written 17 August, 2025
published 24 August, 2025
I was disappointed by the last national election, believing our nation had made more enduring progress. People are experiencing deep depression about the current state of affairs in our country, as a lifetime of effort to make the world more equitable is seemingly being swept away in months. Hatred, misogyny, racism, economic inequity, corruption, and climate denial are being touted as American values, totally opposite to what I value about this country.
It wasn't the first time I had to face being out of tune, having lived my life in a west coast bubble, removed from much of the harsh reality that has been here all along. In reality, except for the growing climate crisis, nothing happening today is fundamentally new, and has popped up all over the world from time to time. But this time it seems more extreme, deliberately cruel, incoherent, and wide spread.
Metaphysics suggests we are currently experiencing an evolution in consciousness, shifting from historical, low vibrational, fear-based perspectives into a higher vibrational consciousness-based perspectives, more attuned to unity reality. Perhaps our current situation is the final burst, darkest before the dawn, where all the old wounds come to the surface to be addressed and healed after centuries of neglect and suppression.
Increased consciousness requires better inner balance and disciplined focus to be able to manifest this higher energy of being. Otherwise, we become exhausted, anxious, and ill at ease, trying to keep up. What throws us out of balance from being conscious in the moment is the habitual patterning we have built up over our lifetime, laid down by family, culture, religion, physiology, and even previous lifetimes. These old responses, learned when we were less conscious than we are today, are continually dragged along, distorting our ability to fully encounter our present experience.
For example, imagine being middle aged, yet dealing with a situation today using old resentments based on a bad reaction to a teacher decades ago in elementary school. We can't respond appropriately in the moment while reacting from the past, or projecting into the future. This type of low efficiency communication causes suffering and grief. While nobody HAS to change, the choice NOT to change, especially in a rapidly changing reality, means increasingly chaotic consequences, with growing personal costs. Alternately, by choosing to examine the chaotic parts of our life as guides to places where we are resisting reality, we enhance our ability to change and grow.
Many decades ago, I had a difficult relationship with a co-worker, which grew to the point where I decided I'd rather quit than work with him. However, I had what can be called an AHA moment. I realized that the very behavior I found intolerable in him was an unacknowledged pattern within myself. Once I embraced this difficult truth, my relationship to my co-worker totally transformed. He acted the same, but my reaction was completely different, and the workplace became more harmonious. Reality works like a mirror, reflecting back to me what I have so far refused to see within myself.
In the current situation, rather than falling into despair, perhaps this is opportunity to examine to what extent I myself embody the very qualities currently being socially expressed.
Where do I tolerate hate in my life? How do I justify it when I indulge in that emotion? Can I see the situation from another perspective, not endorsing the behavior, but not hating the person either? I am a man. How do I thoughtlessly, or overtly, express patriarchal superiority or domination toward women? I am white. Can I find ways where my narrow life experiences separate me from all the other people in the world who aren't white? I am an educated, relatively intelligent American, which has allowed me to live a comfortable middle class life style, mostly doing what I like in the way of employment. How has this separated me from those who live other life paths? Can I live honestly? Can I practice the Golden Rule?
The global climate is changing, demanding a coherent global reaction if we expect humanity to thrive much longer. Nothing less will do. Where do I ignore my climate impact?
I can't change other people, but with focused intention, I can change myself. While I still breath, I have opportunity every moment, no matter what anyone else does. This is something we can each do for ourselves and the world.
