Somedays I struggle to find words.
I’m just all feelings.
Intense feelings.
Grief, joy, beauty, uncertainty, possibility.
And in these last years - feelings of absolute horror.
I’m not sure how one is supposed to process what we are witnessing.
Those paying attention and bearing witness.
Looking beyond the mainstream and institutional narratives.
Seeing the absurdity, the oppression, the violence, the immense contradictions.
It strikes me that most folks I can see are broadly in the following camps:
Bearing witness to the horrors, using their privilege (while it lasts) to speak up, act and weave care into the culture
In total denial and not looking at the uncomfortable (the too depressing logic)
Head down and obedient, believing things won’t effect them (the separation logic)
Going along with the racist, authoritarian, extreme capitalist logic, in the belief that they are entitled, will benefit/ be ‘safe’.
Last month the Planetary Boundaries Science Lab at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) revealed that 7 of the 9 critical Earth System boundaries have now been breached, one more than last year.
That’s like the planetary equivalent of being told by the best doctors in Harley Street that about 80% of your vital organs are completely maxed out.
I don’t think I saw this reported anywhere in mainstream media.
It’s mind-blowing to me, the arrogance of our modern species, that this unprecedented systemic damage to the Earth isn’t deemed important enough to communicate.
Everything in our lives is Earth.
Everything.
In this age of consequence, perhaps we’re witnessing the initiation of the human species.
A species wide rite of passage.
That’s never going to be a comfortable journey.
So how to sit with the discomfort?
That’s the invitation and practice of these times, I’m coming to believe.
To learn how to ‘stay with the trouble’
To be with the discomfort.
The mess of it all.
And not to turn away.
To resist the desire to numb and distract.
To resist blame, anger and conflict.
To resist othering some for the fears we all carry.
To learn to dance with complexity, contradiction, grief, beauty, uncertainty, horror and surprise without abandoning the dance-floor
Dancing feels like an interesting invitation to me.
It invites us into the body and out of our stuck heads.
It invites us into presence and relationship with life in the moment,
To be present with our bodies, with each other, with other life forms
It’s movement, spontaneity, flow, expression, vibe, response,
Response-ability.
Dancing is aliveness.
And we need alive-ness.
To break the numbness.
So on that, I offer a new Earth Sessions mix: Autumnism
For this season of letting go.
A collection of tunes, that have been moving me of late and that capture for me the feels of this season and these times - the endings, the abundance, the darkness, the joy, the mystery.
I hope they move you in some way.
Full tracklisting here
And if you struggle with dancing, it could well be our deep patriarchal programming - you know the voice - ‘you can’t dance’
I offer some words a wise man once said about letting yourself go on the dancefloor…
‘No one’s looking at you and no one gives a fuck’
So stay awake to what is happening, what is ending, what needs to end and tend to what needs to begin.
Look around you, find the thing that speaks to you, find the others and get stuck in.
Love and care at the centre.
And try to stay curious with the trouble, the discomfort.
Do not abandon the dance-floor
REPEAT: Do not leave the dance-floor of life.
As Nena and WestBam said…
‘We are the future, that’s the past
We are the moment built to last
We are the up, that’s the down
We wear the newschool engine crown’
Peace and out
Dan
