Shifting of the World
Disrupting the Narrative - photo collage by Michele Walker
I woke November 6th knowing the world had shifted, that the physical world around me would look the same but I was going to see in a new way. The US election that has significant impacts for those living in the US also has impacts globally and this time feels pivotal in our collective journey.
I am Canadian, have lived my whole life in British Columbia the western most province. I come from a lineage of European settlers, one side of my family having lived in Canada for generations and the other being more recent immigrants. I grew up in a stable home, we were middle class Christians. I am in a long term marriage to a white heterosexual man and we are still middle class, we have a home, food in our fridge, a vehicle. I come from privilege, given to me not earned, and I continue to walk in privilege. Yesterday that privilege expanded to living in a country where I have reproductive rights and can make decisions about my body, where my daughters have found acceptance and love in the queer community, and although that path is not always easy, they are able to be open about their relationships and sexuality. I live where healthcare is provided, where violence is less of a threat. There will be impacts from the changes coming but I will feel them much softer than many people.
The last six years I have been focusing on my own spiritual journey, finding connection with Mystery, the sacred, through connection with the Wild Earth. This journey has taken me into discovering my call (which is still being revealed to me) and moving into work that is aligned with this call. I believe so much of what is happening in the world comes back to disconnection. Disconnection with the natural world and all beings bringing us into climate crisis. Disconnection within our human community where fear and hate creates division and isolation. Disconnection from ourselves and our own inner wisdom and the many ways of accessing that wisdom limiting ourselves to the cultural conditioning seeing the world through the lens of patriarchy and toxic capitalism. Disconnection from the sacred that is woven through out the earth and in our very being isolating us from our wholeness and belonging. My own journey has been about remembering and reconnection. I have discovered my wholeness and inner wisdom have never gone away but through disconnection I walked further and further away and have learned to not only walk back but to lean in and trust.
As I continue to open myself I have discovered my response to this call is that I want to bring others into the flow of creativity as connection with the Sacred. This statement came a month ago and still gives me little zings of energy through my body to write this. I know this is what I need to offer to the world, this is important work and yet fear has persisted. This fear is used by parts of me to keep me safe, to keep me small, to avoid the danger even when that perception is not the reality. I have been in conversation with this fear, loving the parts of me who use this emotion to create a form of safety. Fear has become the skin that is too tight to allow for movement and certainly not allowing me to dance joyfully on this wild edge I am on.
When I woke, with the world different, one of my first thoughts was “today I know my work is not just important it is critical”. The shift in the world has given a different perspective, more clarity and urgency than just a day before.
After connecting with friends in the US and hearing the grief and the fears that now are more real than before, my thought was “I have nothing to lose.” It is time for me to dance on that wild edge because the world needs connection with the Wild Earth, with the flow of creativity, with the Sacred. The fear has dropped away and has revealed an inner knowing that has been covered for a long time. There is a surety, a determination and strength that is familiar and new all at once.
In this time we need each other. We need communities where we can remember our connection to the bigger story not just the human story. We need those who hold love and compassion more than they hold hate and fear. We need people to dance on the wild edges because others need to hide in the cracks.
I want to be one of these people.
I want to show up.
I have nothing to lose.