The light of gnosis is occluded by worry, fear, distraction, and self-loathing. Look up at the sky…
There are times when we all get caught in our social structures. As social animals, this is a natural occurrence: we want to understand our place in the scheme of things, we want to work in greater harmony, we want to respect and be respected, and yet many behaviors and situations get in the way of this. But at heart, what gets in the way of this lies at our core. If we are truly in our power, and motivated by love, the annoyances or even deep grief over social breakdown or parlay will not affect the basic functioning of our desire to be free, to live fully, to do the work that only we are placed here to do. We can notice when our energy gets snagged on grief, or anger, or misplaced ambition and ask questions about what we really want from a situation, where the pain lies, and then we can make choices about how we wish to spend our time and attention.
When we are not in our power, or not motivated by love, it becomes too easy to get trapped in the social structure, in the worry, in the fear, in the anger, in the misplaced ambition. All of these then take over the primary goal of our spirit, which is to do the Work of this God.
Notice, in writing of this, I am nowhere stating that social structures do not help form us, and that we should never be affected by the actions and words of those around us. Of course we are affected, we are part of a social system, a biosphere, and a cosmosphere. We affect everything around us and everything affects us because we are linked and interdependent. Yet in the midst of this, we can gain the perspective of an individual part of this fabric, this body. We can poke our heads up above the trenches we toil in and look to the sky. All of a sudden, there exists the possibility of expansion, and some light gets in.
Will we allow ourselves to be open to that light? Or will we make the choice to embroil ourselves in the gossip, or the distraction, or the knuckling under, or the grasping? As always, for me, the reminding factor is the breath that moves in and out of my sacred body. My breath tells me, “Connection is here, always. Every time I move in and out of your lungs I carry particles of everything around you. Can you remember this?” So simple. I breathe, and then God Herself is present in me, and I do remember. This helps me to recall, that, despite my struggles or disappointments, God Herself is present in you, too, and in our coworkers, and our compatriots. The only distance is the one that we create inside our heads and in our hearts.
Today, once again, I choose to bring myself back together, and to look upon my brothers and sisters with kindness, even when I feel frustrated by their actions. I have to remember that I do not know their intentions. I can observe myself and my reactions, and then I return to my own work, because that is the only thing I can do. Frankly, that is quite a lot.