(10th in a Series) When you do the deep personal work necessary to give up conflict (internal and external), this invisible choice wields power out of all proportion to its humble appearance.
“Independent” individuals and nuclear families are artificially sustained by a fossil fuel dependent, growth-at-all-costs system that cannot last. The only viable alternative is to return to living in direct relationship with each other and with the web of life that can sustain us indefinitely, if we care for it as the extension of ourselves that it really is.
Logical, rational thinking understandably sees things as separate. ‘I am me; everything else is something “other” than me.’ There is another way to see things. Through a lens of interbeing, I am still me, but now I recognize that I’m closely related to everything that the mindset of separation calls “other.”
Introducing the metaphorical “seasons” of birth/emergence, growth, full bloom, harvest, decay, death, and re-emergence. We misunderstand the seasons of decay and death, so we go to extraordinary lengths to avoid them – which means we miss out on the gifts of inner growth they have to offer.
21st century science now finally agrees with Eastern philosophy and Indigenous wisdom that we share a common field of consciousness. It’s hidden in plain site, all around us all the time. It’s even more under-appreciated and under-utilized than the other forms of “the commons” that we share.
The Equinoxes mark the two points in the year round of the seasons where the number of hours of daylight and darkness are roughly equal, and so they are a good time to invite balance into our lives. This post introduces the Wheel of the Year and shares my Journaling practice for the Equinoxes.
What gardeners do is somewhere on a continuum from controlling the life (and death) cycles in the garden, to managing them, to interacting intelligently with them. We tend to default to control because of our culturally ingrained assumption that without control there will be chaos and anarchy.
This has implications far beyond the garden. How do our assumptions about the need for control shape our world?
The Equinoxes – the time of balanced light and dark at the midway point through Autumn and Spring – provide an opportunity to examine how we’re managing the balancing act between doing and resting. This short post shares an uncommon idea for our culture and our times: “It is safe to rest.”
