The Power Of Joy

What a time we are living through my friends. It’s hard to even know what to say. Yet, I cannot stay silent. What the current administration here in the US is doing is horrific, appalling and infuriating. 

What are we meant to do within all of this? Those of us who refute the pure evil that is unfolding and expanding its reach throughout our nation. Those of us who value love, who value the planet, who believe that all people hold equal value, what are we to do?

I think that “what are we to do?” is a complicated question, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. However, I want to share some thoughts that have been on my mind lately.

I know what’s happening is scary. It’s terrifying. And it’s normal and healthy to be scared of things that are scary. It IS scary. 

However, when we are overwhelmed by fear, we become very vulnerable, and very easy to control. Fear, anxiety, or whatever your version of this energy may be, makes us want to disassociate. It makes us want to leave our bodies, numb out and disconnect from the awful feeling. 

Often, fear makes us more isolationist. Fear has a tendency to make us want to see everyone as either good or bad, friend or foe. When we are afraid we are quick to cut people out, or off, or push them away, or make them somehow “other” if they seem even remotely threatening to us. (This is actually a biological, physiological response from our nervous systems, and it makes a lot of sense. It’s a survival mechanism).

However, and there is a big however here, the current administration and all related institutions and individuals, WANT us, the people, to be scared. They want us to be disassociated, checked out, isolated and against each other. That makes us much easier to control and helps consolidate their power over us.

This brings me to the incredible power of connection and joy.

I want to pause here and say – if you think I am driving at some kind of hard core spiritual bypass shit, I’m not. Stick with me here!

When we are connected to one another, rather than isolated, and when we allow ourselves to experience joy, we are powerful. Much more powerful than they are.

I want to be clear; We need to read the news, and reflect on what is occurring. We also need to feel our fear, and all of the other hard feelings that have emerged and will be emerging as we go through this time.

However, as we feel these hard feelings we must endeavor to stay in connection with one another, with Nature or with other sources of support. It’s vitally important not to go off and feel these feelings with no support, because that is how we can get overwhelmed, which often leads to disassociation and then a sometimes chronic state of contraction and defense. I wrote about this concept in my last newsletter. Click here if you missed it and want to learn more.

Beyond that, we must also endeavor to find a sense of joy. Or perhaps if joy feels too far fetched for you, consider a sense of pleasure, or a feeling of love. Experiencing things like pleasure, joy or love is a powerful act of resistance at this time. What helps you to find a sense of these things? For me it’s things like: time outside, connecting with our amazing earth and the natural world, being with my animal friends, being with my human friends, connecting with my family, and enjoying sensual pleasures, like a warm bath, delicious food, a warm hug from my sweetie or the smell of some lovely plants and incense.

I also find joy when I remember that there is an incredible network of humans out there with values that align with mine. Many of these humans are doing amazing things to help heal our world. 

As an important aside; we don’t hear about these people and the things that they are doing on the news. All we hear on the news is the terrible stuff. (And again, just to reiterate, we need to know the terrible stuff). However, there is a secret bright light underneath the dark shadow that befalls our nation, and we need to remember that! There are SO MANY people out there doing powerful and beautiful things to help bring our nation and our planet back into balance. Some people are doing smaller things, like donating money to a cause or calling their local representatives, and some people are doing things that are quite large, and everything in between. I urge you, if you are not already, to do whatever makes sense for you to join in this network if you have not already. (Remember that even small actions count, because overall, this network of people is huge). Within this network, we don’t all know one another, and yet we are all working towards the same goal. I wager that, like the mushroom mycelium, we are all connected in an energetic, worldwide, underground web. I wager that all of us who value love and human dignity can practice tapping into this web and connecting with the light, inspiration and resource carried within it.

When we feel connected to one another through this web I’ve mentioned or in other ways, and when we allow ourselves to feel and experience pleasure, joy or love, we are incredibly powerful (as I mentioned earlier), and we are much harder to control.

Our feelings – our joy and our fear and all of the rest, as well as our connection with one another, with ourselves and with all of life – are some of the very things that make us human. Perhaps the current chaos we are experiencing both in our nation and in the world at large is an opportunity to more deeply embody our humanity.

Granted, this will take some courage. This is what I wish for us; May we have the courage to look for and receive support as feel our hard feelings. May we have the courage to be in connection with one another, with ourselves and with the Universe. Finally, may we have the courage to feel joy, to open to pleasure and to sense the love that we have inside. 

I Give You Back

by Joy Harjo

I release you, my beautiful and terrible

fear. I release you. You were my beloved

and hated twin, but now, I don’t know you

as myself. I release you with all the

pain I would know at the death of

my children.

You are not my blood anymore.

I give you back to the soldiers

who burned down my home, beheaded my children,

my brothers and sisters.

I give you back to those who stole the

food from our plates when we were starving.

I release you, fear, because you hold

these scenes in front of me and I was born

with eyes that can never close.

I release you

I release you

I release you

I release you

I am not afraid to be angry.

I am not afraid to rejoice.

I am not afraid to be black.

I am not afraid to be white.

I am not afraid to be hungry.

I am not afraid to be full.

I am not afraid to be hated.

I am not afraid to be loved.

to be loved, to be loved, fear.

Oh, you have choked me, but I gave you the leash.

You have gutted me but I gave you the knife.

You have devoured me, but I laid myself across the fire.

I take myself back, fear.

You are not my shadow any longer.

I won’t hold you in my hands.

You can’t live in my eyes, my ears, my voice

my belly, or in my heart my heart

my heart my heart

But come here, fear

I am alive and you are so afraid

of dying.