Emerging from the Darkness

It has been nearly a year since I posted a blog on this website. A year of working. A year of toiling away at the modern-day tasks we have become so accustomed to. A year of getting my son to school, going to work, picking him up from school, taking him to karate class, running errands, fulfilling obligations, going to bed and doing it all over again. You may be reading this and think, I have been doing that for years, a decade, decades. Me too.

I have been working hard as long as I can remember. If not in a job, then at home fulfilling the role of housewife and mother. Before that I worked hard to fulfill the expectations of my parents, teachers, and coaches. I have been working hard to achieve the vision society, partners, and authority figures have expressed to me either directly or indirectly for as long as I can remember.

Then, at the beginning of February, my business announced it would be closing. Within a little over a month, I was unemployed. I was excited to have the time off from a job I enjoyed so that I could finally get my book done and bring it to market. Writing is what I love and I would now have the time to do it. This manuscript has been in the final stages of development for over a year. I am sure you can understand why. It is challenging to complete personal creative projects with such a full schedule. A little time here or there to focus on a passion while you attempt to stave off exhaustion is hardly the foundation for creating a masterpiece. But I did my best throughout the year. This forced time off from work would gift me the time and space to bring my beloved book to completion.

Then the Coronavirus shut down the country. I finished work on a Friday and was informed Sunday that my son would be out of school for the next two weeks, which turned into the next month and a half. I was now taking on the job of substitute teacher. I couldn’t help but wonder what the message was in all of this unforeseen change. You see, I was one of the last employees standing as it were. With the exception of me and two other managers, all the employees at my business had been done working weeks before. The three of us stayed on an additional three weeks to tie up all the loose ends. I felt privileged to be one of the three remaining because I assumed that the money would be useful and I would have plenty of time to work on the book while my son was at school each weekday. Our family could spend the weekends together, which we didn’t get to do when I was working. It was a win-win. Or so I thought.

Within thirty-six hours my plans were dashed. Our society changed in an instant. It has become isolated. For me, I may not have the uninterrupted time to work on my book, but so many aspects of our normal-day life have slowed down. My son and I go through the day at our own pace and are enjoying the time together.

Other areas like grocery stores have workers completely overwhelmed and exhausted. And my heart goes out to them. That was the world I left only days before the pandemic impacted our way of living. I worked in a health food store. I may not have gotten the sabbatical I hoped for, but other people in the industry I know and love are running themselves ragged trying to keep up with the demand that no restaurants, go social gathering places, and no entertainment venues puts on one of the last consumer fronts. Grocery store have become one of the few outlets people have to go out into the world and interact with environments beyond work and home. Being part of that segment of the workforce only weeks before creates a deep feeling of empathy for each one of those workers. As I have the privilege of taking some time to rest, connect with my family, and enjoy life at my own pace, beloved friends are struggling to stay health and being treated with disrespect everyday by an unappreciative public. Even still, during this time of rest and rejuvenate, I see this persistent tension in me pushing me to perform and be productive in the world at large.

Our culture has ingrained in us a correlation between responsible adulthood and employment. While it makes sense to relate these two aspects of life for the providers and caregivers of our community, it seems that our drive to be productive employees is more about acquiring money, the modern means to live, than the contribution we can make to support our community’s ability to grow and thrive. There is a palpable disconnection between our modern way of living and the yearning we are experiencing to slow down, connect with nature, and reorient the way we spend our time and acquire resources.

While once adulthood translated into one’s willingness to be of service to the tribe to maintain sustainability during flourishing seasons and functionality during times of hardship or scarcity, now we are constantly on the hamster wheel of production to keep the growth-modeled economy going and growing more profitable. We no longer ebb and flow in our daily activities connected to the natural rhythms and cycles of life. We get one to a couple of weeks off from jobs we are intended to hold for a lifetime with no real incentive to share, connect, and uplift our fellow human beings unless we are met with a crisis. In a crisis, we often rise to the opportunity we are given to come together for the greater good.

With this current climate of fear and isolation, I wonder how many more catalysts humanity will require before we decide enough is enough. Before we come to the conclusion that life is not meant to be spent toiling away at a job in an effort to make enough money to buy the things one wants or needs. How many more pandemics, wars, catastrophes, or traumas will it take before we decide that this current paradigm has reached its end?

It is common to assume the attitude that this is the way things are. Many even live in a state of forgetfulness that leads to thinking this is the way it has always been. We forget we are in an ever-changing reality that is only changing more and more rapidly as the years go on. Nothing is just the way it is because it is constantly changing. Our natural ability to adapt can foster a kind of amnesia that makes whatever is normal now ‘just the way it is.’ Have we reached a tipping point which propels us beyond the reactive nature of adapting to whatever gets thrown our way so we can rise to the potential we have to consciously direct the trajectory of our evolution in the face of this crisis? Or will we just re-establish ‘the way it is’?

