The world seems to be a wobbly stack of blocks right now. So much is brought to our attention that we need to sift through, form an opinion on, debate and digest. It’s easy to feel we must dash out and straighten up our blocks, bolster up everything we can, and protect our own personal fortresses. But life is always unpredictable and no matter how we try, we cannot always protect everything or everyone we know and love. The only constant in life is that change happens. That is the paradox. Of course, some change is all to the good, but there is unrest in so many parts of the world, and a changing world brings fear and feelings of helplessness. We are bystanders to what’s happening in the world yet our minds are actively learning and absorbing. We are trying to form new ways of dealing with events as a result. There is a lot of unplanned and unexpected change going on in our minds. Some things are out of our control which adds to the worry for the future.
Look backwards to move forward
The mind can play mischievous tricks, especially during dark times. It can pluck manipulated news headlines from a dislocated source and wave them in front of our vulnerable eyes. It can lead us to believe everything we hear, because it is coming from somewhere we think we can trust. It can allow fears to escalate. It can make us sad. It can also take us to a place where we question everything we have come to believe in. It can make us forget that the world is a beautiful place and will keep on turning if we look after it.
How do we move forward? How do we calm the mischievous mind?Perhaps we have to look backwards first. See what went before and how we came to be here. Because we have all come from a place of love and a place of complete simplicity. When we were born we didn’t question why we were here. We were just here. We still are ‘just here’ -yes, we grew up and found our feet, and our place in the world, but if we can stay in the place of simplicity, we can stay grounded during turbulent times.
Major to minor
How do we stay in that good and simple place when we fear the changing world? What about those times when the storm seems to be raging and out of control? How do we reduce the major fears so that we CAN stay grounded? Think of changing from major to minor. Think of concentrating on what is right in front of you – the present. The present is all we really have and we need to look after it, be part of it and keep it simple when we can. Ego and striving can be parked.
We can cultivate compassion in a time when it is easy to feel anger about world events. Paying attention to kindness around us helps limit our judgements and helps us appreciate other perspectives.
It is interesting to look at musical key changes – to get from a major chord to its relative minor, you move down a whole and half step and yet you can keep the same melody. Perhaps we can say the same about what is going on around us. We can step down a bit, but keep our song going. Also, relative key changes can make music more interesting! This may sound trite but it’s not meant to. Life is serious for us all but we need to keep the music going.
'Be in the moment' It says on the tin, But keep hold of your memories And lock them within.
Notes From Dove Lane 