When the world ends, you remain #earthday
by Sophia Love, published on April 22, 2020
So, hey everyone. There are buds on the lilac bushes and birds everywhere. It is hopeful and sunny here, a beautiful day in Midwest USA. Earth Day 2020. There is so much to be said, yet there are so many of us saying it, writing it, filming it, zooming it…what can be added that’s worth this moment of your time?
Grief bursts forth randomly, awkwardly, and without boundaries. The world grieves now, do you see it? Step back, you will. There are stages and we’ve named them to imply a sense of order; some sort of control.
1. Denial and isolation; 2. Anger; 3. Bargaining; 4. Depression; 5. Acceptance.
Not a linear process, yet some of us are reaching step 3 with these protests. Anything to fend off step 4. Step 5 is quite a bit away, that’ll come with hindsight. Most hang out between steps 1 and 2.
The thing is, none of us have ever grieved a loss of this magnitude. Prior training or education will not assist here. This moment is beyond the scope of what any of us expected.
The loss of a world, a way of life, a future… This is not an exaggeration. No emotion is over the top. Feel them all and appreciate the rest of us as we express ours out loud and on camera and at your dining room table. We are all doing the best we can. Be generous. This was the mother of all curve balls.
Leaders will emerge. So will healers, peacemakers, entertainers, producers, workers, inventors, builders, artists, musicians, chefs, innovators, angels. You’ll see. We have to grieve now. Not forever, but for now.
There is a difference between our communal grief and personal grieving. It is what will ultimately pull us through this. The sheer numbers of us. The combined power of our love and our light and our faith and our sight. Our collective vision will define this moment.
I speak here of authority. You see, as we’ve been brought to our knees in this global crisis, we find a hidden morsel of something we’d forgotten. It is self-authority. When there is nothing else to count on, no one else who has the answers, no where more comfortable to be, self-authority rises up to say hello. It is, quite frankly, all that is holding you up right now. It is all we have left.
We are asked now to just be. No more pretense. None of that matters. If you’d been doing that before this year and this pandemic, well, your life may not have changed much and you find yourself inconvenienced, but not devastated.
If, on the other hand, there are parts you’ve been pretending…faking for either a relationship or a person or a job or a role or an idea, you’ve found yourself floundering. Your reason to do what it is that you do has been upended. You are both inconvenienced and devastated. Life’s meaning was inextricably bound with the old world, and that world is dead. The baggage you were carrying to survive there? It is too heavy to bring with. You’ll have to let it go.
You are not dead, but your reincarnation now depends on self-authority. You will have to re-emerge with conviction and a sense of absolute. Then, regardless of what the world does or thinks, and however it begins or ends, YOU REMAIN.
Of course, you realize this is true. Yet today, it is required that you embody this truth. It’s no longer an intellectual exercise, you must be true to your essence with each and every breath. It is the only way to move on.
For this end will not destroy you, that is not what ends are for. Ends are here to pave the way for beginnings. Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s starting, the ending is just so damn consuming and heart-breaking. This is one of those times.
Yet the beginning exists. And, as in all things, the depth and breadth of the ending is in equal proportion to the depth and breadth of what is yet to come. Be assured. Be comforted. Be absolute in your knowing that what is to come is brilliant beyond your imaging and suitable for one such as you.
A new world of beings, all standing in their self-authority does not resemble this world that has ended, no. It keeps the very best parts though…like trees, flowers, oceans, stars, birds, whales, butterflies and music and you… It sets them all free.
You are only asked now to trust. Trust that bit of self you’ve found while you were down on your knees with this grief. Dust it off and set it out for others to see. Nothing else matters, all pretense has been stripped. We are laid bare. We need you.
We are the ones.
We have anchored the light.
IT IS DONE.
With love and appreciation for all that you are,
Sophia
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