Some Thoughts On Bringing Forth Our Light, Remembering Beauty, and Building Solidarity and Love In These Dark Times

At a rally for undocumented immigrants and refugees. (Thank you to Miguel Jurado for comprising these pictures from photos I had taken at the rally.)

Some Thoughts On Bringing Forth Our Light, 

Remembering Beauty, and Building Solidarity 

and Love In These Dark Times 

These times, I believe, are asking much of us... 

It is like there is this swirling force pulling us in different directions. Forces which blame and polarize and disempower and divide and dehumanize. Forces of fierce anger and outrage and deep, deep fear. So many are experiencing shock and horror and heartbreak. And there is the dark weight of hopelessness and despair. Knowing that there will be unimaginable suffering coming in this new era throws millions of us into a depth of trauma and sorrow that is incredibly painful to experience, witness, and hold. The enormity of our grief is overwhelming.

At the same time, there are also those among us who are celebrating and hopeful, believing that we are on the dawn of a new era of prosperity. Now groceries and gas and rent and basic needs will once again be affordable. Millions will no longer struggle with living on the edge and facing fears of falling off the cliff into houselessness and abject poverty. And endless wars will end, all the "illegals" will be sent home, and Critical Race Theory and abortions and Me Too and Black Lives Matter and global warming will stop being shoved down people's throats. The Deep State will at long last be crushed and destroyed because this is the power and the promise made by the Strongman they have voted for and believe in. 

There is all of this and more.

It has been like a tsunami that has rolled in and, to one degree or another, swept us all off balance and into seas of grief or rays of bright hope. There is so much to hold. It is also true, I believe, that we humans ― and to one degree or another, and whether we knew it or not ― were largely already off balance. How could we not be in a society overwhelmed with anxiety and fear, polarization and propaganda, and dehumanization and disconnect from so many of our brothers and sisters?  And while our experiences and what we witness in other humans may appear to be polar opposites, what I am striving to remember is the truth that, under it all, we human beings actually share much more in common than it may appear. 

We want our children and grandchildren to be safe and healthy and happy. We want our basic needs for food and healthcare and housing and employment to be stable. We want to breathe clean air and drink clean water. We don't want to be impacted and at risk of losing everything to catastrophic floods and wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes and tropical storms, heat domes and droughts and winter storms and rising seas. We don't want our children to be shot at school. We don't want our daughters to die because they haven't had access to safe reproductive healthcare. We don't want to live our lives weighted down with the pain and trauma of addictions, anxiety or depression, isolation or illness. And we want a sense of belonging, of meaning and purpose, and of being seen and understood and respected and loved.

Basically, we humans share in common these same needs. And, I believe, we are linked together by the same core Essence that is threaded through us that some call Buddha nature or the love of Christ or our Self. There are many names for the Sacred within us all. And this is what I seek to remember. Because when I remember our true nature and that God is woven through us all, then who can I harm? No one.

Or at least I can try in an ongoing way to take off whatever blinders remain which impair my capacity to live authentically aligned with my values ― values rooted in kindness and compassion and love, in excluding no one from my circle of caring, in doing no harm, and in alleviating the suffering within myself and our world. Is this easy? No. At least not for me and I humbly and compassionately believe for most of us. Again and again, I am reminded of my own history and how deeply lost and disconnected I have been. This remembrance is also very much the tender ground out of which deep compassion arises.

As human beings, I believe that this consciousness of caring, compassion, and connection is challenging to consistently and actively embody. And this is especially true given that the culture that we live in is diseased and gives rise to pain and trauma which, on a continuum, has been absorbed by everyone. The evidence of our diseased culture is everywhere and flies in the face of the American Exceptionalism that we are taught to believe. America is the greatest nation on Earth we are told again and again. And yet this is crazymaking when we are open to the realities of:

• 800 people die everyday in the United States from poverty related causes
• the overwhelming amount of violence in the US that is directed at women, children, people of color, the LBGTQ community, Muslims and Jews, and other marginalized groups
• the United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world with nearly 2 million people behind bars at any given time
• over 385 mass shootings occurred in the first eight months of 2024 
• there are higher maternal and infant mortality rates in the US than all other developed nations
• America is the only developed nation which does not guarantee healthcare as a human right ― 27 million of us are uninsured
• there are 47 million people who are food insecure and face hunger in America
• around 1 in every 500 Americans experience homelessness
• approximately 28 million adults in the US experience major depression
• there are climbing rates of suicides in the US military and across our nation, with a total of over 49,300 suicides reported in 2023
• the annual national expense on climate disasters in the United States is currently around $91.1 billion based on the most recent year (2023)
• $916 billion was spent in 2023 on the military in the US, which is over 40% of total military spending worldwide

This is but a glimpse of a much larger picture ― the preventable tragedies of which we need to see and understand and not turn away from. 

