A few years ago I was in a room connecting with the stories that no longer serve me. I was trying to identify the toxic mimics in my life that I needed to remove. I wanted to convert the toxic mimic into authentic ways to meet my needs.
During this exercise I was seeing images and hearing songs. I always pay attention to what my subconscious is sending me. Typically they contain a message. The first song was a Doris day tune, Que Sera Sera. It starts with the line, 'When I was just a little girl I asked my mother what will I be? As I read through the lyrics I am struck by a line that repeats through the chorus, 'The future is not ours to see'. Each question in the song is met with this same answer, 'The future is not ours to see.
I live in a binary story that is oppositional in tone. For every position there is a counter position. Thesis and anti-thesis. Black and white. Right and wrong. Good and evil. In an ideologically driven time I know my move. Pick a side and fight to be the dominant winning argument that powers over and rules. Simple. In my story capitalism is winning. Possibly, as Francis Fukuyama suggests, the final out and out winner of all time.
I watch the news and the world seems caught up in battle lines where this ideological binary is being fought on land and sea and air. The fault lines are in the Middle East over oil, in Asia over land grabs, in Latin America over political movements. The fight is on.
During the 21 century the division has dispersed and it is no longer a simple geographical matter. The difference is more like a rhizome, appearing everywhere and anywhere at any given moment. Bombs and explosions being set off in the cities of North America and Europe, Australia. Nowhere appears safe anymore.
A second song starts to play. This melody is accompanied by the words of William Blake. The last lines of which are, 'I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand till we have built Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land'. And there is William fighting with ideas and mental thoughts 'sword in hand'.
How do I move on from the binary? How can power in this story be transformed into something everyone can share? When will we allow everything and everyone to shine?
And a third song arrives with these lyrics by R.E.M.
'Meet me in the crowd, people, people
Throw your love around, love me, love me
Take it into town, happy, happy
Put it in the ground where the flowers grow
Gold and silver shine'
Moving into a new chapter of the story. A story of cooperation and empowerment, of shared power, of circles and community. I need to explore this much more.
Will I dare show my heart, live from my heart and allow my thoughts and feelings to be in service to what entangles me and not what divides me?
This thought thread is to be continued...
