Countering Dystopia, or A Call for Projecting Hope through ‘Better Endings’

[Note to readers: I have cancelled the former post offering an Authors’ book sales and review exchange, because after several days, while there were some “Likes” for the post, no one had submitted their works. So I realized maybe this was not an appropriate approach. If you still would like to avail of that offer you can still Contact me and I will reply to you individually-LW]

I watched a free film via On Demand a few days ago that so absolutely called out for a better endings re-visioning that I realized there is a dystopian science fantasy meme of presumably inevitable global extinction events that might be negatively affecting our collective consciousness.  Annihilation Earth, with Luke Goss, Colin Salmon, Velislov Pavlov, and Marina Sirtis, has appropriately received mainly rotten tomato reviews for a weakly developed plot and thin characters, but I think it is worth taking note of as a clear example of a potentially dangerous fault line in contemporary, secular collective reasoning.

The film opens on a grim disaster scene: much of France including Paris has been annihilated in a momentary conflagration due to, we soon learn, a terrorist’s sabotage of a super-collider being used to generate free and inexhaustible energy.  The rest of the movie flashes back from this scene, periodically announcing the “time to extinction” in hours until the final scene delivers on the forecast: planet Earth implodes from a black hole created by the interaction of a global network of interlinked, sabotaged supercolliders.

Of course, the plotline pits the West against all Middle Eastern nations who are not included in the otherwise global boon of free energy and the elimination of any need for fossil fuels.  But aside from basic story weaknesses including the notion that only two scientists would together have unique and total access to programming and safeguarding the supercolliders such that compromising them could allow a sole terrorist to hack and sabotage the entire supercollider infrastructure, the main problem I see is in the lack of any awareness of potential protective agency of a spiritual—or resilient human idealist—nature. 

We are given to believe, in this and similar dystopian visions that are growing in popularity these days, that we—all species in fact, because of our human frailities—are completely at the mercy and whim of all-powerful bad guys ‘out there’ (or, in here, in our home communities) who will godlessly inflict death and cataclysmic destruction if they either plan ahead maliciously or simply wake up on the wrong side of bed one day and decide to wreak havoc. We are helpless, this cultural meme or cognitive schema tells us, in combatting or surviving evil if we just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now of course, yes, there are good grounds for this general malaise in light of the scourge of mass killing sprees and recently yet another brutal genocide playing out on our news media daily and horrifically on the ground in Ukraine.  And such chaotic killings do appear to be random and unavoidable by good people.  But I want to appeal to our deeper potentials for agency, spiritual awareness, and hope.  

There are always survivors, those who testify about following a nudge to stay home or take a different route on an otherwise fatal day.  Parents and loved ones who are bereaved find ways to make their lost loved ones’ lives meaningful by publicly advocating for change in the policies and laws that have fueled such horrendous acts as mass killing sprees.

 Yes, it is a battle so long as we are on this earth plane, between the forces of Light and of darkness. Yet we are more than our bodies and there is more to Life and to reality, that bullets can never silence.  Individually we have agency and collectively, too, so far as our elected officials are willing to serve the greater whole instead of their own seats of power or financial security.  Individually we can pay attention to our own inner guidance. Pay attention, and act according to your highest awareness. Even if it does not save your body, it provides a deeper connection with a greater good.

Just before the ‘fateful’ end of the B-movie Annihilation Earth, The scientist about to make a wrong decision to turn off the supercollider network despite his dying colleague telling him that doing such will result in a black hole event, his wife and two young children are standing behind him.  In my better endings re-visioning of the awful conclusion shown, his young daughter stops her father in the middle of his typing in the authorization code to turn off the colliders.

                “No, Dad! Stop, now!”

                “But Sarah, dear, this is the only way to fix this.”

                “No, you are wrong. Stop this, now!”

                “Why do you say this?”

                “There are three people with me inside, Daddy. A woman and two men from somewhere else. They are beautiful, full of light and love! They asked me to tell you, please Stop! This is not the right way!”

