These Moments of Awakening

Pause for a moment. Can you touch the tentative, anxious energy out there right now? It is a thin, vacuous cloud. If you are quiet enough, you might be able to sense it, feel it. Tension hangs in the very air we breathe.

The storming of the U.S. capitol stoked a storm of worry that was already circling. And there are many cloud layers to this apprehension—climate change, COVID-19, economic impact, food insecurity, political unrest.

And then we perpetuate the collective anxiety by needing to process it—talk about it—share about it on social media. If we had a universal meter that could measure joint sleep loss, we would likely be pushing the top of the scale.

So, what do we do with this?

Ummm….not sure. Of course, there are things that can be done at the systemic level. And there are smart people across the world working on that. But what can we do individually? What can I do when I drag myself out of bed every morning into this unforgiving world?

The urge to make it all go away is strong. Have you seen all those Internet memes about 2020 and 2021? They are funny because we all hoped for new life on the other side of December 31. And in fact, there are some scarier things on this side too. More learning is probably in store.

But we can use discomfort as an opportunity for awakening rather than trying to make it disappear. That advice comes from Pema Chodron in Comfortable with Uncertainty. But how exactly do we do that?

We can ask, “What needs to awaken in me or my organization? What is being called forward for attention right now?”

Perhaps you might consider healing a personal relationship or two that has been impacted due to political differences. I could add that to my own list.

Or maybe your organization is focused on doubling down how you serve your communities. You might ask, “What new ways could we show up that would surprise even us?” It may be that your organization needs to step forward as a convenor of critical conversations around equity and anti-racism or decide to be a long-term player in food distribution.

Probably the simplest move is to make sure you put your focus outside of yourself. In The Book of Joy, a dialogue between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, they talked about how despair turns you inward toward yourself. But hope turns you outward.

A CEO shared recently with me that he went into the office one Friday morning and said to his team, “Good things are about to happen! I can feel it!” And they all looked at him suspiciously.

He was in that moment—as Archbishop Tutu says—being “an oasis of peace.” What does it look like to be an oasis of peace for others right now?

I guess it means holding space for joy. For some good. We all can do that too, just in case we forget that some hope might come out of all these clouds too.