#BCflooding I was up at 5:30 this morning doomscrolling news on the floods that washed out highways, towns and train tracks in my province of British Columbia. When the news hit yesterday (or was it the day before) I was stunned, sort of numb to it, not really taking in the meaning. After all, the sun was shining now, the torrent had stopped, and life looked like it was going back to normal. Outside my bubble, this clearly wasn’t the case. Infrastructure had been washed away in a day. Vancouver cut off. A huge and heavy barge threatened to crash against a bridge. Can anyone save the farm animals from the impending flood if the pumps fail?
This morning I thought that this is how it is to live in wartime. If you aren’t directly hit, you live life as normally as possible. But it isn’t normal, because of the dread, the undertow, the dreams, all revealing the reality that somewhere very near to you there is intense struggle and suffering. Now the fear of shortages has gripped the province, with people scooping up supplies. The irony is that it is not easy to store the perishables that are regularly delivered by truck - veggies, fruits, dairy. Oh and about the grains by train: How is that going now?
Cuba survived hurricanes, the Special Period, and great hardships. Because of the people, the communities working together, accepting the realities and moving forward with a sense of pride in their nation, whatever the cost, which was high.
I think about the Brits, keeping up appearances with a stiff upper lip, or a strong cup of tea, or the sort of mad humour that later birthed the Goonshow.
Then later this morning I felt so relieved seeing the news that 150 people with sandbags had helped an agricultural area from being deeply flooded, and all the animals now have a chance to remain alive. I almost didn’t keep writing this, it was such a relief.
These ups and downs are part of the reality of being in proximity to tragedy - where it isn’t happening right here right now, but it could or it could have. How do we find the resilience to carry on in this knowledge? Some say art or expression, others meditation, others gratitude. These words are not the answer. What they describe may be. How do we manage our feelings, expectations, plans? How do we manage our minds? Being and doing will bring the answer. Mulling around about it does nothing for us. Be strong. Use both hands to lift one another up. Help to pull the cows from the stream. In the gushing onrush of nature’s power see a sign of greater forces that work through and around us all. Adapt to this and learn.
We are not isolated, and we can’t stay living in our heads, in high towers, surveying a world at a distance or on a screen. We have to get in and muck about, offering from ourselves - something, anything.
These offerings are the sandbags that we stack up daily, and overnight, to forestall the flooding. We continue on with this action until the danger is passed. Then we turn around to see how such a thing could have happened. It wasn’t only nature, but nature provoked by human error. We see our disconnection from all that our human relationship with our environment has been based on. Our Mother cries, our Relatives demand justice, we are called now to become human again, and to find a way back into the greater being that we are meant to protect. If we protect this being of all life, then we are nurtured. If we split off in a mechanical pod of our own making, we are literally on our own in space, without life supports.
So let’s go back home and learn how to live again, and learn to be a bit more human. When the sun rises each morning, let’s say thank you. It isn’t just business as usual, it is a new day, and a chance for a grateful connection with life and the forces of life’s actions. Our opportunity to integrate the fields of our lives can be this simple grateful focus. If this were our last day, we would be in awe. That awe is present here and now, but it is found across an invisible threshold.
You can’t just walk through that gate. With all your strength you must penetrate its force field. Then, standing on the other side of this portal, as a strong human being, you can turn and offer your hand to one other, and perhaps another. Now if your purpose is not to be a doorkeeper, it is right to move on into the new day, and expand your being in the direction that can serve best. You know what it is and you know what to do. Art, writing, music, learning, love, gardening, giving, healing, helping, creating a new field in which to develop.
We have to lift off somehow, and find new pathways, get another plan because this one’s not working. Are we picking up yet?
So I leave you with some Yukon Bhangra from Gurdeep Pandher.
Thank you.
I love what you said about finding our way to protect all life, or to stay apart and unprotected. Bless you, bless us all in these unprecedented times. Thanks for sharing.