                David (the scientist-father, Luke Goss) pauses. He looks across at his superior, Paxton (Marina Sirtis), whose anger flashes:

                “Do it now, David!”

                David’s fingers on the computer keyboard press backspace several times, deleting the passcode he had been entering. It was like they had a mind of their own.  His friend Raja (Colin Salmon) would know best, he dimly realized. He was wrong to have ever doubted him. And Sarah, such a dear…

                After pausing, David could now discern on the screens that had been showing the growing global conflagration, that it was beginning to abate. Just as Raja had advised, the system had a self-correcting mechanism.  Earth would not be annihilated; after much damage, survival was imminent. Life would continue; people would rebuild, species survive! Perhaps, even, a lesson would finally be learned…

images are from pixabay.com

                So, there you have it.  There is always a ‘better endings’ scenario, if we will but turn our hearts and ears to Spirit; to the highest, not the lowest, in one another!

Of Molehills becoming Mountains then Molehills Again

Last time I wrote about the importance of having an objective view of my own attitudes and behavior, relying on inner guidance to help gain such a viewpoint. This past two weeks I have experienced a good example.  I aim to be mindful, balanced, wise and strong.  Yet in my human states of consciousness, I remain riddled with frailty and blind spots.

I have a tendency to overreact to or to dramatize the glitches that invariably come along to spice up daily living. This week that lesson was remarkably in view!  It started with a minor mishap involving my dear cat Emily, then it expanded and bloomed into two trips to Urgent Care, threatening letters from the department of health, my fearful reaction, and then a positive resolution.

The molehill:

My dear Emily loves to curl up under the covers for warmth and security. Usually she does this just for a brief time, but on one night two weeks ago, she fell asleep there as I was also sleeping.  Early morning, My dog Sophie heard something outside so she barked. This startled me so I jerked up, which startled Emily so she propelled herself out from under the sheet, launching out from the sheets by digging in her rear claws from a rather sensitive area on my chest.  I cleaned the wound, which had drawn some blood, with an antibacterial ointment and kept it clean for the next several days. I became worried, though, when family and friends expressed concerns that cat scratches could get infected.

The mountain:

10 days later I was concerned at how the wound was still very painful; plus after wearing a large bandaid all day I removed it and the adhesive had caused a rash. So, off to Urgent Care. Now when I told my story there of what had occurred, the staff was compelled to file papers with the department of health because a pet that should have been up to date on rabies vaccinations was involved.

Emily was overdue by just a few months on her rabies shot. So, I received a call and letters from the dept of health threatening that if I could not produce evidence of her vaccination, Em would need to be confined for ten days and some hefty fines were due.  After one phone call which seemed to clear some of it up, I thought this would pass but then received another set of even more threatening mail.

The vet had told me they could not even set an appointment to vaccinate her because I had received these letters; not until the department of health would say they could proceed.

That night I worried deeply. Would they come to take away my sweet little Emily? She is an indoor cat, perfectly healthy, and all this was just a freak accident. I called upon spiritual guidance and understanding but had trouble getting any sleep.

My dear Emily and Sophie

The molehill again:

The next morning bright and early I called a number from the letter.  A man whose last name ironically reminded me of Spirit talked to me and helped me understand that it was going to be okay. The ten days had passed and so long as I could get Emily vaccinated by a certain date, the fine would be cut in half.  He would contact the vet; we could go in. (Currently I am awaiting our appointment but feel much relieved.)

So what was my lesson here? To trust that no matter how out of proportion things might seem, things will be okay by reaching out to communicate with all concerned. Also though, I got to see how my own fears sometimes magnify a situation.

When I dwell mainly in my emotions about a situation, my mind can spin out of control.  I need to work on this; living humanly alone means I do not always have someone right at hand that I can reason things out with when needed. Except for inner guidance.

