Oh. My. God. If I could just be frank, we are fucked right now. There’s a global pandemic the likes of which have never dealt with before, we are on the brink of civil unrest due to human rights issues, there have been confirmed cases of unidentified flying objects (we haven’t even as a public responded to that because we’re so overwhelmed with everything else that’s going on), their are earthquakes in Yosemite which could set off a volcano, and there is an oil spill (the second-largest in Russian history) in the Arctic Circle. The atrocities go on and on and on and we are left to carry the weight of these things on our pudgy mortal shoulders.

What is there left to do? Where does one even begin to unpack all of this or any of it? How do you keep a solid footing beneath you when it feels like the whole world is crumbling down?

A few years ago, things in my work life were tumultuous at best, given the decisions and actions and lives of others that are so intermingled in community life. And I very seriously recommended an exercise for the carrying Core group members which was to each writes down five impossible things, they would then collectively be put into a jar, and every day we would pull out one impossible thing and read it aloud and accept the reality that that very thing could happen that day.

I think that practically this is a great place to start: acceptance. We must accept our fate, and our destiny, and the reality of our current situation. Things will continue to get worse if we continue to ignore them.

We must accept that we have created a global economy that puts more emphasis on paper money than the well being of the earth and the creatures on it.

We must admit that we created the opportunity for a global pandemic that has changed life as we know it.

We must admit that we have dehumanized people based on their skin color and built into our very systems a level of oppression and hatred to the point where the whole thing must be dismantled and we must start from the ground up again.

We must admit our own responsibility for these things and so many others.

The next step in my humble opinion is gratitude. If you are just pissed off and resentful you’re not gonna have any fucks to try to change anything your self.

We have to find gratefulness to help define our experience in a positive light. I am of the belief that true change happens when an individual feels safe. That being said I 100% understand why there is the level of civil unrest and violence that is happening right now in our country. My personal experience is when a person responds out of anger and fear and feels victimized they dig deeper. They become more entrenched in the dangerous views they already held. I am not talking about justifying murdering individual people in the street I am speaking to true life-changing and how to begin that process.

When we become grateful for where we are at this moment we become capable of change.

For example I can be grateful and appreciative of the calendar year of 2020. I can be grateful for the fact that people are finally starting to look critically at their own lives and at the systems that surround them. I’m grateful that our negative impact on the planet can no longer be denied. I am grateful that there is a movement being brought forth to bring quality for all peoples.

Or on a more micro scale, I am thankfully for the calendar year of 2020 as an opportunity to turn inward, culture my own life, to have so much time with my family and to learn so many new skills as a mother.

So when thinking of the totality of the Apocalypse do not lose heart, or become resentful, or overwhelmed. I propose to rather cultivate the skills of appreciation and gratitude so that we may greet these times with the foundation necessary for change.