What We Can Do to Help Our World
Given the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas of 19 little children and 2 teachers by an 18-year-old troubled child, we must pause and reflect on what the collective cause of this horror could be. There are clues in every tragedy that point to its root cause just like the cause of our illness lies embedded within it. We are not a medical system that explores this context for healing, or a society that seeks out roots of the problems that plague us. We look for quick fixes and move on. We project our shadow onto one another and absolve ourselves of responsibility.
We have become a society of indifference. We have stopped growing and deepening. To heal the times we are in, we must deepen our understanding of how life works once again, and what it means to have arrived at an era when mass shootings (massacres) are normalized as our superficial values and Patriarchal structures are heading towards impending collapse.
Our indifference towards one another, towards Nature and our own nature for the past many decades is at a tipping point that can no longer being ignored. I see indifference as the opposite of love. It is a coping mechanism that the COVID Pandemic has amplified and dredged up in our behaviors towards one another in our society. We must begin to heal this inner deadness by having the courage to look in the mirror, at own our shadow, and especially the parts of us that we don’t like and project onto others, and embark on a journey of self- discovery, insight and self-knowledge. This is very difficult but rich work that requires much courage. If we don’t live from this intention and calling, we will have betrayed our life on Earth, where we are meant to offer something of our authenticity to the world. Even a small offering that is authentic, can heal so much in the seen and unseen realms. Sometimes it takes small courageous acts of consciousness, of kindness towards ourselves and others to begin, even if we don’t feel like it, or even if we think this won’t do anything to change the way things are. It may even seem too simplistic of a solution, but it is in simple acts of consciousness where deep transformations begin. Let us begin this simple spiritual process today, now, in this moment.
In the excerpt below, Dr. Bud Harris unravels some of the patterns that underly our current state of unrest with some solutions that can begin to heal us. Please take the time to read it and please share it with those you love. We are at a critical time. There is an urgency to awaken and become conscious when acts of violence kill innocent children, year after year. Sadly, it seems to be the current theme on the world stage.
“Somewhere in our not-too-distant past we, as a society, began to lose our capacity to love. I believe we began losing it in the very place and atmosphere where it is meant to begin. Today’s patriarchy is a negative, destructive force that has lost its heart and integrity.
I know that it is easy for me to say as an analyst that as a society we are too individualistic, competitive, power driven, achievement oriented, and materialistic. While all of these things are true there is another side to these statements. It is the side of personally living in this landscape. I’ve lived in this society, worked in it in many areas, and raised a family in it. I know what it feels like to have jobs become more insecure, to have retirement prospects become uncertain, healthcare costs to be a hovering threat, hope for your children’s futures to be shaken, college costs to seem beyond your fingertips, and more. I know what it is like to be indifferent to larger issues because you already feel overwhelmed, are facing too many demands, and are working your life away. Indifference in this case is a symptom of facing too much, trying as hard as you can, and having political knowledge slip through the cracks. We are burning ourselves up and out and that is another reason we, as love warriors, need to transform the heart of our society and our lives before the growing collective rage in our midst damages our culture beyond repair.
Love makes us who we are and who we can become.
To become a love warrior, we must first learn to face, heal, and love ourselves where love has been wounded in us. If we do not do this first, we will find it hard to imagine that love really has the power to change things. That is why I write so carefully about cultivating self-love in Facing the Apocalypse. If we fail to heal ourselves and rebuild the foundation of our self-love and trust, fear will always lurk deep inside us and fuel our anger and compulsions for power and control. To become a love warrior, we must learn that the presence of pain in our lives isn’t a sign of failure or a reason for shame. It is a call for healing and growth, a call to use our best human powers for mindful reflection and change.
Love does heal and it must begin within ourselves. To face the wounds to love within ourselves takes courage to even admit they exist. We must become wounded healers in the culture we live in, with the knowledge of what has caused our wounds and how to heal them. Our inner experience is the foundation we need to know that love really has the power to change everything. On this road as love warriors, we soon learn that choosing self-examination and growth is embracing the love that heals.”
~Becoming a Love Warrior
Bud Harris
©June2022 Kalpana (Rose) M. Kumar M.D., CEO and Medical Director, The Ommani Center for Integrative Medicine, Pewaukee, WI. www.ommanicenter.com Author of Becoming Real: Reclaiming Your Health in Midlife (2nd Edition), Medial Press, 2014. Dr. Kumar is currently accepting new patients. Call 262.695.5311 for an appointment, either virtual or in-person for those free of symptoms.