Trust is a big lesson, always.

images are from pixabay.com

Gratitude for All Good Memories and Lessons

As I have been contemplating the goal of Release this month, I have wanted to call this post “Releasing the Past.” This led me to consider all the good memories from my past that I would first honor and then release. Thus includes lessons from the past that I wish to acknowledge and ground in consciousness in order to have grown from their occurrence.

So I wish to take stock this week of all I am most grateful for, both in the present and from past events or experiences that have ultimately brought me to where I am today.

Yet this is a private exercise, to make a list of what I am grateful for in order to embrace those gifts and lessons in order to move forward with greater awareness. So I invite you to compse your own Gratitude List. What gifts and lessons would you wish to acknowledge, ground mindfully, and then release?

images are from pixabay.com

I will share but one. I acknowledge with gratitude how my closest family and friends have accepted me and made room for me in their hearts despite my many human frailties and limitations. Aspiring to excel or to do well in some arenas has meant not developing so well in other facets of life, specifically in terms of the full spectrum of social relations. I tend to be introspective to the point of preferred introversion, often avoiding or leaving early from social gatherings. I appreciate my family and friends who have usually been more outgoing than I am, though they are also deep and thoughtful Souls. To the extent I do reach out more to others than I once did, it is because of these family and friends who have demonstrated what unconditional love and trust can be.

A Lesson from the Shadow Idealist

The Shadow of the Idealist archetype inverts positive Idealist traits.  One so affected might feel at odds with dominant worldly values and priorities, focusing on selfish or predatory ambitions. Two days ago I was beset by a group of Shadow Idealist types who aimed to scam me out of my financial stability by stealing everything I have in my bank account and more. I’m the sort who banks (pun) on positive Idealist values. I want to trust and am surprised whenever trust turns out to be misguided.  Without describing the scam let me admit they almost succeeded. Were it not for the intervention from a vigilant Moneygram authority and my own fortunate choice not to lie or be deceptive to that authority, I would have been robbed of all of my account holdings plus funds from credit.

I feel entirely humbled by this experience.  I would have thought I would never give out my account information online. I would have expected I would have declined the fraudulent offer to “reimburse” me for a service from two years ago that was really a prelude to deceive and betray my trust.

I am grateful for the intercession of the Moneygram authority. When later I called to cancel a Western Union account these low life perpetrators set up to further defraud me, the woman who  helped me had a wonderful last name of ANGEL.

If these Shadow-stricken thieves would turn their intelligence to doing good or altruism rather than invasive attacks on decency, the world might be a better place.  Meanwhile I can only express gratitude for the test and the lessons learned.  I am so glad that when it came to it, I would not lie. But I am dismayed that my human desire for material gain (the “reimbursal”) led me down a path that could have interfered wth my capactity to meet my immediate financial obligations.

images from pixabay.com

Humility takes on a new meaning for me from this experience. It comes from realizing how Spirit intervenes despite my own weakness or naiveté. It teaches that living by one’s higher ideals (honesty, faith, and humility itself) can trump deception, any day.

To Nurture Your Dreams, Be a Nourisher

Sometimes we might not trust our inner vision to steer us in the right direction. We may feel afraid to Dream, wary of being disillusioned “yet again.” This cautious perspective might seem ‘practical,’ “realistic” or even wise.

But when we squelch our Visions, often another part of our Self grieves.

 

What happens to a Dream deferred? 

Does it dry up, like a raisin in the Sun?

Does it fester like a sore, and then run?

Perhaps it stinks, like rotten meat,

or crusts and sugars over, like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags, like a heavy load… 

Or does it explode?

–Langston Hughes

 

Our archetypal Ally for this month is the NOURISHER. I invite you to get in touch with your own nurturing, nourishing part of Self. When do you feel most nourishing and with whom? When do you feel best nourished and how or by whom?

