(TLDR version: your contributions are needed in the world. Please use your energies wisely.)
So many individuals in my circles—myself included— have been moving through significant personal, community, and professional transitions over a period of months, or years.
It seems to me that we are doing our best to adapt to the common-to-the-point-of-cliché observation that the world of humans has shifted in noticeable, yet slippery, ways.
Some go so far as to say our world is on fire. I would add the context that humans have a long-running pattern of destroying each other and our collective home, but in the 21st century we have more technology to know about it in real time, and do more damage, faster.
(If you tend to romanticize the past, I’d suggest spending an hour or two researching ancient human history. Life for most humans was—to paraphrase the philosopher—nasty, brutish, and short.)
Further, which specific horrors and misdemeanours we hear about seem carefully curated to keep us focused on things that either matter less than they seem to, or that we can do little about. Distraction keeps us from looking at the parade of hot pink elephants walking through the room, or calling out that the emperor is, in fact, naked.
Whether that is by accident or design, the end result is the same: our energy and attention can be easily overtaken by information we can’t confirm, problems we have limited 3D agency to influence, lands we have no experience upon, and people with whom we have not done the hard work of earning trust.
The latest issue-of-the-day on whatever screen-sized platforms we subscribe to encourages us to get mad, get fearful, express an opinion even if we know little and have few reliable sources to learn more. With laughably little subtlety, we are manipulated to yell at our now-anonymous global neighbours, agree with them to preserve our social position, or bully them if they don’t think correctly (which is to say, if they don’t think like me).
Personally, I find it a waste of energy to dispute with un-curious, unskillful strangers about decontextualized stories, that neither they nor I know enough about to rationally discuss.
And from deep personal experience over the years since 2020, I am well aware that even hard data, critical thought, and attempts at rational conversation change very few minds, about anything.
But it is human nature to want to ‘do something,’ when we become aware of a problem or injustice. It’s how we are built.
In stressful times (or when we read the bad thing on the screen), our bio-chemistry invites us to fight, freeze, flee, or fawn. Speak. Act NOW. Preserve life, or the possibility of life. Even in situations—such as a foreign election or an even an issue on the other end of our own country—where we may have very little measurable input.
And if you have kindness in your heart and robust stress-response chemistry: you may experience the sense of grievance and willingness to act quite acutely; and also experience a sense of limited agency, and nowhere in particular for your energy to go.
This can feel excruciating. It can lead to lack of purpose, lack of motivation, numbness, cynicism, depression, free-floating anxiety, deep bitterness, and even long-term physical health issues.
I am speaking from experience, of course. And I don’t have (or require) an answer to the flood of thought and emotion that comes from noticing the grievances, and feeling the grief of the world.
But I do have a partial remedy—or maybe even a full one—for that feeling of helplessness and frustration that results from the chemicals of action coursing through every cell, and not knowing where to direct it.
I ask myself: what am I making?
What is it that my innate creativity, unique experiences, special skills, and heart’s desire are uniquely placed to make—and share—in my own circles?
Big or small. Quietly or loudly. To the benefit of all, or a few, or sometimes just me. A business that earns my living, or a passion. A pop-up event for today, or building and evolving a project, over a period of years.
What am I making?
When I am able to transmute and direct even the chemistry of fear or fierce anger into the space where I have agency, insight, and skill. . . experience shows me that any wholesomeness thus created will ripple out, beyond me, beyond even my immediate circles.
What am I making?
I am making. . .
a blog post
a community song gathering
trainings for solutionary solopreneurs
a circle of friends in which joy is shared, and trust is earned
my nephew’s French worksheets for this week
a letter to my Member of Parliament
a seasonal altar
tonight’s supper
the grocery list
a new interpretation of an old song
contentment in my heart and home
What are you making?
Please share in Comments, I’d genuinely like to know.