liar Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Even the Clouds

We’ve known it was coming; this time of unrest and instability in our country. If we didn’t, we were either kidding (lying to?) ourselves or deliberately refusing to pay attention to everything going on around us. And if we think it’s all over now, that January 6^th, 2021 was the worst expression we’d see of the rage and grievance that’s been simmering for over a century and stoked for the past four years, think again. Even the clouds are telling us: there’s a rough road ahead.

I started writing about what’s taken place so far and what is threatened over the next several days, but I deleted it. I don’t actually want to paint a picture with my words of the potential carnage (using that word deliberately) we may be forced to witness and endure.

I would rather float a beacon of hope on the waters of our collective disappointment, fear, and heartbreak over dreams dashed and hopes mocked. And the hope is this:

Through all of this, there has been one consistent liar. One person who, with a cadre of yes-people echoing his comments to give them greater volume, has tried to make everyone believe that the cause of their misery is someone else. And the fact is, right now, that liar, who has done everything he can to profit off their misery, is leaving them high and dry. My hope is that they will remove the veil from their eyes and see the truth – and instead of following through on what he’s stoked, step back and think twice.

Before it’s too late.

Lenticular Clouds

I believe the clouds that appeared on the horizon as we walked last Saturday, days after the 1/6/21 Trump Insurrection, were a metaphor for what we are experiencing right now.

Take a good look at these eerily shaped and exquisitely hued clouds. I confess I’m not a meteorologist, but they look, to me, like lenticular clouds. And I have to admit I was taken aback when I saw them, as I believe they are usually associated with mountains. (I’m most familiar with photos of lenticular clouds near the top of Mount Shasta.)

In fact, just before starting this post tonight, I looked up lenticular clouds just to see what I might find. The words used to describe them jumped out at me, given our collective circumstances.

Specifically, I read: “Lenticular clouds indicate great instability in that layer of the atmosphere, and form in areas of mountain waves. (…) It makes sense that it would be a ‘rough ride’. (…) If you see Lenticular clouds (standing wave clouds) you have visual proof the air above is very turbulent. Although pretty, those clouds are ‘mean’.” (emphasis added)

Holding the Vision

I’m still holding a vision for our country and our fellow citizens of a United States that becomes for real what we’ve always thought we were deep down inside.

We have within us the ability to transform into a thing of beauty. Sadly, it’s the transformation itself that many so deeply fear and resist. It’s going to take effort and dedication, courage and resilience to sustain the rough ride we’re on to get there.

Ultimately, we need to take care of each other. We need to love each other – at least enough to give our idealism a try. And if we can get to the place where we actually allow the light to come through – the fear and panic will melt away, and the turbulence will subside.

Let’s try to hold this vision in the coming days.

(T-315)

Tonight’s sky – Photo: L. Weikel

I Just Can’t

I woke up this morning and was feeling remarkably ‘down.’ This feeling was as pervasive as it was unexpected. There was no obvious reason for it, either – dietary or otherwise.

But then, the day unfolded, and I made the mistake of reading news headlines.

I have to admit it: My stomach has been hurting all day. I’ve felt a little short of breath all day.

Honestly, I feel as though there is nowhere to look anymore that is not shocking, awful, and hateful. The blatant racism, misogyny, corruption, and deliberate attack on the rule of law being spewed and inflicted on our country is beyond the pale.

My heart hurts for our country. My heart hurts for our integrity. My heart hurts for our children – yours, mine, and everyone else’s.

My heart hurts for the soul of us all – and by that, I mean everything we stand for, believe in, and hold sacred.

If we don’t take a stand now, when everywhere we look we’re slapped in the face with vile divisiveness, cruelty, and utter corruption and self-dealing, we never will.

So Many Secrets/So Many Compromised People in Power

It broke my heart to read that so-called leaders of the Republican party such as Lindsey Graham were actually condoning Trump’s hate-filled racist rants of yesterday and today. His comments do not reflect simple policy-related differences of opinion with my own views. His comments reflect a fundamental abrogation of everything I was taught our country stands for.

Yes, I’m calling Graham out. Why? Because Donald Trump may be the biggest liar to ever cross the doorstep of the White House (and yes, I am saying with absolute lack of equivocation that he is the single biggest serial liar to ever cross the threshold of the White House), but we knew he was an ignorant con-man for decades. We knew it when he declared he was running. We’ve known it all along. All we had to do was read the background. All we had to do was open our eyes and read.

But Lindsey Graham? I remember a time when he appeared to be a man of principle. A man who had courage and integrity. So I have to say…this behavior of his, including his kowtowing to Trump since the inauguration, tells me there’s something about Lindsey Graham we don’t know. I think we have yet another example of a puppet whose strings are being pulled by a power that has the dirt.

The case that’s unfolding with Jeffrey Epstein is horrific. But you know what? I read about it at the very beginning of Trump’s candidacy. I was aware of the young girl who dropped her case because of death threats. I was aware of Alex Acosta. This has all been readily available. It is not ‘fake’ news. It is entirely documented.

This Is All About Power OVER

And it is all related. The utterly malignant foundation of so much of what goes on in our country is tied to and inextricably bound up in rampant, unabashed, unchecked, abuse of power. Power over women, power over young girls, power over little boys, power over the homeless, power over the defenseless, power over the poor, power over the black and brown in our country (and outside – you know, entire ‘shithole’ countries).

This has gone on for so long, they laugh and clink their glasses behind their billion dollar enclaves and think they’ll rule the world forever. But they’ve become sloppy, which comes from feeling they can live their exploitive, debauched existences out in the open, simply because they hold so much power.

Well, we’re the ones who have the power. We’re the ones who must look each other and ourselves in the eyes and act in a way that serves something greater.

I believe in us. But really, we must, must, must look at the raw truth of what is unfolding before our very eyes. And we must do it NOW.

Let us stand together and say “ENOUGH.”