As we move into 2022 with a mixture of hope and fear, we bring with us the memories and experiences of the past few turbulent months and years.
It is a confusing time; we want to hope for a better future, but are conscious of the suffering and fear of the past. And all the while we feel there is no game plan anymore, no overview we can trust which will heal humanity’s suffering, and most of all, heal the chaos we have created in the world, and the suffering of the planet.
We stumble forward with our individual ambitions and desires, more aware of our interconnectedness than we have ever been, yet isolated in our anxieties and stories.
We have made life so complicated.
There is so much resistance in us to accepting the natural flow of life, and that is because we have lost trust in the experience of Life itself. Living through a pandemic which has changed the world and affected each of our lives to a greater or lesser degree, brings us closer to the fragility of our existence.
Rather than face this, we seek distractions. Seeing the fact of our fragility, of the precariousness of our lives, needs courage; instead we desire relief from anxiety and helplessness and wish to purely enjoy ourselves; we want holidays and treats and reassurance that all will be well.
Just looking to the outer to bring happiness or an end to the inner anxieties will only bring temporary relief.
True freedom from fear, pain, loneliness and rage and the memories of suffering can be found deep within each of us, and it is that courage to look within which is needed now.