I experienced a lot of Nourishing–from both sides of giving and receiving–during my road trip and visit Home  from June through July. Being with family and with my dog Sophie (my travelling companion and BFF) is a great gift of love for I have lived thousands of miles from my parents and sisters and brother for over 30 years.  We came together—all of us plus several cousins and nephews/nieces—around my elderly mother, Elizabeth—over the 4^th of July holiday weekend. Mom was in the crux of a hospital emergency—not what we had hoped or planned for!—and we all came together to help her survive that visit and return to her familiar nursing home with its loving and competent, caring staff.

Mom is experiencing late stage Parkinson’s. At 88, for her this means she has very little independent mobility. She cannot walk on her own nor can she use her own hands to eat. She must consume pudding quality water and only pureed food which others must feed to her in such manner as not to cause her to aspirate or swallow food into her lungs.

While at the hospital, because staff there were inexperienced at preparing the pureed and pudding quality food and water and because most did not have experience (or time for the patience it takes) feeding in this way, it depended on us, her daughters mainly, to feed her morning, noon, and evening, as much and as best as we could.

And we did!  We bought Gerber’s pureed food to supplement or replace the hospital’s too thick or heavy portions. We developed a formula, with help from a speech therapist, to produce her pudding water, and we added fresh lemon juice and used ice cubes to give her more satisfaction.  She was depending on us for her very survival. Each of us stepped up as best we could. We shared our observations and listened to one anothers’ suggestions. We expressed our concerns with the nurses and aides until finally one doctor in particular became focal in helping Mom recover enough to be able to return to her nursing home.

I know my Mom would do the same for any of us and often she did, whenever we were sick or ailing.  While at first honestly I was afraid of feeding Mom, afraid I might cause her to aspirate, over time I did the best I could along with my other sisters. And she improved! I believe the nurturing care we all gave helped her more than any medications. The love we all shared was a healing force in itself.  It is a healing energy that will never diminish, no matter what the future may hold.

So, I learn from my Nourisher that LOVE is the heart of it all and all that really matters. To NOURISH is to give and to reciprocally receive divine, unconditional Love.

I invite you to journal and/or to talk with a loved one (or send your insights, comments and stories to us, here!) about one or more of your own Nourisher moments.

A Quantum Leap into the Void?

I love the concept of a quantum leap being how an electron shifts into a higher orbit around the nucleus of an atom under conditions of an ‘excited’ state. Some surmise the electron even pops out of one dimension and into another before popping back in at the higher dimension because the shift is allmost instantaneous. Now given that more recent physics than the Bohr model that gave rise to this notion may account for such apparent disappearnces and reappearances as due to a modal wave transition rather than as a discrete popping or ‘leaping’ effect, still metaphorically a Quantum Leap has come to mean a rather sudden and qualitatively total sort of transformation, as to a higher state of consciousness than one has held before.

Then there is the notion of a “leap into the Void.” Here the idea is that you need a great deal of faith and trust to take a step in a very uncertain direction, hoping that the outcome will somehow be positive. For this, I like the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when our hero must ostensibly step off of a sheer cliff into a deep chasm if he is to demonstrate his trust in Divine intervention to validate his purity of heart and thereby his worthiness to approach the sacred Holy Grail.

Both of these concepts of a Quantum Leap and a Leap into the Void pertain to this month’s focus on “Crossing the Threshold to Embark on Your Greatest Adventure.” Truly crossing a threshold is an heroic act, an act of faith, and it results in a new and higher state of consciousness.  New levels of consciousness, too I would say, create new arrangements and modes of circumstances in our lives overall, for they enact a departure from habitual thoughts or behaviors based on a choice to advance to a desired “new” state.

Of course, some might add, a leap into a Void might fail, too. And a quantum leap might remove one from a familiar “safe zone” to which afterwards one might wish they could return.

As I approach retirement in three years and usher a colleague off into retirement at a luncheon tomorrow, these concepts have a definite resonance and relevance to the major shifts we all undergo as we wend our sometimes uncertain way through life.  But remembering the FAITH and TRUST that heroic characters demonstrate reinforces my awareness that these significant departures are imbued with a power and energy of their own that will serve the heroic adventurer well!

