Creating a New World

Unable to Make Plans

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

The most surreal experience I have had (am having) in my life is living through the collapse of an empire. In case you haven’t noticed:  ROME IS BURNING.  In this case, “Rome” is every single thing in our world that has been built on a foundation of fear, power, and control.  It is all collapsing with the United States seemingly leading the charge.

Times of collapse are both a death and a birth. Old systems and the world as we have known it is falling away while new systems are trying to be born. Collapse is a time of great unrest, and when we remember to look, a time of great hope. Those who have benefitted from the old system cling, and fight, and grieve. Those who have suffered from the system are hoping for something new.

Currently we are living on the shifting sands of the collapse. Nothing makes sense. The truly bizarre and insane seem to hold reign while reason and sanity seem to have left the room. Every moment of every day is an exercise in shock and surprise.  “What the hell is happening,” we wonder.

Living through a collapse is like John Mulaney’s analogy of a “horse loose in the hospital.”  We never know what the horse might do, and we are surprised at the things it is able to do, and dumbfounded by the basic essential human skills that seem to be lacking. While John Mulaney wrote this bit about Donald Trump, it isn’t just about him. It is truly about the entire system – that which serves the needs of the very wealthy while leaving everyone else behind.

Normal people are anxious, angry, and afraid. We have a right to be. What about our rights? What about our needs? What about the economy and the cost of housing? What about education and healthcare? What are we to do and how are we to prepare for the possible worst?

The answer is:  WE CAN’T!  A system in collapse, by definition, is unpredictable, volatile, and potentially violent (think earthquake or hurricane). A collapsing system touches on every single thing to which we have become accustomed. On the other side of the collapse, likely nothing will look the same. We don’t even know what our currency for exchange will be, our sources of energy, our models of education and healthcare, banking, commerce, entertainment, religion, etc. etc. etc.  EVERY SINGLE SYSTEM will fall and be rebuilt – but into what we do not yet know. In truth – the new world will not be mine (Gen X) to build. Neither will it likely be built by Millennials. Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and those yet to come will be awarded this task – but not until the current has painfully and finally come to an end.

In the meantime – we wait. We watch. We bear witness. We keep ourselves and our loved ones safe. We do what we need to care for ourselves. We get out of the way of the collapsing system and we let it fall.

And we live radically IN THE PRESENT MOMENT, for there is nothing for which we can plan. We meet each moment as it comes to us. We respond accordingly. And for the love of all things, we refrain from the normal human reactions to fear: clinging to the need to control. We cannot control the collapse. Neither can we control what will follow. Instead, we live for this present moment and nothing more. Only by doing so will we survive the ebb and flow of the collapse  – not by the skin of our teeth – but in the peaceful state of acceptance by surrendering to what is.

While always and in every moment being and choosing Love.

The Book of Revelation as a Guide to Inner Peace

Victory of the Holy Bride shatters over 2000 years of patriarchal dogma that cast the Book of Revelation in the role of doomsday prophecy and presents to you the tools for discovering a profoundly simple truth that is the key to inner peace and the formula through which we can build a whole new world – one rooted in peace, understanding, wisdom, harmony and love.

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Being Love in a Divided World

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

We live in a divided world. Divided by gender, sexual orientation, race, nationality, religion, and politics – to name a few. When viewed as sacred differences that make each of us uniquely special, these differences serve us. When treated as something to be judged or feared, these divisions cause us harm, leading to prejudice, hatred, violence, and war.

Our differences are meant to be our gifts, instead humanity has turned them into the cause of hate. Hatred, however, is a choice. We can continue to choose hate, which leads to the devolution of humanity, and our eventual extinction; or we can choose Love and be witness to and participants in the grand evolution of human consciousness which would lead to all kinds of miracles – the likes of which we can hardly begin to imagine.

I choose Love.

Choosing Love, however, is no simple task. In fact, it has taken me a lifetime to even come close to being the Love that I truly want to be in the world. My version of Being Love is by no means perfect. There are people I continue to despise. There are experiences and situations that hurl me into a rage. There are times I want to say or do the unkind thing. I’m still human after all.  I don’t, however, act on the surface feelings of my unhealed wounds, neither do I purposefully cause harm. Choosing Love is a moment by moment task.

