Lost & Found
Artwork by Tu-2
The rains that were predicted arrived, though not as ferocious as warnings suggested. The temperature at 54 degrees fahrenheit is cool, but not cold. Today is Tuesday.
We used to have a place for things. A trick to free up brain space was to have a place to leave your keys, to set down a bag or wallet, to hang a hat or jacket. But these days, it’s easy to just let things drop wherever there is room. Too busy, too distracted, too much aligned with what is happening in the world! Seems like the passage of time has not made things more predictable and free. There has been no predictability these days.
There seems to be a kind of crazy cycle in which things are getting misplaced, hidden away, and even lost and frustration is what comes along with this phenomenon. It’s such a joy when things re-appear and are found!
On a bigger scale, with what is happening in our society, and the world - it’s easy to see that a lot is disappearing. Our public health protections are being compromised, our justice systems are being re-worked to become emergency response teams, our financial systems are in free-fall (at the moment). Lots of things are being lost as we witness changes that were, just a year ago, unimaginable.
There is a way in which the unimaginable can come into material reality, and that is exactly what is happening today. In the midst of the unimaginable becoming real, we are at risk of losing our true selves. What may be lost? Generosity - both in terms of time and resources, creativity as a way to uncover alternatives less harmful to people, kindness as a human quality to be able to recognize ourselves in the other. So many things are happening in today’s world that seem to be taking away the very capacities that we need to keep and share in order for humanity to be braced for the challenges that are clearly on the horizon.
It may be time for all of us to be less attentive to all that has been and seems to be getting lost and to focus more on what might be found in the swirl of things that are part of the change taking place. This is a time when each of us needs to choose where and when and how we can engage in re-balancing what is clearly out of balance. We are experiencing true, raw, unmitigated greed and power that is having an impact on the entire world.
Every approach, grounded in principles of unconditional love and generosity needs to happen, whether in politics, in organizing, in holding sacred space, in expressing life energy through music, poetry, performing arts of all kinds. This is a time when suspicion, fear, doubt need to be seen as the sources of suffering, Many are calling for these qualities to be put down and the question is “How?”
This is a time when true courage, less fear, and willingness to go beyond what we believed was possible from within to take over in how we engage ourselves in the world. It’s not so easy to do in the midst of all that is happening, the destruction that so many are facing. But in these moments of deep doubt, there is an invitation to draw on deep faith. And beyond deep faith, there must emerge great determination.
What has been lost are things that affect both body and spirit. What has to be recovered and discovered are things that will make the determination to come into reality. How that happens is through relationships, through creativity, through caring for our bodies as much as our spirit. Though it sounds counter-intuitive, one must: find rest, and discover “power rest”; stay nourished so the body can regenerate energy; and remain in (or find) community to the degree that is possible.
And this is the way that what is lost can be found.