When you think back to the times in your life before now when you took a small or large step in a new direction, remember how most of these ‘departures’ have served you well. You would not be where you are today, in all measures, had you not taken the steps laid out before you or that you laid out before yourself in pursuit of your goals.

So, set a course and Sail! Take all the time you need to envision and plan for your forward momentum when the time to LEAP arrives. Then TRUST that whatever comes, you will be there to benefit from the motion of change and the new breath of transformation this will bring!

Trust–A Quality You Share with Your Innocent Child

 

Trust is a quality an innocent child possesses that is a key element in the Alchemy of childhood. A child’s trust can overlook many inadequacies of adults by virtue of their unconditional love and faith in the basic goodness of others. When maligned, of course, that trust may be damaged, shaken or broken altogether, in situations of callous neglect or abuse. But in a loving environment a child’s trust may know no bounds. They have faith in their dreams–however imaginary–and confidence in their ability to accomplish them.

From Goethe:

As soon as you trust

yourself,

You will know how to live.

I gave a poster with this Goethe passage on it to my little sister when we were teens. Somehow I associate it in the same memory frame with a printed passage I had taped to the back of a ceramic turtle in my bedroom: “Behold the Turtle! She makes progress only when she sticks her neck out.” These two simple passages were reminders to Trust, to remain open and accepting of my own inherent talents and to hold courage in stepping forth to germinate the seeds and ultimately to manifest my dreams.

Many of you who are readers of this blog are fellow writers and/or artists and dreamers.  As you focus on memories of childhood, you can cultivate the archetype of the Innocent Child to gain Strength for advancing your dreams. Trust in your own inherent goodness of heart and listen to your inner Child, who can lead the way in forging your next bold steps with imagination and a creativity that knows no bounds.

No matter how an adult’s trust may have diminished over time through weathering the harsh vicissitudes of life, we can rekindle that trust in OURSELVES by attending to the Innocent Child within. We can re-parent our Child if there is a need to do so.  Give your Child a name; Dialogue with him or her, either in a journal or by active imagination or meditation. Go out on a special day with your child, doing things you loved to do when you were younger. Prompted by a wonderful therapist some 25 years ago,I took my inner Child, April, to a drive-in theatre to see the Kevin Costner “Robin Hood” when it first came out. I bought her–represented as a pillow in my passenger seat–popcorn and candy and delighted in her enjoyment of the movie and of our companionship.

Many years later when I was developing the Life Maps Process, I learned about Archetypes especially from studying the works of Carl Jung and James Hillman on archetypal psychology. I developed an Archetype Dialogue Process that is a central component of the approach to personal growth I will be sharing with my upcoming book and self-help handbook, Life Paths.

Through dialogue with my own Innocent Child (a Descender archetype), I learned she has been primarily “underground” for many years because of dysfunctional family issues in childhood. She stayed “beneath” as I advanced into adulthood, preferring to stay in her own private space—like in a lower level, shadowy living room–alone, rather than dealing with the harshness of adults directly. Getting to know her—I now call her Little Linda—I have learned to visit with her on her own turf, going inward imaginatively to sit with her or to play with her in her own environment. Over time I have invited her to accompany me on a more conscious level, for fun outings together.

A couple of years ago I knew I had succeeded in helping Little Linda to ‘surface’. I was at a spiritual workshop. One activity allowed for quiet contemplation, during which I checked in with her.

“I don’t want to just stay down here alone anymore. I want to be a part of your Life!” she told me in that active imagination contemplation.

After the contemplative period I approached several ‘choice’ friends at the workshop. I told them I wanted to introduce them to Little Linda and I let her say to them directly, “I want to help and to know you, too!”

My friends understood (a good thing, for sure)! Little Linda had “stuck her neck out.” And we are going forward together, ever since, with Trust that we will accomplish our Dreams!