Choosing Love is also a lifetime process. This process begins by learning to identify every obstacle in front of, and within us, to love. Then we are invited to enter into the arduous task of clearing those obstacles. Sometimes these obstacles are the result of human conditioning – the ways in which we were taught to be and act in our family systems, our communities, our culture, our society, our world. Sometimes identifying our conditioning is simple and the choice to move past that conditioning is easy. Other times, it can be quite complicated as our conditioning is often subtle, even unconscious.

Beyond conditioning, the obstacles to love are all the places within us where we have been wounded. These wounds include times were felt betrayed, where our needs were ignored or denied, where we were criticized or condemned for who we are, where we felt unloved or were treated in non-loving ways. These wounds include past abuse, rejection, and times our love was met with hate. These unhealed wounds are, in turn, the cause of our own non-loving behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs.

Division is a choice.  So too is Love. Choosing Love begins by choosing Love for ourselves, and doing to the deep and challenging work of healing the inner obstacles to knowing and being that Love. As we transform ourselves, we are more free to be Love and being that Love plants the seeds of inspiration for others to do the same. When we are faced with Division, Choose Love. When challenged by hate, choose Love. When our unhealed wounds are triggered by the unhealed wounds of another, choose the loving thing and heal our wounds.

As our world appears to be increasingly divided, we can choose to participate in that division, or we can choose to Be Love.

I choose Love.

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The Future I Envision

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 1 Comment

I’m going to start this off by acknowledging that I am not from here!  Geographically this has always been true. I was born in California, but I wasn’t from there. We moved a lot in my childhood, and I continued that in my adult life. No matter where I’ve been, I’ve been an outsider, an interloper, an alien.

The same is true as it relates to the human race. I’m not human. I can’t possibly be because I don’t do or experience things the way so-called normal people do. I cannot tolerate much of what humanity seems to be ok with. I see no place for division, cruelty, selfishness, or greed. I see no reason for human beings to not cooperate with each other in making sure that all humans are fed, housed, clothed, healthy, and safe. And yet, for all of history humans have been fighting over land, food, resources, beliefs, whose God is the real God, etc. etc. etc. I don’t get it.

I’m not from here. As a result, I have a very different perspective on how life can and (in my mind) should be. It’s the reality that I know in the deepest parts of my soul. Perhaps where I come from, people know how to get along. I know it’s possible because perhaps I’ve lived it. It is the potential I see for humanity, if only they would be willing to try.

Creating a different kind of world, however, means the end of what humanity has known. This was what I saw in the prophetic dream I had at five years old. I saw the end of the world (as humanity has known it), along with necessary tools for bringing humanity around.

The tools were simple: honesty, integrity, cooperation, and collaboration. To create a new world from the one that is currently destroying itself, there is no room for division. Human beings must come together, no longer for their own selfish needs or desires, but for the sake of the good of the all. Nothing short of this will suffice.

To borrow from John Lennon, for humans to live in peace, we can no longer separate by religion, nation, gender, or race. We must eliminate caste. We must become equal while celebrating our uniqueness. Those who have must share with those unable to provide for themselves. We must make better use of our resources and become stewards, and not destroyers, of the earth. We must become one body with many parts working together so that all might not only survive, but thrive. We must seek out and harness each other’s unique gifts, nurturing and cultivating them for the benefit of the all. We must see our fellow humans as ourselves and treat them with the care and respect we want others to offer to us.

While many will argue with me that humans have always been as humans are. Perhaps, but I believe that humans are capable of being and doing so much better. Some will suggest that nothing has ever changed and therefore never will. I disagree. Throughout human history there have been instances of humans living in cooperation and peace. This reality lives in humanity’s collective memory if they would only take the time to seek it out.

Would a world such as this require loss. Most definitely. The loss, however, will only be that which has been made out of fear. Systems that hold humanity imprisoned will need to be dismantled. Some might not like what they will be forced to let go and they will resist. By that time, however, there may not be much left to hang on too. The system is collapsing whether humanity sees it or wants it. The system is a divided house that cannot stand and with each encroaching year, humanity is bearing witness to the collapse. Grief being what it is, many may remain in denial, but the fact remains.

The world as humanity has known it is collapsing and a new world is trying to be born. The young people know this and feel it in every fiber of their being. New breeds of humans are being born to hasten the collapse and are at the ready to build something new in its place. The new world that is wanting to be born is made of Love, not fear. It is the world I know and the world I know humanity is capable of building for itself.

May it be so.

