The world is shifting.
How does that happen? It happens when each of us decides we want to change. When each individual does that, a collective turning begins. We are here, in the midst of it. And we are here because we can’t stay in one place any longer. This place we have been is not in our homes waiting for the virus to end. This place is a construction, a prison of sorts. We have been here for hundreds of years. Calling this place the patriarchy is a little too generalized and misleading. It has more to do with power and privilege and money and greed. It is a construction which has enslaved humans for personal gain. It is a construction which has deemed the Poor, the Black and Brown, the non-Christian, the Women, the Queer, lesser-than. It is also a construction which has taught us the “right” way to live – the “right” way to protest – the “right” way to hold down a job, and make a family. It is a construction within ourselves that tells us we are not good enough. It has taught us to believe in it, and its promises.
We have been building up to this moment. In fact, this moment may last a long time. It is an unwinding of the construction. It happens organically when we each choose to stop believing in it. This virus has catalyzed our understanding of it. The construction is weak, and degrading in front of our eyes, as we look towards the ruling powers to give us solace. That is us believing in the construction. But the construction is rusty and gummed up and corroded. It is not working anymore.
When I look at the news in the mornings and see that the riots in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, LA, and Atlanta are still happening - I am not surprised. We are hungry for change. We cannot continue to live in this construction which says white lives are more important than black lives. One in which racism has never been fully addressed, never been repaired. All we have ever done in this country is nod and say “yes, that happened”. We talk about it like it happened way back in the past, like we can’t even remember it anymore- like there has been collective healing and forgiveness and justice around it. That is also a part of the construction. That is the antithesis of what has happened. Instead, while the concept of justice has been written into our rule books, the actual on the ground world we live in is ripe with injustice and inequality.
So where do we go from here? If you feel like something has shifted inside of you since the pandemic hit, then you are becoming more aware of the construction. This structure which we have believed in, does not only exist in a big conceptual way. It exists in each of us. All of our centers our shifting. We are in a time of great potential. How do we want to be in this world – individually and collectively? This question does not get answered quickly or easily. But if you have suddenly become more aware of the shift, then you are on your way to answering it. I do believe that if we each contemplate these questions and begin to align ourselves with a more trustworthy center, we can tear down that old structure, look around, and decide what we want to build anew.