Right now our world is teaching us how to shift dynamically. Not too many months ago we were living in relative calm and peace, radically different from today’s instability and unrest. Everything has been touched by this unasked for change, from the way we can shop for our groceries, to the conditions of our jobs and schools, and even to our own biases we thought we didn’t have. How did this come about so quickly?
Well, that relative calm and peace has a bit of a shadow side, apparently. The way I was brought up to understand peace, was that it is a freedom from disturbance or conflict. I enjoyed a childhood without strife or struggle, but my keen perception and sensitivity from a young age pushed me to speak up with my family in ways they didn’t always like. Ignoring truths, hiding from confrontation, and going along with things were the indirect strategies I learned in order to keep the peace. What I sensed then was that there must be some sacrifice of self to live together in tranquility.
So what have we sacrificed to live in perceived harmony? Harmony with our greater world, our communities, family circles and ourselves? How long have we been wearing shirts and drinking from mugs that say “Be the Change” or “Dare to Dream” as we drive home from jobs that make us weary or keep up with relationships that are not right? We are astounded that all that we know suddenly looks wildly different, but consider that maybe right now was born from a collective craving on a soul level for a greater capacity to love and be loved in this world. Perhaps our minds think we are each only allotted a certain amount of joy, abundance and expression in a lifetime, but the truth begs us to see that there are no limits on how much authentic happiness is available to us.
We can live unaware and mundanely okay for a really long time, but when we are forced to look at the truth, shifts happen fast. An uprising had been building against how we treat this Earth, a massive intention sent out for restoration, and it was met with a miraculous tool in the form of a virus that would force the world to hunker down and heal. An uprising has been building against how we perceive and treat other human beings on this planet, and our angry voice has been met with a reordering of money, policing and the standards we now hold ourselves to in communion with others.
And in this uncomfortable shift there is a huge invitation to step into something new. It may be a little bit easier to be in the unknown now. It may feel like everything has changed so much, that this is as good a time as any to take a step that may have been illuminating for a while. We see that maybe the limits we’ve endured have been self-created, that external contentment is not a price to pay for internal dissatisfaction. So I would like to offer a shift into a new idea of peace, one that does not come from a commitment to contentment, but rather one that is rooted in a place in ourselves that’s at the core of who we are, liberating and limitless.