Listening

 Oh my. These are truly tough days here in this country. We are being bombarded with rhetoric that inflames hatred and division. The stabilizing parts of our government are daily being thrown overboard. It is hard to believe that a dramatic collapse is not imminent. And for us, the people, it is hard to know what to do, how to respond. Of course we want to find ways to support what we sentient beings crave: peace, cooperation, understanding, love, acceptance, smooth interactions, freedom of thought, a common foundation. But it is so easy to feel powerless and afraid.

In the face of overwhelm, my instinctive reaction is to pull myself away in my mind from the human upheaval, and remember (like the name of this blog) that we all belong to something greater, a connected, vibrant universal web of life and sustenance. My imagination takes me to the soft leaves underneath a tree, where I curl up and listen to the earth breathing beneath me, knowing that I am a small part of it all, and the wisdom and energy of that greater whole is always there to open to when I need it. That helps. But of course I then have to come back to my more narrow reality: the landscape of my own species.

I've been physically under the weather for the last month or two, and the relative isolation of sickness makes it even harder to climb above catastrophizing. (That's probably not a word, but you know what I mean.) Now that I'm well again, not only do I have more energy, but I'm also benefiting from connecting with other concerned people. That makes a huge difference. Together is more comforting than alone. And together we have more power to change the world. Some of that change needs to be internal, which can then set the stage for more outward work.

I am fortunate enough to be part of several collections of forward-looking, thoughtful people. Each of these groups has a slightly different focus. One group's clear response to our political situation is to inform ourselves, write to our congressional representatives, make calls, join demonstrations. This is an important response, but I must admit that I'm not very good at it until I'm fortified with something else. For me, I first need a safe bunch of folks with whom to share my fears and worries about what is going on. Just that experience of sharing, of finding ourselves part of something bigger, and of realizing that we are not alone in our panic helps a lot. It clears away some of the paralyzing shock and makes way for positive action.

I am thankful for an online group I've just joined that's focused on Inner Resilience. To be effective in working for positive change in our world, we need to care for our inner landscape first. It's a bit like our weather system has turned into a gale, and we need to cultivate our strength in order to walk into it. I know that I need this! So I am looking forward to the series of classes that can guide me into a more resilient state.

I am also part of another fortifying group, Quaker Earthcare Witness. Last night we had our weekly fellowship hour, this time focused on immigration. What I love about this group is that not only does it focus on the earth that supports us and political challenges regarding us all. It is also framed in a more spiritual context. Quakers do not have a dogma, but they do believe that all people have that of God within them (whatever your definition of God is: the divine, inner light, the great earth mother, etc.). In other words, even though it is challenging, we strive to see that inner sacred person in everyone. And in our discussion last night, the sentiment that was expressed several times was the importance of listening. 

When I signed out of zoom, that one value stayed with me: listening. I remember when I lived at Celo Community in the mountains of North Carolina, one of my neighbors started "The Listening Project". This was many years ago, but even then our country was in a good amount of discord. And the focus of this project was to go around having conversations with people who were different from us, different political agendas, different values, different backgrounds. We were trained to do this with an open mind, to really listen deeply. Years later when I studied to be a counselor in graduate school, listening was a skill that we all worked hard to cultivate. And again years later, when we started our cohousing community and adopted permaculture as a standard, our listening extended to the natural world around us. We'd go to a certain place on our eight acres, sit down and quietly attend to what was going on around us, notice the movements of life, the wind, the clouds, the sun. It was only when we got to a deeper knowledge of place that we were informed enough to put our own mark on it.

Remembering all of that, I realize how much we need the skill of listening these days in our world. Politicians have been sowing discord intentionally, and it is hard not to be influenced by this. It's easy to think in terms of "us versus them". Easy to be angry at what seems the inconceivable stupidity of such a large part of our population in supporting the outrageous values being enforced. I know that I shake my head in disbelief, and when I do this, a wedge is driven deeper between my side and their side. We don't need this! 

So my touch-point for today, and perhaps for a long time, is the power of listening to ease the divisions of our human landscape. When I think of the people who have what seem like immoral and insupportable values to me, I'm going to encourage myself to look below the surface, to realize that there are understandable reasons why these people have the ideas they have. There are life experiences for each of them that have led them to their present stance. It is not an issue of good versus bad. We are all together in this uncomfortable place in human history. And the more we can support a flow of communication and understanding between all our separate selves, the whole can gather more coherence and our future can gain a little hope.