* * * * *

Photos are by Molly

There are reasons why so many millions of Americans are looking for rescue from their suffering from a Strongman. Or why their suffering is projected outward onto scapegoats who are not the cause of their pain, fear, anger, and despair. We need to understand this. We need to see the shadow side of our our nation and understand the truth of our history. We also need to understand the underbelly of our two corporate owned major political parties and, with few exceptions, that neither has acted in the best interests of We the People or the planet. 

And we need to recognize the impact on the American populace of a mainstream media that is funded by powerful wealthy interests which are determined to keep us disinformed, disempowered, and divided. How else can we explain the vast number of Americans who believe, as Donald Trump does, that global warming is a hoax? How else do we justify that the climate crisis isn't at the top of everyone's the list of concerns needing to be addressed? And this is true even though millions of Americans are impacted by catastrophic climate disasters every year.

It is my belief that there is great need for us to grasp and hold with growing understanding and compassion the long-term pain and suffering of our sisters and brothers here in America and beyond our borders. And we need to unearth and bring into our conscious awareness the intense forces that have long, long laid beneath all of the profound forces of separation which cause so much suffering, tragedy, trauma, and death.

This asks of us to intervene on ourselves and vow to do our best to not return the messages and actions and beliefs that judge and dehumanize with more of the same. We need to do the hard work of deepening our understanding of each other. And of ourselves. And of how we all have been impacted by longstanding systems of harm.

* * * * *

It has long been my belief and experience that we humans all fall somewhere on a continuum with ignorance, separation, and fear on the one end and consciousness and compassion and love on the other. It is my experience that where we find ourselves on this continuum determines our capacity for experiencing beauty and love, empathy and compassion, authenticity and courage, truth and wisdom, and our interrelationship with all of life. 

To the degree that we have unaddressed generational and cultural trauma and have built protective walls around our hearts is the same degree that we will inevitably build walls outward. The inner reflects the outer.

We can think of this when we hear phrases like "build that wall," or "America first," or "America is only for Americans." We can further see the roots of violence in our disconnect within ourselves individually and collectively which manifests in so many different ways ― with the ongoing funding by our government of the genocide in Gaza, with the pervasive justification of the dehumanization of other human beings who are different from ourselves, with the chronic assaults on all fronts on human rights and basic human needs, with the failure to enact gun safety laws and healthcare for all and a minimum wage, and with referring to the climate crisis as a "hoax" and the failure year after year and decade after decade to act on the enormity of this crisis which threatens us all. And the list goes on. So many of us have become so disconnected from ourselves, from humans and other beings, and from our Earth Mother. And this has certainly included me.

Over time and with my own now decades long journey of healing and awakening, I have come to recognize that the disconnection from within ourselves and the web of life which connects and sustains us all ― and its roots in unhealed trauma and buried pain ― is a mirror of the great harm that we humans are capable of blindly directing towards each other and ourselves. Understanding this frees us from dehumanization and perpetuating harmful systems and beliefs and actions. Frees us instead to form beloved communities of solidarity, caring, compassion, and positive actions which reflect a highest good for all.

It has been my experience that it takes courage and support to be grounded in a path devoted to lifting the veils of the fog that we've unknowingly been swept up in. It can seem easier to be angry and to blame and shame and dehumanize. And yet, it is also my belief that we humans truly don't want to be a mirror for that which we know causes pain and suffering. We want a peaceful world and to embody a peaceful and loving heart. At our core, within our sacred Essence, this is what I  believe we all want. We don't consciously choose to live with an impaired or severed connection with our Self and the sacred within all of us. 

Embedded in so much suffering and violence is the great need for us to understand the roots of our disconnect, the roots of our illusions of separateness, the roots of our pain and trauma. 

* * * * *

There is a great reckoning that is upon us today which has been building, not for the past four or eight years, but for decades and centuries. The crises we are faced with did not just arrive with the Trump era. What is beckoning us ― and what I believe has for so very long been yearning for our recognition and attention ― is calling for us now. Loudly and deeply. This long era of resistance ― resistance to truth and love, to accountability and responsibility and reconciliation, to consciousness and compassion and understanding, to healing and radical change and transformation, and to creating the beloved sanctuaries within our own hearts and collectively for our human and other than human sisters and brothers everywhere ― this resistance is what urgently needs to end. 

It needs to end with each and every one of us who are capable of opening and expanding our hearts and our capacity to love and to act. In the midst of these dark and frightening times there is this potential for expanding and nurturing our individual and collective awakening. Because what does Woke truly mean? To be awakening is to be increasingly centered in our hearts, in our Self. It is the experience of sharing in common a commitment to caring and kindness, to human rights and justice, and to working to alleviate the suffering in ourselves and our nation and world. We need to remember this.

If is from of this deeply wise, compassionate, and loving place that I believe we can extend our hands and our hearts to invite more and more of our human brothers and sisters into communities committed to building solidarity in the struggle for a caring world, committed to seeking and nurturing beauty and creativity and courage, committed to truth and healing and wholeness and peace, and committed to consciously resisting any messages of the old and poisonous paradigm which numbs and distracts us from embodying all who we most wholly are.

