Grey sky behind gloriously beautiful trees

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A shooting star fell outside my window last night, and my stomach clenched
because I realized my relationship to hope, to wishes, had changed utterly this week.
And then I realized that all wishes now needed to be replaced with something
closer to determination. ~ Pam Houston (continued below)
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I am in shock and I feel anxious and despairing. What I notice is that we’ve had it relatively easy until now. And going forward we will be challenged to demonstrate creativity, resilience, love, and community in practical and concrete ways unknown to us until now. As well as exemplifying courage and offering love!

For a bigger perspective, Carl Sagan often spoke about how we, humans and our mother the earth, are tiny and insignificant grains of sand on the edge of the universe. “The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot….Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged place in the universe are challenged….To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot.”

One way to move beyond shock and dismay is to hold a view that goes beyond current circumstance. Said another way, to go beyond drama and trauma is to go vertical. Going vertical means noticing and real-izing our infinite connection with the Cosmos; allowing the vast energy of Universal Love to easily and ceaselessly flow into our hearts and reverberate out of our hearts as love to All Life. Simultaneously, going vertical means grounding ourselves on Mother Earth, remembering that not only did She give us life then, but noticing how, now, She gently holds each and all of us in her hands as though we were fragile glass bubbles.

These vertical connections to the Cosmos and the Earth are ongoing and natural – always occurring whether we notice them or not. They are. And continue to be. Solid. Beyond question. Indisputable. Right here on earth. Now. Beyond earthly politics. Period. With vertical connections to the Cosmos and the Earth – through our hearts – we are able to access courage. The word ‘courage’ is composed of the French word ‘coeur’ which means heart and ‘age’ which means era. Therefore, courage is the era of the heart. So we are being called to live boldly with loving hearts in this time. We are prepared for this! We are built for this.

Chris Jordan recently wrote a post about how hope is outside of us. We long for it but many times it is beyond our control. Then he wrote that what we can control is love and the myriad ways we can offer it to All Life. Why? Because it is sourced inside each and every one of us.
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We must make communities now of whatever size
that support all those who have become radically more vulnerable.
We must make micro countries of love inside this larger country of cruelty.
Small communities that prioritize difference and expression and safety and joy.
In other words, we have to do what we have always done, just more determinedly.
~ Pam Houston