threats Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Who’s Fenced In? – Photo: L. Weikel

Smackdown

Well, so much for all the good feelings I was experiencing last night when I wrote about being an Olympics geek. Yeah, I do enjoy watching them and welcome the inspiring stories as a distraction from the utter insanity that’s unfolding all around us. But wow, I don’t know about you, but tonight I felt like a pro-wrestler on the receiving end of a smackdown – and no amount of distraction can help.

Of course I’m talking about the testimony that was given by the four police officers present and defending the Capitol on Insurrection Day. I’m not going to discuss that testimony nor am I going to link to any clips.

Suffice it to say, it’s heartrending to hear their first-hand accounts of the despicable behavior heaped upon them by their fellow Americans.

Appalled

And while I did watch the Olympics tonight, there was a sadness in the air, which made it much harder to use them as the distraction I’d hoped. I’ll probably write a separate post on the maturity, wisdom, and grace exhibited by Simone Biles. The lessons on our humanity just keep on coming.

But I’m sad to say I’m sitting here trying to write this post and my heart is fluttering a mile a minute. I just made the mistake of looking at Twitter, which had a clip of one of the officers who testified today, Michael Fanone, appearing with Don Lemon on CNN just this evening.

The clip contained an unredacted telephone message that was left for Fanone while he was testifying. And it is horrific. I’m linking to it here because we need to know that this is the type of stuff that’s happening in our country now. We need to face this head-on. This is how a police officer who testified to his personal experience of being brutalized, tased, and threatened with his own gun, all while defending our elected representatives, is being treated. And know this: this behavior is being actively stoked by Fox, among others.

It’s appalling.

A Gentle Reminder

I’m literally feeling short of breath as I write this. Never would I ever have believed people would feel comfortable doing what they did on January 6^th, and worse, feel even more emboldened six months later. These home-grown terrorists feel so self-righteously empowered that they feel free to to heap this threatening and unhinged diatribe on an officer. For testifying to the truth as he experienced it.

Where do we go from here? I’m not sure.

But as simple-minded as it may seem, I keep seeing in my mind’s eye a photo I took just the other day of a deer standing right beside me as I walked along the road. It was probably the fifth or sixth deer I’d seen that day – two earlier had literally been ‘young bucks,’ with gorgeous furry antlers budding from their crowns.

Perhaps I keep seeing that deer in my mind’s eye because I need to bring gentleness to myself. I need to breath into my pain at witnessing such shocking hatred and ask for the wisdom of calmness in the face of abject fear. Not my fear. Their fear. The fear being stoked every day by right wing media and morally bankrupt politicians who will do anything for power.

Gentleness. Wisdom. Oh – and maybe I (we) should also call to mind the Protection offered in the card I chose for us the other day.

(T-122)

Stating the Obvious

Sometimes I’m a master at this. And you know what? Sometimes it just has to be done.

The ‘obvious’ that I feel needs to be stated at the moment is that this is going to be one hell of an intense week.

Right out of the gate, we know this will be no ordinary week (and let’s face it, how many of them have we honestly experienced since January 20^th, 2017?) because of the horrifying manner in which global tensions are being insanely and irresponsibly ratcheted up on a daily basis. By tweet, no less.

It’s stunning.

Another reason, a corollary to the first, naturally – since so much of our global, national, local, and personal stress is triggered in one way or another by the rash acts emanating from the White House – is that for every threat tweeted out against others, particularly toward those who were rashly and yet deliberately provoked by an assassination of one of their own, another cadre of self-proclaimed avengers is born.

And who will reap the fallout from that vengeance being sought? Almost certainly men, women, and children who do not see it coming. Oh, they may feel it vaguely raising the hackles on their skin when they read about another tweet or hear of yet another taunt or belligerent beating of a national chest. But quite honestly, save for the 9/11 attacks, there’s a profound belief, deep in the core of most Americans’ psyche, that we’re inviolable. That stuff won’t – can’t – happen here.

Photo: runnersworld.com

Our Bubble is Exposed

Given the taunts and threats of 52 sites of strategic or cultural importance being in the crosshairs of our military, I have to ask: Can anyone reading that not imagine how it would feel to have that same threat levied against us? Can anyone reading about anything that’s going on right now not use simple common sense and imagine the rage that we would feel if the bully slapped us like that?

How would we feel if we witnessed the bully slap someone else – perhaps a friend?

How would we feel if we witnessed that very same bully sucker punch a kid who wasn’t exactly our friend? Maybe even someone we whom we also feared – but not as much, since he’s smaller and perhaps a bit more wily (because he has to be clever to make up for his smaller build)?

We’d probably watch in horror and hope we wouldn’t get hit by a stray fist. Or worse.

Recap

To recap why I stated the obvious premise at the start of this post:

1. We have mad, provocative tweeting (and bombs); 2. We are creating new avengers daily, including people who may simply have been observers…before; and 3. We have a full moon and eclipse happening on Friday, plus a slew of planetary aspects that were daunting enough for us to face before the hasty and ill-advised events of the past couple of days.

More on the planetary aspects tomorrow, perhaps.

In the meantime, we must hold those centers. Keep peace in each of our own hearts and homes. It’s what we must do.

(T-691)