How Shall We Live in Troubled Times

There is no doubt about it. We are living in challenging times. I and many of my friends are worrying and wondering…

How Shall We Live in Troubled Times?

And how do we navigate our lives amidst massive change, fear, divisive politics, climate emergencies and more? It strikes me that I have never experienced war, hunger, or catastrophe personally. I think that many of us alive today have also not experienced these things. We grew up in a time of plenty. Though there were wars and famines, mostly they were somewhere else happening to someone else.

So it is no surprise that the many issues of our times are causing us to experience worry and distress. I never imagined that I would be worrying about threats to our democracy like those we’ve seen recently. And the effects of climate change are causing so much destruction here and around the world. Some days I find it difficult to watch or read the news.

The pond behind our house this morning…

I don’t want to live a life where I stick my head in the sand like an ostrich. And I don’t want to live a life full of fear and worry. So I ask myself often…

What Shall I Do?

My response to that question is based in making choices to spread love, taking small actions, seeking to see and share beauty, looking for ways to find balance and focus. Whatever opinions I reach, whatever actions I take, I choose to ground them in love, not fear, truth, not lies, connection, not separation.

And though the times may be troubled, each day I ground myself in the beauty and truth of nature. Life keeps happening, the earth keeps revolving around the sun. The seasons turn, my daughter’s cat purrs, the birds soar overhead. Each day arrives amidst personal triumphs and tragedies. Maybe the most powerful thing I can do is to remind those around me of the beauty of life and of the holiness of life.

Each of us can create something beautiful or take small human sized daily actions towards the world we want to see.

Hope is not out there somewhere in the ether. It is inside each one of us and between us. How we live and how we wrestle with these difficult problems matters. Know that you are not alone, we are many and we become stronger with love.

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
― Mary Oliver