Everything is connected. When we understand that we are not individuals standing on a dry land separate from each other but more like droplets of water in the sea, we realize that every action has an opposite but equal reaction. Every swing of the pendulum has a counter swing. Every tidal wave is preceded by drawdown.
Our actions create reactions. Where that reaction plays out can be affected. Like when beavers build dams to re-divert water. Where we hold the line can cause the reaction to flow elsewhere.
When we understand everything in this way we can consciously choose where to position ourselves for optimal success. We don’t have to be driftwood floating along a current and washing up against an embankment we did not choose. Unlike drift wood we can put our feet down and anchor ourselves, we can paddle toward a different current or band together with others to create a dam. We can also swim faster and get out of the way when the waves crash or the current takes a turn. It’s easier just to be carried along of course like driftwood. But we are capable of affecting our trajectory if we choose.
Most drift along and complain when they don’t wash up on their desired shore.
A few don’t realize that we are a sea of energy and that everything is connected. They are the ones who swim against the current. Thanks be to them. The salmon. The rare few that go where they want and never give up – we have examples of greatness. Examples of people who swam against the current.
The smart ones though – they maneuver the tides of life, reposition their perspective to see the bigger landscape from above and swim around, ahead and through the currents toward a safer and more ideal outcome.
Complaining about the tides and currents in the sea is futile. Navigating those oceans is genius. Swimming against the current or walking on the water – that’s the path of just a few way showers.
When we saw the Pandemic coming in February some did nothing, some bought up toilet paper and others took care of business knowing that time to move about freely was short. I stocked my pantry and then flew into Maui for one day to take care of some DMV paperwork before returning home for the last two weeks of normal before the stay home orders came. When we got deluged by the tidal wave of staying in and shutting down – at first we rode the wave. Baked bread, moved our work and schools online and showed our friends on social media that staying in could have its rewards. That moment when we were in the middle of the biggest swell. When we appeared to be neither moving forward nor backward – suspended in the greatest volume of the swell. At the time when we realized it wasn’t just going to be 2 weeks at home but more like 2 or 3 months – that’s when we lost our sense of momentum. When we realized time isn’t just linear and that all we really have is an abundance of time. That’s when the closets and garages started to get cleaned out. Roommates that couldn’t hang together separated ways. That’s when we started the projects- that we always thought we didn’t have time for. When we re-evaluated our priorities and took action on what’s really important.
Those actions created an energetic ripple. As above so below. The microcosm of the macrocosm. What we did individually created a collective motion. When we gain collective momentum, we affect the macrocosm. And vis versa.
When we de-cluttered our home we did it collectively and that propelled a bigger de-cluttering of our nation. When we cleaned out the dust bunnies in our home some of the bigger ones in our macrocosm also got swept out into plain sight. Those projects that we didn’t have time to tackle – like systemic racism – we now suddenly can’t not tackle. And all those pieces of driftwood in our national sea of people who’ve been comfortably floating along are now finding themselves bumping into others. Colliding into an opportunity to wake up and change the course. Some are reluctant, holding their place on the surface of the tide. Grumpy and complaining because they haven’t risen up above to view the sea from the heavens, to see the shifting currents, they are still on the surface complaint about being bumped up against. But those who stay in complaint of the shift, who can’t see past their own looted neighborhood, who are still complaining weeks later – their going to be swirled all together into a pile in the middle of the ocean where they’ll stay swirling forever like a trash island at sea. Miserable and loathed to be seen until someday a greater clean up effort removes even that debris.
Keep your perspective high, navigate the ocean, don’t let it swallow you up. When you bump up against another- take the opportunity to gain perspective and don’t get caught up in the trash collective – swim faster, with and through the currents until you reach your destination.
A friend shared her story with me of her encounter of a rip-tide. She was a seasoned swimmer at a beach in Hawaii but that day there were signs and loud speakers posted warning of a rip current that had the potential to carry swimmers out to sea, drowning them. She being familiar with those waters felt confident that she could navigate the current and proceeded out. Soon she realized she was drifting farther and farther from the shore, being carried out and unable to swim against the current to get back to safety she panicked and then she called on her spirit guides, angels and God to help her. At that moment two turtles poked their heads above the surface of the ocean near her and than went under. She knew she had to go with them. She took a deep breath just as a large swell was about to envelop her and she swam under the waves, following the sea turtles out of the rip current, back to shore.
She and I always fancy ourselves mermaids navigating the waters of humanity in much the same way that our past incarnations would have navigated the energetic streams of the literal ocean. We swim deliberately and choose consciously. When we get tumbled about in the waves we recover and keep on navigating. It’s a journey. And one best understood as an interconnected flow of cause and effect.
