Speaking in Light, Walking Towards the Dawn
Taking care of the spaces between us
“Wow. Just, wow.” Those were the opening words of my November 20, 2024 Substack post just two weeks after the U.S. presidential elections when many of us were still reeling. Since then, it’s been quite a ride. We’ve climbed some huge hills and we’ve fallen into deep chasms. And in the last week, with one devastating event after another, one cruel assault on humanity, dignity, and democracy after another, I find myself back to “Wow. Just, wow.”
There are moments when I feel incredibly still inside, yet not in a peaceful way. It’s more a feeling of numbness and disbelieving. Yet when I can stay focused, my stillness gets more rooted in deep presence with the realities around us, recognizing the magnitude of possibilities, many of which feel daunting at best, while then finding my way to acceptance of our current state. Not acceptance that says I’m ok with it—I’m not. Way too much of it is horrific. Instead, an acceptance that allows me simply to be present with as much of what’s going on as I’m able to right now, even as I wonder if a time will come when I’ll be able to stay present with more of it. Acceptance that gives me a bit more breathing space so that I’m more able to sense what is being asked of me personally. I can’t yet get a firm grasp on what is being asked of “us.” Yet probably the “us” part will, in some way, be related to the “me” part. Because probably for many if not all of us, there is a “me” role in the “us” response.
Wandering somewhat aimlessly through my quotes file, I came upon these words of Native American elder and Episcopal Bishop Steven Charleston. In his book Ladder to the Light, he wrote:
I will not abandon my belief in the coming dawn just because I dwell in the midnight hour.
—Steven Charleston
I do believe that the dawn will come. I really do. At least eventually. And I do believe that it is not my job, nor is it our job, to make something happen. To control, to force, to manipulate. That would likely bring only short-term results that may or may not, in the end, be satisfying or sustainable. And besides that, there is something bigger going on than we are yet understanding. It’s been stirring beneath the surface for years. And now it refuses to not be seen and heard and felt. And it’s raw and primal. And it’s time now for us to stay with it. Because we have to find our way through it, not around it. Nor can we keep trampling over it. It will not be ignored or destroyed. It can only be healed and transformed.
Einstein said that a problem cannot be solved from the same level of awareness that created it. There is something different, something new, something more evolved that is desperately trying to break through. And we have to go there. A few days ago, Mark Silver of Heart of Business wrote:
Our hearts are an artesian well, where the water wells up from the ground without needing to pump it. But we do have to stop dumping rubble on top of it.
—Mark Silver
I don’t know all of what’s in that water, yet I do believe the artesian well that is the human heart exists. I know it exists. It’s the coming dawn. And there is a healing—a coming to wholeness—a presence in that artesian well. It’s just that right now it can feel like we’re so deep in the midnight hour and in this darkness, that it’s hard to imagine that the sun could ever rise on a completely new day. It’s hard to imagine what healing or wholeness could look like. And somehow, in our disbelief in possibility and in our fighting against what we don’t want, we keep dumping rubble on top of the deep wells of our hearts.
I can’t stop all that is happening right now. None of us can alone. Yet I can hold space for the coming dawn. Not as wishful thinking; rather through how I show up. Through how I look at others, how I see them, how I greet them, how I listen, and how I respond to what I sense. I can be conscious in my choices—all of them. And you, too, can hold space and be intentional about how you look at others and how you see them, how you greet them, how you listen, and how you respond to the moment. You, too—all of us—can be more conscious in our choices.
In her poem, “So Soon”, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer wrote:
If we all spoke in light,
imagine that glow—how
quickly even the darkest spaces
inside and between us
could become welcoming,
warm, imagine, incandescent.—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
I love that image—speaking in light—and the energy it could bring to the spaces between us. I can take better care of those spaces—all of us can take better care. It won’t change everything, yet it just might change something—shift a relationship, open a door, invite a possibility. And in doing so, we take another step towards the dawn.
Invitations
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An apple and an invitation for me, especially for the weeks to come .
Thank you so much Alan.
That's the most challenging part, to stay open and be a light, especially to those we can easily label cruel and undeserving. I remind myself of all the wonder and beauty still available amidst all of this chaos. Thanks for the peptalk.