What Is Extraordinary About 2020?
Q: What is Extraordinary about 2020?
“I feel within me a consuming fire of heavenly love
Which has burned up in my soul everything that was contrary to itself
And transformed me inwardly into its own nature.”
-William Law
A: What isn’t extraordinary about 2020 could be a better question. We have officially “left the building” as a society, or perhaps have sailed into the great unknown of uncharted territories. Either way, the structures of old, past ways of being, our false sense of security, and the times of “uniting” within our country are behind us. We are in a new room. And it is a revolution in the making.
What we are facing is an existential crisis around duality. White, Black. Republican, Democrat. Right, Wrong. Climate Change, Climate is Changing. Conspiracy, Reality. Pandemic, Nothing to Worry About. Mask, No Mask. True, False. High, Low. God, Narcissism. What happens when we begin to see beyond the horizon of definitions and into the depths of our inner knowing?
Now, I don’t want to mislead anyone here and have you think I am suggesting that every hashtag is a revolution in waiting. Our social platforms are incredibly powerful, too powerful, as they can strip us of our human decency and ability to think for ourselves. We have to be incredibly diligent to traverse the danger zones of our super phones these days, work with effort to reclaim our minds from the systems we created to control them, and observe the armies constructed and formed behind the hashtags.
There is a revolution, yes, yet some of these “armies” aren’t necessarily in favor of pushing the edge of that possibility into reality. Many who cry for change will expect it in the “other” and still avoid looking in the mirror. The real work is the hardest to do, and no one is immune to that invitation. And the true revolution I speak of is not an external one. Of course, there are movements gathering speed right now, fights to be seen and heard, voices expressing pain and suffering of a long past, and activists who are working hard to reverse the destiny of our planet's environmental chaos. And still, the revolution I seek is much much deeper.
While the current movements afoot can be beneficial in bringing forth solutions, they are attending to consequences of the real problem and not accessing the source of the issue at hand. Whether it’s a fight on racism or a protest for the climate, these are attempts to solve hideous issues that we can no longer overlook. And yet...still, we have to go beyond consequence and go further in our exploration.
What is the source of our current day problems, struggles, and manifest destiny? Our minds. For example, who created the current social dilemma we each face as addicts to machines we depend on to communicate with each other, do business with, and replace our social skills with an app? People with minds whose intention was to exploit other people's minds.
I am reminded of the Tower Card of the Tarot, 16. Flames ensue around the structures built from a mind of the past. That which is no longer in service to the present future comes tearing down in the fire of transformation. It isn’t easeful, and change can be absolutely painful...and still, there is no way around it. It is here.
Behold the brilliant future...and may the journey be a long one. May we purify our past and live into the possibility of our truth. May we metamorphosize into who we are becoming today for tomorrow. May the contrary be consumed inside the flames of transformation and may we live into the extraordinary nature of pure love. 2020.
We cannot change the world until we accept we are the world. This is the new conversation.