It is time to do the shadow work that humanity has long resisted. We can do this. It is time.

* * * * *

It can be difficult to not lash out in our anger and fear and grief. And, yet, for the welfare of us all, it is important to not give ourselves a pass. Solidarity is essential to our collective future. And the deeper we look into what has brought us to this heartbreaking time, the more we will come to recognize that there is a much, much larger picture than today's Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the election of last week ― one that admittedly is still so new and has so many of us feeling raw and deeply, deeply sad... And scared.

This slide into fascism has indeed not happened overnight and has been helped along for a very long time by powerful interests cut off from their own humanity. And, yes, millions of Americans have been complicit. And name calling, blaming, shaming, and dehumanizing anyone is not helpful. It just isn't. We cannot grow communities of solidarity that way. And also, if we look deeply, haven't all of us been part of this system of harm in some way?

It is my experience that what can be helpful instead is doing the courageous work of lifting the veils of our illusions one by one by one by one. And continuing on this journey, as best as we can, each and every day and for the whole of our lifetimes. Because as we look with greater depth and more expansively and courageously, we can come eventually to recognize the truth of what I believe has for so very long impacted and been absorbed by us all. bell hooks refers to this system as imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy. And this goes back to way before the Trump era, to before the era of neoliberalism, and to before any of us were born.

There are also millions across the Earth who have been experiencing the devastation that has now creeped across our nation for centuries. And longer. And millions within our country who have been faced with the violence of America's shadow side since the earliest days of colonialism, slavery, and the genocide of the First Peoples.

The more that I have come to understand the roots of our discontent, our disillusionment, our distress and despair, the more I've come to understand my own ignorance, apathy, and complicity in systems of harm. And this is humbling and disillusioning. And freeing. Because I am empowered to increasingly see that we are all doing the best that we can do under our circumstances and given the degree of generational and cultural pain and trauma that has been handed down to us. And trauma, on a continuum, is epidemic in American society. No one lives a life free of trauma.

That said, and whether talking about the extreme examples of Donald Trump ― or my mother who was just as severely narcissistic, or anyone else who has caused immense harm and suffering ― no one is born that way. No one. Certainly this was a profound lesson that I learned from my own mother beginning at the age of 87 when she experienced the miracle of a partial awakening ― just enough of an opening into her heart that she became capable of compassion and love. Love is always the most powerful medicine.

Under all my mother's lifetime of tortured flailing about, and all of the enormity of disconnect and harm that Trump and countless others have caused, is the truth of who we most truly are. It is my belief that this Self is within everyone. This is what we were born with. Not sin. Not hatred. Not protective walls around our hearts cutting us off from who we are. And from love. People who are starved for love are capable of causing great harm.

Does this excuse or justify our complicity, our unskillful actions and harmful beliefs, or any way make it okay to cause pain and suffering to others and to ourselves? No, of course not. However, our growing understanding ― our recognition and remembrance of the Sacred that lives within us all ― instead supports our capacity to grow and evolve and to be increasingly accountable, compassionate, tender and strong, and wise and loving.

* * * * *

The invitation here is to learn how to undefend our hearts. Because our hearts are strong. As Rumi has said, "Our greatest strength lies in the gentleness and tenderness of our hearts." This is so true. So true.

And as our heart connection grows stronger, our chants are then transformed from "build that wall" to becoming internal ones which seek to dismantle the walls within us and those that are being built outwardly. And what a profound experience it is to emerge from such a place of disassociation and separation, fear and shame, and disconnect from Life and Love and to transform all of that. Ultimately there comes a time when there are no borders, no exclusions to our circle of caring. This is among the immense treasures that I have discovered buried in so much of the ancestral and societal pain and trauma that was blindly passed down to me. 

We can work together to end these legacies of trauma. We can heal our hearts and bring forth the Light of our true nature. We can transform our injured instincts and empathic impairment and disconnect from our fellow human and other than human sisters and brothers. And together we can become passionate seekers of truth and justice. In the midst of these dark times, we can also notice and nourish ourselves with beauty and joy right alongside the depths of grief that we experience and all that we hold. And because we are growing more and more into the fullness of what it is to be a fully embodied human being living lives that are Self-led, we can build communities of compassion and healing and solidarity and Love. 

There are such deep lessons, so many profound gifts, to be embraced in these times if we will but listen and look deeply into where we are, who we are, and what is it that we most cherish and love. May love be our guiding light. And may we remember that we are all Sacred. Because then who can we harm?

"Then it was as if I secretly saw the secret 

beauty of their hearts.... If only we could 

see each other that way all the time... 

I suppose the big problem would be 

that we would fall down and 

worship each other."

— Thomas Merton

With love and blessings,

💗

Molly