Whether or not it is clear to you, the universe is unfolding as it should, my second favourite line in the Desiderata poem. It’s my mantra when things are difficult and I can’t make logical sense of what’s going on. It requires a certain faith in something untouchable, unknowable, and therefore unanswerable. It gives me hope that even if I can’t understand or make sense of something there is a justification hidden somewhere in the weave of things. I just have to trust for there is a reason.
So I’m struggling with it right now. It’s Reconciliation Week and, while I’m hopeful we are finding ways to learn and improve and listen and atone, we are still what feels like a lifetime away from coming close to closing the gap. I can barely look at any newsfeeds because the reality of what people are doing to people in the Middle East is unbearable. Another woman, yet another senseless death. If this is how the universe should be unfolding then right now I can’t wave a flag in the cheer squad.
It’s a hard line to stand by when things are going badly and awful, incomprehensible events are occurring everywhere you look.
Every now and then there’s a cure for whatever ails (not diabetes, sadly, but definitely a cure for teenagers who just need to eat something and have a drink of water, honestly, that fixes a lot of moods. Just sayin’). And not infrequently, all that’s possible is throwing your hands in the air and standing back. This is the only advisable response when your fourteen year old daughter is on an emotional rampage – protect yourself, people, there will be a chance to regroup and reassert adult authority from a safe distance later!
When the answer to the desperate question you’re asking (‘is this really how things are meant to be going?’) is a firm ‘yes’ there’s frustration and also, unexpectedly, relief. If I cannot change this the only real choice is to accept it… and then do what I can to improve things. Sometimes it’s about making the best of a bad situation. At other times it’s looking for solutions, there’s always a way to make things a little bit better (Pollyanna knew what she was talking about).
Now, I know I’m trying to be lighthearted, it’s my go-to when things feel heavy, but let’s be very clear here. This line is NOT permission to stand passively by while awful things happen. Not at all. American politics? Ok, Australian politics??? War and genocide? There are no words! I’m dumbfounded by how hard we humans find it to love one another and accept let alone celebrate diversity. Seriously? THIS is how the universe is supposed to unfold?
I feel guilty because I’m safe and healthy and fed when others aren’t. I feel scared about the path humanity seems to be taking where ‘me’ is more important than ‘we’. I feel helpless in the face of social media algorithms that feed hatred and lies and justify vitriol in the name of free speech. I feel anger at our seeming inability to stop hurting one another.
None of these feelings are useful to anyone else. If I wallow in them, they’re not much use to me either. If the universe really is unfolding exactly as it should then I can only hold onto hope. It’s all I’ve got. Let’s try it.
I have hope that most of us are still good at heart. I really think we are!
I have hope that we never stop trying to make things better. I believe this is the essence of humanity and cannot be erased.
I have hope we will take more steps forwards than steps back in our quest for reconciliation.
I have hope that countries around the world will remember that the standards and behaviour you walk past are the ones you endorse… and act as ‘we’ instead of ‘me’.
You know what? That DOES make me feel better. So if there is hope there needs to be action. I’m making an effort to learn because that’s my natural starting point when change is required. I need to understand before I can act. As I learn I’m open to advice. Solutions would be awesome but baby steps in the right direction work for me too. What sorts of things are YOU doing towards some of these gnarly problems we’re facing in the world right now? Anyone know what works???