We were made for this.

Lavender farm under monsoon clouds in Oracle, AZ - a place alive with beauty and interconnectedness. Thank you, Lavender, Bees, Butterflies, Soil, Trees, Clouds, Rain for returning me to *this* moment and reminding me what is truly real. Photo by Juliana Murphy

TLDR; Please use your boundless imagination in the service of beauty and aliveness and care.

My heart is heavy with grief for all of the humans who are in more danger today than they were a few days ago. There are increased and very real threats to the safety of the most vulnerable among us. My heart also goes out to those who thought they were protected by their concept of the ideals of this country. The dropping of this veil is a particularly difficult one for many. My heart is heavy, and I am unsurprised. We've received yet another piercing blow to the illusion that this culture values our humanity.

Not the first.

Certainly not the last.

Some say men are the problem, but I ask us to look deeper. The idea of what it means to be a gendered person (man or woman) in this culture is a big part of the problem.

When you raise a human to believe that the only emotion they are allowed to express is anger…

When you raise a human to look outside themselves for truth, morality, validity, acceptance, yet expect them to believe that they are somehow capable of and responsible for utter perfection and productivity in total isolation and “self-sufficiency”...

When you raise a human to believe that the only acceptable arena for experiencing the human birthright of unabashed and unbridled life force and delight is sex, yet simultaneously shame them if it doesn’t adhere to endless, senseless, ever-changing, and hypocritical criteria…

Weird shit is going to happen.

I am 100% not suggesting that we prioritize men’s feelings in this moment. I’m also not suggesting we prioritize the feelings of any other particular types of people.

I’m asking us (starting with myself) to prioritize our humanity.

When you separate humans from their humanity, they turn around and dehumanize others.

When humans are presented with systematic dehumanization, fear is an understandable response. Big fear, even.

So, we try to make sense of it all. We say, “I knew this was going to happen when…” We look for confirmation that we knew it was coming. We look for confirmation of our rightness.

Do.

Not.

Go.

Down.

Like.

This.

Our greatest human power is our power to create. It is also our greatest responsibility. Let us not abdicate this power by placing all of our attention on the fear, on all of the horrible things that could happen.

By all means, grieve what is happening. Feel your feelings. Care for those around you. Lift up those who are vulnerable. Give your gifts.

But, please, for the love of all that is holy, do not waste your precious, powerful creative life force on imagining further horrors. Do not go read The Handmaid’s Tale or 1984 as operating manuals for what to do next. What will unfold will unfold, and we will meet it. But this moment is this moment.

Let us not reduce ourselves to algorithms that can only create based on what has already happened. Let us remember all of the times that humans imagined things that they had never yet seen (and certainly couldn’t measure) and created massive beauty and magic.

We need your beautiful, limitless, POWERFUL creativity to imagine something different. Something more beautiful. Something more boundless. Something that focuses on the vastness of our shared humanity.

We have the power and skills within us to navigate this moment. We neither need nor will we be able to find instructions outside of ourselves, outside of THIS MOMENT. All that mindfulness meditation you’ve been doing? Now’s your chance to take it for a spin in the real world.

When the fear pulls your attention, bring it back to this moment. When they set another dumpster fire designed to scare the wits out of you, feel your feelings, shake the fear out of your body, then bring your focus back to the vision of a truer, more beautiful world that only you can create. Now HOLD IT. TALK about it. Reach for each other. Share your beautiful vision, and listen to the visions of others.

Take heart. This looks nothing like what we were told to expect, but be assured: we were made for this.