I know it all feels heavy.
It is all too much.
There is so much pain
and suffering,
so many hardships
and despairs.
We may feel we are staggering
under the weight of all we carry
and all we care about.
We may question faith and trust.
We may question the sacred,
magic,
and ourselves.
We may give up on beauty
lose our hope
and let compassion and joy
slip from our fingertips.
If there is one thing I know for sure
it is that sinking into apathy
and surrendering to cynicism
helps no one
and changes nothing.
As Wayne Dyer used to say:
you cannot get sick enough
to make anyone else well.
So, too, you cannot
become hopeless enough
to give anyone else hope,
you cannot grieve enough
to make anyone else happy.
Gather up your resources,
your own brave magic.
Lift up your joys,
these small, fierce acts of resistance
to those who wish to crush and destroy.
Call your spirit back
and come home to your body.
Listen to the land,
to the wind,
to the sky,
to your heart.
Make a spell of presence
with what you find today.
Refuse to be colonized
by fear and hate.
Seek peace.
Do what good you can.
Call upon all the bits
of love and joy and courage
you can find,
give away as much as possible.
Do not surrender.
The world needs you,
here and whole and hoping,
tender and trembling,
your arms lifted up
so each piece of joy you find
can shine as far as possible.
Note: I have a past spiritual toolkit for uncertain times available for you here.
And, I offered some thoughts on offering our own small magic in times of despair (even though it is not enough) in this week’s audio newsletter and ritual video.
