, were the worst of the lot.

The Power of Presence

And I guess that’s where consciousness and intention comes to play a huge part in all of this.

Very often we fear being perceived as doing nothing in the face of great tragedy. But if we know we are doing our part, does it really matter? Can we be secure enough within our own selves and our own knowledge of power and intention to feel just fine about how we are responding to the issues of the day?

I ask that because I feel as though my acquaintance/client popping into my head a couple times today was Spirit speaking to me as I stood at the sink doing my dishes, engaging in informal contemplation. Perhaps the greatest thing some of us can do to be of service in these times of disruption and chaos and tragedy is to hold space. (Ooh! I just realized as I typed those words that I believe I’ve written about this before – the power of ‘holding the center’- hmmm.) I’ll have to do a search.

Setting the Intention

The action we so deeply crave (again, as a result of our simply being human or because we have been raised to believe that action is the answer to everything) is setting the intention. It is holding space with intention. It is closing our eyes and simply opening our hearts to provide open-hearted love and compassion to go where it is needed.

Right now, there are a lot of groups sending various types of energy to situations (be they children in border internment camps – I can’t believe I even typed that just now – or doing this or that healing ritual for the fires in Australia) or addressing a myriad of other situations around the globe. And maybe there’s just a whole lot of conflicting energetic intention flying about.

Maybe what the world needs right now if for people who can hold their focus on maintaining steady, loving, compassionate courage and calm in the face of howling wildfires and insane, power hungry madmen is precisely what we need. These people may to all outward appearances look as though they are doing nothing, yet actually be providing the space for those in the direct line of fire (so to speak) to do their jobs clear-eyed and from their centers – free of being bombarded of other people’s potentially conflicting beliefs about what needs to be thought, said, or done.

Tohickon Creek – Photo: L. Weikel

Holding Space – Together

In the spirit of the power of working together, though, I want to propose that it might be a great experiment of togetherness for those interested and reading this to join me and each other in holding that space of allowing courage and compassion to be felt by all who need it together.

I will continue listening to Spirit for further fleshing out. But this feels right. A practice of actively holding space and allowing courage, compassion, and space to be given to all sentient beings – humans, animal, plant, and elemental (including rain, wind, sun, earth, etc.) – feels like an answer.

Hmm.

(T-692)

Responsibility – Day 127

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March Sunset – Photo: L. Weikel

Responsibility         

I have a confession to make. I feel as though I’ve shirked a responsibility that I take quite seriously. And yet, the act itself harkens back to a different time in our my life.

Tonight, Karl and I chose to refrain from watching any news on television.

Perhaps that sounds weird. I suppose it’s possible for people to be living life without paying much attention to what’s happening on the national and international stage. But for me? That feels irresponsible.

Actually, I’m feeling a swing of reactions, from a calm sense of relief that I’m not immersed in the world of politics and upsetting news of violence and hate crimes that seem more apropos of Escape from LA than it should be to live in the world in March 2019, to a foreboding sense of moral responsibility.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this before. It may have been another evening when I allowed myself to indulge in the sweetness of silence by turning off our television. Yes indeed, I’m pretty sure I even called my post Evening Silence.

Not One Minute Today

Tonight is a little different than that night. In fact, while I haven’t kept meticulous track of my viewing habits, I bet this is the first weeknight I’ve not watched even one minute of news since I began my 1111 Devotion back in November. Wait. That might not be precisely true. The holidays of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, and possibly Thanksgiving, I think I may have abstained as well. But holidays are like weekends: major world or life events that demand our attention just aren’t supposed to happen on those days.

Of course, we all know that’s not true; it’s not reality. But we pretend it is.

As a result, as a direct consequence of that pretending, I rarely think twice about what’s going on “out there” on weekends and holidays.

But wow. Today is a regular workday. It is a day that falls on the heels of some wretched events that simply make me want to weep. We are being forced to contemplate the nth degree of cruelty that humans inflict upon each other. And it’s happening over and over again, seemingly day after day. And it hurts.

Have I Hit My Saturation Point?

I’m a bit concerned that I’m reaching my saturation point. That concerns me, because it feels like succumbing to that sense of precipitous overload is playing directly into a nefarious agenda. An agenda being set by those who would have us live lives based in fear rather than on love and compassion.

It will be interesting to see how Karl and I choose to spend our evening tomorrow. Will we make it two weeknights in a row without watching the news? I doubt it.

I guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, I feel my responsibility in this moment is to not watch the news. Rather, it is to do whatever I need to do to keep the faith. To hold the center for anyone or anything I can, in order to help us all survive this onslaught of division, fear, and yes – terror.

Holding Our Center – In Grief – With Ritual and Respect

To that end, in case you haven’t seen this gut-wrenching and culturally unique (but pan-cultural in its impact upon us when we witness it) tribute to the grief being felt in New Zealand, I am offering it here.

I dare you to watch this young man and not be moved. I challenge you to witness these students performing this ancient ritual and not sense our common knowing, deep within our bones, that what is happening to one country or culture is happening to us all.

It is our responsibility to feel the tears of our souls, even if they express themselves as a lump in our throat or a clenching in our stomach. No matter how the tears show up for you, feel them. It is our responsibility – to ourselves and to each other.

(T-984)

Weird Day – Day Fifty Eight

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments
Photo by wsj.com

Weird Day

The weather was cranky and miserable today, mirroring a lot of people’s moods, I suspect. It feels like no one knows what to expect anymore. We sort of lurch from day to day, hoping nothing earth shattering (either literal or figurative) happens.

I’m noticing this sense of edginess all around us, from the micro level to the macro. So many people are dealing with really big  – I’m talking tectonic – shifts in their lives and reality. From continents to countries, states, and towns to people world-wide, nation-wide, and all around us. Quite possibly right in our very own homes. Radical change is upon us.

And we need to know we’re not alone.

Holding the Center

Those of us who may not be experiencing direct seismic activity in our lives at this moment  need to hold the center for those who are feeling the ground move beneath their feet and watching structures they never thought would crumble do so.

Indeed, I had a long conversation today with a good friend who has had her share of times in the wringer. She, too, is feeling the present sense that her energy is best spent in holding the center, being a light, allowing others to reach out and hold her hand as the gale force winds buffet them and threaten to sweep them away.

And that takes energy.

It’s hard sometimes to appreciate just how much energy it takes to hold a calm and peaceful center for others (and ourselves). And it can look from the outside as if we’re not doing anything, which can sometimes make our contributions easier to ignore or at least remain unappreciated. And certainly, for some of us at least, we have no way of being compensated for our efforts. Even if we could quantify it, we probably wouldn’t.

We Need Each Other

All of which is to say: we need each other. And we need to be vigilant in these chaotic times to pay attention to each other and listen. Because sometimes the ones who seem to be holding it all together are actually hanging on by the thinnest of gossamer threads.

The good news is, gossamer threads can be woven together and become nearly indestructible in the blink of an eye. So, it feels like we should honor that possibility. Keep an eye on each other, and take care not to necessarily buy the ‘looks great on the outside’ façade. Listen to each other with our entire beings (and not just our ears).

I feel like a lot of the people I know and love are going through some really trying shit right now. And I want you to know, I’m doing my best to hold the center. You’re not alone.

 

(T-1053)