Monday, April 13, 2020

When Things Fall Apart: Transforming Spiritual Impoverishment Into Spiritual Opportunity


Today I read an excellent and well articulated article. It is called "With Each Briefing, Trump Is Making Us Worse People": https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/each-briefing-trump-making-us-worse-people/609859/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share. I am also called to expand on this article by adding a couple of important reflections which I believe are missing but needed.
One is to remember and truly understand how Mr. Trump is a symptom of something so much greater than the horrors of this one presidency. People who commit monstrous acts, and those who collude and enable them, don’t just fall out of the sky and arise out of a vacuum. It’s been a long, long process which has brought us to this late stage immersion in the extreme violence embodied in sociopathic malignant narcissism and all of its catastrophic consequences.
We’re asked, I believe, to do the deep individual and collective shadow work that has brought us to this place of electing in our leadership such extreme spiritual impoverishment. What are the layers of neglecting to recognize, address, heal, and transform the dark side of our nation and instead choosing to cling to the false and narcissistic narrative that America is the greatest nation on Earth? To believe that all our problems just lie at the feet of ___________ (fill in Trump, republicans, democrats, or any other label) is to be limited to the confines of a perspective that misses the truth of where we are, how we got here, and how it is that we can collectively move forward by using the pain of these horrifying and heartbreaking times for our spiritual growth.
Which brings me to the second experience that I’ve had in reading this article. I’m reminded here of the choices we humans have in how we respond to these incredibly sad and painful times. We can allow ourselves to be pulled into harmful polarities — of democrats versus republicans, Trump haters versus Trump lovers, us versus the Other — and in some ways become mirrors for that which we distain with all its finger pointing and blame, judgments and projections, fears and anger. We can be pulled into and infected ourselves with this spiritual impoverishment.
Or we can choose differently and wisely.
I have some deeply personal experiences in this regard having grown up with a mother who was a malignant narcissistic. (This was prior to the miraculous successful treatment for her mental illness at age 87.) Our mother’s severe mental illness played a direct role in my twin brother’s tortured life and suicide when John was just 26. The toxicity of her illness also contributed to my father’s compromised immune system and death at age 60. And out of all this, I numbed my heart with alcohol and a plethora of other addictions and could have remained among the walking dead, deeply cut off from my heart and the truth, beauty, and love embodied in who I most wholly am.
Instead the spiritual impoverishment which killed my twin and could have killed me was something that Grace and God (Goddess, Creator, Spirit, the Great Mystery) — and my strong spirit, deep intentions, and the support of so many wise and loving souls— have empowered me to learn from, heal, and transform into my utter passion today for compassion, kindness, truth, justice, and love.
Along the way, I’ve learned that it isn’t what happens to us that is most important. It’s what we do with it.
In these times, if we’re only working to get rid of Trump or working to get him re-elected, if we’re locked into absorbing the pain and suffering and fears and anger, and if we’re not seeking a much larger and deeply transformative picture and spiritual experience, then we are missing the opportunities at hand for our human evolution.
Everything that is happening now at this time in our human history can be used for our spiritual growth. Rather than spiritual impoverishment, we can all seek the gifts of the alchemist — turning great suffering and violence into the exact opportunity to discover the gifts held in the depths of darkness. This is why I’m compelled to continuously shine light on dark places. This is the shadow work that holds the potential to shake us awake individually and as a people. I know in my deepest being that the truth has the potential to set us all free. And Love.
As more and more of us come to recognize that there are opportunities and blessings and wisdom and a depth of compassion and love held here in the midst of what plagues us, we will change and evolve. We will support ourselves and one another in peeling back the veils of our illusions and instead together root into the paths which empower and unite. Whether we are reacting or responding wisely — as best we can and one day at a time — matters, and matters deeply.
All around us are the many faces of ignorance and spiritual impoverishment. And all around us and within us are the many faces of truth, compassion, justice, and love. Let’s unite in that which nourishes our full potential as loving planetary sisters and brothers. This is my deep prayer. Molly

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