It's election day. I’m feeling a little apocalyptic…but with a hopeful twist.
Conditions are ripe for social cataclysm. But I can’t shake the feeling that something magnificent is resolved to break through our fractured land. Something more generative and alive than we've seen.
Spending thousands of hours with human suffering has endeared me to the human heart. I’ve worked with perpetrators and victimized. Oppressors and oppressed. Homeless and 1%ers. Committers of war atrocities and change-makers dedicated to service. I've learned their deepest secrets and guarded pains. Regardless of deeds or creeds, all craved the same thing:
Love and Belonging.
But we humans are in the habit of trying to sort "Good" from "Bad." We weed out the "dangerous other" to feel safe. It's cost us our Dignity. Eclipsed our Inner Divinity.
We forgot the Truth of who we are, and it's time to Remember.
Every human I've sat with holds Indestructible Goodness deep inside of them that is untouched by the stain of suffering. Every. Single. Person. No matter their outfacing crimes, violence or hate. So, I’d say this applies even your cousin-so-and-so who posted that rant yesterday that made your stomach lurch. That stranger you walked past in the store wearing that political slogan that your entire body screams is just plain wrong. That politician who....
Yes, even them.
I'm not condoning spreading icky, lethal creatures and weeds all over our collective garden. Like you, I hold wildly passionate convictions about how I think the world ought to be. Especially when it comes to pulling up weeds of harm and oppression around and inside of me. Justice requires action. But Justice uprooted from Compassion isn't Justice at all. Just a power grab that leads to more power grabs. This is how the oppressed can become oppressors. The violated the violators.
What if we dream a new vision of Human Flourishing? A Lush Garden we cultivate, seeing below the thorny protection of our "opponent" to connect with the tender suffering underneath. What if we sought to understand before we judge, shame, defend? Might we catch a glimpse of that Sacred Heart underneath? Might yours show a little more too?
I was raised to believe the human heart is inherently damaged and deceitful. Sometimes it’s tempting to believe that when doomscrolls and headlines scream: People = BAD BAD BAD!
All these hours of sitting with suffering has taught me, without a doubt: The truth of us is actually GOOD. Breathtakingly beautiful hearts waiting to be uncovered and rediscovered. Hearts alive with Compassion-filled Curiosity, Creativity and Care. Look into the eyes of a fragile newborn and you’ll remember.
SO WHY THE THORNS?
That little baby will encounter rejection, trauma, pain and all sorts of 'isms. They will grow within broken systems telling them they are inherently bad and that their body and mind are commodities. They will be shaped to cover and guard that Otherworldly Heart with layers of protection: proving, striving, judging, taking and hoarding. All to feel safe and worthy.
But, even when that beautiful Heart-Bud gets covered by slimy, creepy-crawly, twisty choking things: The goodness is never gone. It's indestructible.
The day of this contentious election, I choose to hold onto this truth. And spread it.
WASTELAND
The gift of this chaos is that we can no longer hide that our collective garden is becoming an arid wasteland. We are spreading weeds that choke and kill more than bulbs that fruit and flourish. Maybe it’s time for this version of the world to end. Maybe this is our crisis point to be forced to choose relational healing with "the other side" -- whatever that means to you.
I don’t believe a doomsday apocalypse is our fate. There is powerful medicine inside you that can be cultivated with intention. I want to invite you into a higher vision of US that transcends ideologies. A restorative perspective that can hold convictions and enact justice without annihilating “the other.”
Anger is natural and sometimes necessary. It initiates protection, motivates change and sets limits. But we can't relationally live there and sustain Life.
When I point fingers and call you names, label you, cancel you, try to overpower you with my sharp tongue -- I morph into the thing I am pointing at. Even in the name what I believe is “right.” If I dehumanize you because I believe you are dehumanizing another we all lose.
This is what we are doing to each other. This is what we are doing to ourselves.
I’m utterly exhausted. Aren’t you?
LET'S TEND THE GARDEN TOGETHER
There is no easy Path to Peace in this fractured land. This collective garden is a mess. But I believe Human Flourishing is simpler than we think. The power lies with Me and You.
No one else -- no politician -- is going to save us from this relational wasteland. The responsibility is on Us. Right now, today, tomorrow, and the next.
What could a new world look like if we committ to unleashing our Boldest Compassion in the small moments? What does it look like to pause. To breathe. To take a timeout. Then see the suffering beneath that post, joke, comment, or belief system and let it break your heart open a little more before you respond?
That is Strength.
Shame and blame shut down the heart. Compassionate Curiosity opens it. I wonder what Transformation would blossom by relating with more Humility and less humiliation.
And, if you can’t start with that “other” out there with the "wrong-side" yard sign or that family member who espouses "crazy talk" – then what if you begin with parts of yourself that you secretly hide, judge and loathe? Can you offer yourself Compassion and Forgiveness for your own decay and thorns?
When we contend with our hidden shame and fear guarded by judgement and hate, then we can start to wake up from the nightmare of separation. I can see that “the other” is actually me. I am actually “the other.”
Feel that in your body. Even if your mind tries to reject it. Remember.
PLANT YOUR SEEDS
Compassion is Fierce, and to live more fully from it requires training.
It’s ok to start small. It’s ok to make a mess. It’s ok to try again. I fail way more than I’d like, and sometimes I fail big. But those “failures” get composted into compassion: for me, for the other, and our wildly vulnerable condition. Allowing space to show up imperfectly is our only chance of true relational healing.
You mights say, “But “THEY” will ruin the country, the world, everything! THEY already are!”
But, I’ll ask you to consider -- what will happen if WE don’t? What will happen if we keep allowing our fear to blast weapons from our mouths and fingers raging and othering as fast as we can type or talk? History tells us we pick up guns and bombs.
What if instead of annihilating each other we hold a vision that transcends what our institutional leaders can offer us? We absolutely must have systems to support social change. What if we ALSO took responsibility for ourselves RIGHT HERE and NOW and tended our collective garden together? What if we recalled our Power through our small, difficult, but world-demolishing-and-birthing moments with each other?
Small Seeds, Big Flourishing. New Land.
In the days, weeks and months to come I’m committed to doing this work in myself, no matter how imperfectly it takes form. I commit to sharing practical tips here and strategies learned along the way. I hope you'll join me in this Wild Collective Re-Imagining.
May we see that we were tricked into believing we are enemies. Plant your seeds of Courageous Compassion far and wide. Water them Generously. Let's see what Grows.
END OF THE WORLD
everyone is talking about
the end of the world
check out the latest
cnnpr-tik-insta-tok feed
experts of nothing
talking endlessly
about everything
planting digital
mind worms + kudzu weeds
wrapped in leaves
of resignation
soul retreats into
fertile sleep
to surrender + dream
where rain drops cry hope
quenching parched hearts-of-being
buried in droughts of mercy
now tenderly bleed
transforming barren dirt into soil
uprooting lies-of-separation weeds
hands joining hearts open one-by-one
sowing rows upon rows of Truth:
Only Compassion Germinates & Feeds
ending the world as we know it
and it isn’t how I thought
the end would be
it wasn’t a bomb after all
it was a billion tiny seeds
Not sure where to begin? These heart-forward humans have some great ideas:
Britt Barron https://www.britbarron.com
Kristin Neff https://self-compassion.org