What I have realized with the Coronavirus pandemic and its related global repercussions on our lifestyle and livelihoods is this, I don’t want to go back into the paradigm of exchanging the majority of my waking hours for monetary compensation that leaves me no other choice but to do the same the next day, month, year, and decade. There are many who would believe this statement reflects the wishful thinking of an immature, irresponsible, or selfish freeloader. I understand that if I was clinging to the idea that the only contribution I have to offer is my labor in exchange for money, that would be a natural response. But I am not clinging to that way of thinking. I do not have that belief system dictating my life anymore. Not unless I allow others people’s opinions of what a responsible contributing member of society means influence my actions and ideas. For those that think it means working tirelessly in a job until I earn retirement at the end of my life in the hopes I live that long and have the energy and vitality to enjoy it, I am a slacker. To those individuals in this world, I have not paid my dues. Most of them have operated like this for the majority of their lives and feel the unfairness of what it would mean to enter a new, innovative way of meeting the physical, mental, emotional, and creative needs of a culture. But who would it be truly unfair to in the end? Is it more unfair to maintain the status quo of a failing system to appease the wounded ego of the mainstream masses? Or is it more unfair to the current and future generations crumbling under the pressure, strain, and stress of trying to adhere to a economic model that ultimately rewards only a minuscule fraction of the population? Who will we decide to accommodate? Can I adhere to the truth in my bones that my responsibility is to forge a new path and sound a call to others who also glimpse an emerging possibility?

When I lived in an intentional community in Costa Rica I saw a separation appear between founders of the community and new members in regards to the amenities and quality of life they expected. New members would come into the community with expectations of having a home, working a specific amount of hours, receiving certain perks like discounted meals or event tickets. The ones who had broke ground, lived under tarps and bathed in the river during the beginning years thought this was inappropriate, even arrogant of the newcomers. How could the ones just arriving expect so much when the individuals who had been developing the community from nothing to the fully functional village status it had achieved had so little for so long? One afternoon I was sitting among a mixed group of newcomers and founders. I asked a question I would like all of us to contemplate now.

Isn’t it the goal of every community to make it easier, more efficient, more beautiful, more fulfilling, more health-promoting, and more enriching for the next generation of members? Whether we think of this idea in the context of wanting a better life for our children or the way I was addressing it to these community members, don’t we want to continue to empower subsequent generations and improve conditions in all aspects of our community and environment as a whole? This is the point I have reached in my personal life. As a parent and as an evolving human being, how can I ensure that I am contributing to a more empowered and improved world? Regardless of who may feel threatened or inspired by my actions, beliefs, and passions, how can I create a way of living that inspires my son to live a holistic, balanced, and fulfilled life? We may think these are lofty ideals, but these intentions seem to be the exact things we are being called to cultivate at this time.

Our monetary system is dying. It may actually already be dead and we just haven’t gotten the death certificate yet. Younger generations are moving farther and farther away from the work until your dead, sixty-five or older model set forth by previous generations. And companies are encouraging this mentality to even greater degrees with their common business practices. Education is becoming less and less affordably. The popularity of mega-mansions is being replaced with the trend of tiny-houses and minimalism. The middle class is quickly blending into the lower class and who knows how this pandemic may accelerate the trending decline. What are we going to do? Go back to work as usual because we haven’t been told there is another option. See other options but conclude that they are too loftty, far-fetched, and unrealistic to achieve in our lifetime. We can just leave it to the next generation after all. Or take this catastrophic event and slam dunk it into a absolute 180 degree turnabout. Will we continue to relinquish our power to an elite few in the hopes that the mother-ship will eventually send the rescue team? Or will we finally reclaim the wealth of resources that has never truly been owned by anyone except those who bound us in fear and separation and find our way back to a collaborative way of sharing, innovating, and supporting all of humanity through mutual respect, love, compassion, and strength? What are we going to do?

This is in invitation into conversation. Share your ideas, pains, apprehensions, solutions, and innovations in the comment section below or on the ThriveSanctuary Facebook page. Separation only works when we choose to distance ourselves from others. Let’s stop choosing that path. Let’s unite in an open, respectful conversation about how we move forward in these transformative times. Perhaps the world is finally ready to let compassion lead the way.

 

Much Love,

Suyana Cole

Author of The All-Inclusive Approach: The Art of Divine Remembrance

Release Date: May 5th 2020