Reaching Across the Divide

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 3 Comments

This morning, I can finally breathe after an intense week of US presidential elections, learning the results and processing those results. For some it has been a week of victory, for others shock, trauma, and grief. For all of us, we are now faced with a decision about how to move forward. Do we move forward divided, or do we move forward with love?

I choose love.

That is not to say that I am not concerned. I am concerned – especially for the safety of the vulnerable among us, perhaps even for our own safety. I also have worries about services upon which I depend being taken away. I worry about the safety of women, especially as it relates to reproductive care. I worry about my gay and trans friends. For the latter worries especially, I say, I am an ally, an advocate, and a safe place.

As those whose candidate lost processed their grief, I too have been grieving. I’ve experienced all faces of that grief – shock, denial, bargaining, anger, depression and sorrow. Thursday I couldn’t stop crying. I allowed myself space to grieve while knowing that I would survive this too.

I’ve survived a lot and always at my darkest hour, something has stepped in that gives me hope and a reason to move on.

Yesterday, that “something” came in the form of an honest and intimate discussion with a dear friend who (as it turns out) voted differently than I. We had an open and non-judgmental question and answer conversation where we each shared why we chose the way we did. I learned a lot.  I believe they did too. Through this conversation, I was able to see where “my” party failed and where “their” candidate succeeded. I could see why “my” candidate wasn’t everyone’s choice. I was also reminded of the fact that political campaigns have very little, if anything, to do with policy. “My” candidate has a very different background from “their” candidate – who is a born salesman. Salespeople purposefully speak to the perceived needs and wants of those they want to win over. They don’t always mean what they say. In the end it’s a “I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” what is actually done – if anything.

Some may accuse me of being naïve. Perhaps I am. But more than anything, I refuse to participate in the ongoing force of division. I will not, as some Facebook posts have suggested, block friends or family who voted differently than I, simply because of their vote. I know many whose values are best reflected in traditional conservative politics. They cast their vote based on what is important to them. Many have only one or two policy points that secured their vote. Upon speaking with my friend, I shared their values on those points, and they shared with me the values that secured my vote. The people I love who voted for “the other” candidate are good people who are loving, kind, and generous. Why would I block them simply because they voted differently than I?

Division is the work of the enemy. Division is how we are conquered. Division causes us to believe each other is the enemy, instead of that which is seeking to conquer us.

Throughout this presidential campaign, division has been used as a weapon to distract us from the true enemy. The enemy is not my friends and loved ones who chose a different candidate. The enemy is that which causes us to turn our backs on our fellow human beings. The enemy is that which closes our ears to another’s needs. The enemy is that which insists we are right and “they” are wrong. The enemy is that which prevents us seeing the struggle of others and how that struggle might influence their political decisions. The enemy is a system that pits one side against the other and which seeks to control us through intimidation and fear. The enemy is a system that creates “haves” and “have nots.”

The enemy is the system. And the reality is that both parties are part of that system. Neither, in the end, will accomplish the work we all truly desire – which is a dismantling of the system – because they all depend upon it and thrive within it.

The system will prevail as long as we, the American people, are divided. If we truly want change in our world, we have to defy the system and its weapon of division. We need to reach across the chasm of the perceived divide and welcome each other to the table. We need to listen – deeply – to each other’s pain. We need to ask the difficult questions and listen to understand. We need to be the love for each other that we all so desperately need.

Instead of hate, we need to BE LOVE. Instead of cultivating division, we need to seek unity.

Instead of blocking or unfriending those who voted differently, we would benefit from asking why. We might find that we have much more in common than the differences we perceive.

At the end of the day, I believe we all (most of us anyway) want the same things – food on our table, a roof over our heads, clothing on our backs, meaningful work, to feel healthy and safe, and to know that we are loved. If I can do nothing else, at least I can be love, knowing that that alone can change another person’s life – maybe even my own.

A Time of Reckoning

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

While the United States is not the center of the universe, it does act like it. And, what is unfolding in the United States as we approach the presidential election, is a microcosmic reflection of the macrocosm. As I’m not a political analyst, I can only speak of this unfolding through the eyes of what I see and the sensations of what I feel. It’s not good, and the whole world seems to be responding as the evils of our world and humanity’s participation in these evils come to a head. It’s not good.

Something wicked this way comes.

Actually, the wicked is already upon us. Now, it’s up to humanity to decide if we will continue to participate in evil or make a change for the good.

