Note from Louisa

How are you doing in these uncertain times? 

The past month has seen a whirlwind of activity at the national level that can’t help but touch us all deeply as institutions we once relied on begin to shift and sway in the strong winds of autocracy. These are not the times of stability and prosperity in which we might have chosen to live. These are the times in which we are buffeted about in the choppy waters of the incoming storm, the safe harbor too distant to reach in time.
 
How do we manage these times? How can we find rootedness when the Earth herself is shifting beneath our feet?
 
I continue to find some comfort in looking through the lens of history and recognizing that we are but one moment in the expansive human story. 
 
It is our nature as human beings to always seek comfort and pleasure, and to be continually dissatisfied and striving for more. It is the rare moment when we feel that all is right with the world and, when that precious gem has been found, we believe we can possess it always. But just as all phenomena arises, so all phenomena fades.
 
Now is the time to honor that everything not only is impermanent but has a rhythm of its own – we are in constant flux. Spring to winter to spring, life to death to life, expansion to contraction to expansion. It has been so always.
 
If we can take a step back out of our own personal story and open the aperture wide enough to see the whole of humanity with humility, we see that these events are, in a way, as inevitable as the changing of day into night and back into day.
 
It is hard to recognize that we are once more on the precipice of these critical lessons. Surely, we must have learned by now the cost of communal narcissism, bigotry, and fear by now.
 
The question that lies before us is what is our duty in these times? How do we keep the hearth fires of compassion and inclusivity burning so that when the pendulum does swing back, we are ready to repair the damage that has been done, fortify those shaky foundations, and prepare for the next onslaught. Because there will be another. It is the undeniable, cyclical nature of things.
 
The question then becomes less “How are you doing in these uncertain times?” and more “What are you doing to remain fierce in the face of cruelty and hatred?” How will you show up to keep the memory alive of not only what once was but what will certainly be again?
 
Blessings on your journey,
Louisa