Strength and weakness in uncertain times
How do we measure strength and weakness, power vs powerlessness in shaken times?
It is hard to see anything but confusion and uncertainty all over the world nowadays, and not only that, but it’s been quite a bit of time already since this period has stated, and yet no real concrete end is in sight.
While we all know life is full of uncertainties, in “normal” days we don’t really experience it. It is more of an idea, a theory we heard about and we can comprehend. Like that famous example spiritual teachers like to give on how you can never dip in the same river twice. We can understand this conceptually, however, when we try to translate this idea that into a living experience, we don’t really feel it. The example stays dry and disconnected from the way we perceive the moment. Each moment seems to casually follow the next. While the unexpected creeps in sometimes, but the fact that everything we take for granted is uncertain, that is simple ungraspable
So we have a new virus and the entire world goes crazy, and things get strange. And while we all love to speculate about what the future will bring, near and far, it is actually and experimentally felt as deeply vague unclear. The ground that we trust will always be under our feet is moving.
Where do we find ourselves, are we open and hopeful or scared, are we confused, sad or even numbed? How does it feel when the solid ground we are used to walking is no longer solid or has been taken away, and we are left and midair, for simply an unknown time.
While people around the world suffer greatly, and I’m referring to man made problems such as hunger, lack of resources, no financial income for months, mental health issues, and so much more, these all leads to endless challenges, real life threatening concerns. For so many out there this lack of resources is not mealy a loss of some stored away wealth, but a very real, immediate and acute problem, they simply don’t have any stored wealth.
Day works in India that in so called “normal” days have enough to get by with 2 meals a day and a cup of chai (tea), are now being locked for months, and living on rice that they get in donation. Life is tougher than ever, with no light in sight.
Sitting and absorbing the world goes by, my heart breaks, my guts ache.
We, humanity, have taken this world and over populated ourselves on it, we think it is ours world and that it’s here to serve us.
Sadness, is it a weakness? I wonder and feel the softness and care I feel for others, for this world and all its wonders. I feel this sadness to be a gift, of being alive and having sensitivity. While this sensitivity is not always easy to bare, for at times you have no choice to feel and sense, even when you don’t what to. Even when it pains.
I feel, and I know so many out there do too, that this sensitivity is a weakness and a great strength. It makes us so vulnerable, exposed to the outside and all its wildness, but it also gives the opportunity to feel, and be live, to be here and see and hear, and hurt. That is a gift only those that have a heart that is open can experience. And an open heart, with all its vulnerability and with all its might, is a force of raw passionate life.
