As a first-time, soon-to-be grandmother, I am becoming more acutely aware of my world. I ponder what can or will likely touch the life of this precious little Life that is making his way to us. In that query, I am filled with the sense of a great and joyous expectation… and an underlying, nagging feeling that all is not right in the world that awaits.
There was a time when my thoughts never drifted to the physical world in which I was unfolding my youth. It was just an unspoken promise that spring would follow winter; and summer would unfold itself into fall. So true was this unexpressed promise that we could almost time the transitions to the day. As temperatures changed, so did our wardrobes…. anticipating the joys of adding or removing layers, as the world around me might demand. Fast-forward to today and I am noticing that four seasons are quickly collapsing into two – and even then, weather wilding is happening faster and more frequently. Now, in one 24-hour period, we can easily have significant variances in temperatures and in the way that water and wind present. I don’t ever remember a time when hail would fall in June, let alone hail the size of golfballs.
As I consider the arrival of my precious grandson, I ponder what promises I might offer him; what slices of ‘reality’ I might know, without trepidation or agitation, and be able to offer him, in the good faith that I will be able to deliver on those promises.
I can no longer promise him that spring will follow winter. Nor can I promise him that summer will be a time of consistently hot, clear and glorious days! Unlike in my time, his is not likely to be offered a predictable context within which he can unfold, attending to other and more meaningful things than what rolls by outside his window.
I cannot promise him an easy trip to Hawaii, in anticipation of stepping foot on the lands of Paradise…. trade winds making the climate delightful as they break up the thick veil of heat and make way for an easy breath and comfortable movement.
Sometimes, I wonder if I will even be able to promise him that the sun will always arrive in the morning; an invitation to the start of a new day, each embedded with promises of its own.
So unstable and uncertain has our biosphere become, I have no certainty about what external world awaits him. But one thing I know for sure: I can promise him… without hesitation and without doubt… a powerful journey of discovery through his internal world, in a way that will shape all else.
I can promise him that he will be surrounded by love, rooted in deep gratitude that he has chosen to be here, at this time, with us. As I watch his parents become who they must to make way for another Life to intertwine with their own, I am moved by their excitement, their commitment and the sense of the Sacred that they know has already entered their lives.
I can promise him that he will know much joy, laughter and fun! Beyond the constraints of what is required to ensure his safety, he will also know the great joy of pressing a boundary and discovering his own competence. He will know the elation that comes with allowing his curiosity to take the lead, as he encounters and moves through/beyond the unfamiliar that will fill his world.
I can promise him that we will do all in our power to keep him safe and, perhaps more potent, help him discover how to do that for himself. How to trust his inner cues…. follow his instincts…. and give credence to an inner truth that may be in conflict with what is coming at him from outside. He will discover that because he is younger and shorter does not mean that his truth is not welcome…. not important… or not valued.
I can promise him that we will be there. In a collective of awake, aware and engaged parents, family and friends, he will always have someone within reach. Those of us who are already here know well that it takes a village…not just to raise a child but to live a life where potential is embraced and its attending risks are shared. His will be a world that opens to other than what is already in it; a world that welcomes, mindfully, the arrival of the as-yet undiscovered.
I can promise him that he will be profoundly, deeply, unwaveringly and joyously loved! No question will be dismissed as stupid, irrelevant or undesirable. No challenge to ‘authority’ will be met with force. No hand will be laid upon him in an act of aggression or control.
And perhaps, more than any other, I can promise him that we – all of us! – will do our best to rise to the potential of our own greatness. To grow and discover; to contend with our own inner turmoil that we may not spew it over him. To own and take responsibility for our own misgivings…. unresolved fears, resentments and aggressions…. that they not become the cloak he must wear as the price he pays for his existence. In every way, I know I can promise him the magnificence of our imperfection, claimed, as we seek a pathway through our shared and interconnected lives.
My grandson is one of the lucky ones. Although he may be arriving into a physical world – an external world – of massive, undeniable and intensifying change, he is also being welcomed into a collective that knows well the power of an inner world; a collective that is both willing and able to expand the power of that inner world in ways that can shape the outer one. He will discover that his truth – his inner callings and intuitions – will serve him well as he, too, becomes the ‘more’ that his destiny invites. He will arrive already whole, unique and essential to his world. He will arrive already knowing. And he will arrive into a collective that knows this truth, owning that ours is to ensure the Space within which he ‘becomes’ is small and tight enough to protect him… but never small and tight enough to suffocate him. As he grows, so will that Space.
I stand at this place/time with the mixed emotions that can be expected. In one moment, filled with a recognition and its attending grief at a world in massive decline. In the next, filled with the great potential that Life brings to us all. Life really does have a way of continuing its expression.
In many ways, our Little Dude is his own promise of a world worth creating. Perhaps, that is something we might all begin to recognize within ourSelves.
For a pathway through our outer world: Beyond Hope: Letting Go of World in Collapse
For a pathway through our inner world: Decloaking and Living Authentically
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