Been feeling lots of earthquakes lately - literal and figurative. Twice over the last two weeks I began to feel the now familiar wobble of ~4.0 quakes while at my computer here in the OD HQ. It starts as a feeling that I am nervously vibrating from side to side, or even as if my heart is fluttering in my chest. I live in the top of an old Victorian in the East Bay, so the effect may be heightened up here in the attic apartment.
Last night at the Whole Foods in Berkeley, I fortuitously ran into one of my long-time best friends and we hung out and chatted and shopped together, and it was great, 'cos we haven't seen each other for some time. When we got to the check-stand the chaps doing the ringing up and the bagging were in a heated discussion about the economy... one of them was clearly leading the discussion, painting a pretty apocalyptic picture of the banks collapsing, people making a run, etc... I admit , I caught the fear for a moment - or several - and then I stepped back into my center and asked myself what do I really think about the idea that it's all going down in flames?
Things are being shaken up right now - big-time - that's not news to anyone. We continue through a muddle of what Michael Meade, author, poet and mythologist calls 'the Slow Apocalypse' and some are given to predictng the final dramatic moments of a scampering William Burroughs'esque nightmare in which the Great Depression is relived through 21st century lens. I am grateful to say that I have been enjoying Meade's book, "The World Behind the World, Living at the Ends of Time" - and heartily so, especially given the cultural air of the world at large at this time, whcih is so adroitly called into focus in this en/couraging book. He addresses our mass cultural heritage of life in the "Chaosmos" and skillfully, artfully weaves a thread through a host of stories and symbollic perspectives on life as we now find it. One of the most heartening aspects for me is the way it is suggested that if we can bend down to take care of the small and almost hidden aspects of life as we find it now, we may just be able to turn the whole thing around, and in so doing, participate in an ageless cycle of destruction-creation-redemption. Folks have been talking about the End in one form or another from the Beginning, as Michael points out, and now is a time in human history that is - in this sense- no different. With this mighty form of inspiration, I am looking for the creative redemptions, in my own life, in the everyday, in the music, in my friendships, in my food, in the fortunate Spring rains, in my nightly dreams... in my communities' shared creativity.
Creation has always depended on letting the old thing regenerate. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes, another great Storyteller, reminds us, along with Meade - existence is perched upon a well-worn and time-honored tradition of a Life-Death-Life cycle. Individuals, great cultures, huge cities and civilizations that have come before us have collapsed in the past and been reborn in exciting, perhaps challenging and also painful new ways. Who knows what exactly is going to happen? I certainly don't, however, I know that I choose to value humanity and this great world of living creatures and beings, great places and elements over the fears and anxieties that seem to be running amok right now - and I beseech others to do the same.
Everything that has come before was created by us... if it now fails and falls away, we have only to recreate a new form, based on the timeless and deep knowing which resides within us and which travels across seemingly unfathomable timescapes and places from the past. May we recall this together, and find some kindness for ourselves and all living beings - the grass, the rocks, the soil, the waters, and more, as we do so.