Evil, in this case, is anything and everything rooted in fear: bigotry, prejudice, racism, sexism, genderism, greed, gluttony, lust for power, vengeance, envy, sloth, and pride. Evil is anything that profits from division and seeks only to separate. Evil is anywhere and everywhere in humanity’s addiction to possession and accumulation at any cost. Evil destroys the environment and our access to clean air, water, and healthy food for the sake of money or power. Evil creates enemies out of our fellow human beings simply because they are perceived as different or undeserving in some way. Evil separates human beings into tribe, nation, nationality, political party, race, gender, and religion instead of recognizing we are of one human race.

This evil is present and the powers that be are harnessing this evil for their own sake – forcing humanity to make a choice. Evil desires for us to choose evil, to participate in separation, to create enemies, and to harbor hatred toward our fellow human beings. Our survival depends on us making another choice.

This is the moment of humanity’s reckoning. Do we choose the evil that evil wants us to choose and further our own destruction, or do we choose love instead, and just maybe live to see another day?

As St. Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1Cor 13: 4-8a)

Humanity stands at a crossroads and we are being given the opportunity to choose. What will be humanity’s choice – the weapons of evil or the forces of Love? The path of our own destruction or the path of our salvation/survival? What do you choose?

She Abides

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Several years ago, my youngest sister gifted me with a large wall-handing made of weathered wood and carved with a feather and the word abide. I had a sense of what abide meant, but I wanted to be sure, so I looked up the meaning. Merriam-Webster provided me with several options:

a: to bear patiently : tolerate

b: to endure without yielding : withstand

c: to wait for : await

Today, I find myself again reflecting on the word abide and it perfectly describes where I find myself at this stage of my personal journey, especially in relationship to the outside world.

Today, I abide. I sit in quiet observation of the unfolding of humanity’s journey – knowing there is nothing I can do to change that which I find intolerable – things like hatred, division, and all the various isms. I endure the horrors I watch unfolding while refusing to yield my inner peace to things outside of my control and turning to my inner practice when the violence and hatred becomes too much for my sensitive nature.  I wait in hope that this time, humanity will get it right, while knowing they may not, and preparing myself for the worst.

Being able to abide requires a certain measure of inner strength and wisdom. Wisdom wrought through years of seeking and failing to facilitate change in the tide of humanity’s fate. Strength gained through the multitude of rejections I have faced along the way. Humanity doesn’t care much for change-makers. The institutions who benefit from the status quo, welcome change-makers even less.

Abiding doesn’t mean I’m giving up my visionary gifts or the impulse to support the healing and transformation of humanity. Abiding simply recognizes that now may not be the time.

So, I wait. I wait and watch. I hold on to hope without clinging to expectations. I have stepped aside, providing space in which humanity can walk its journey without interference or distractions. I abide in the contentment and peace I have so diligently cultivated awaiting the moment my gifts might be welcome, knowing they may never be. I abide in the reminder that the only one I can save is myself while providing an example that others may one day choose for themselves – and that the choice is up to them.

Going to Ground

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

Monday morning, I posted my ballot for the United States’ 2024 presidential election. As I handed my ballot to the postal worker, I heard, as a distinct command:

“Your work is done here.”

Indeed. It feels as such. I have spent the past almost sixty years sowing seeds of love, speaking truth to power, and shining a light on all that is not of love in our world. Whether I wanted to or not, I have been a beacon of light – revealing truth and unveiling falsehood. Whether by my words, my actions, or simply my presence, I have been like an acupuncture needle, inserting love so that what is not of love might be released from our world. My presence has been welcome by many and a bane to some – especially to those who are either living a lie, or who benefit from a system rooted in fear, power, and control.

I say none of this from a place of vanity or pride. Being love in a world that wants to hate is a thankless and difficult job. Rejection comes aplenty and in a capitalistic world – certain financial struggle. When part of your mission (I didn’t ask for this!) is to be a catalyst for the collapse of systems sustained by greed, hatred, division, power, etc., you are woefully unable to live in or by the rule of said-systems. The vehicles of deception and manipulation through which wealth is amassed are not available to me – I couldn’t deceive or manipulate if I tried – and I wouldn’t want to.

But here I’ve been dutifully showing up day after day after day for ALL OF IT – casting seeds of love – all while watching humanity not learn a single thing. If anything, the divide has become greater and the violence, greed, and hatred more acute. Humanity has lost its compassion (if it ever had any).  Rather, those lacking in compassion have grown louder and more apparent while those of us who have been trying to sow compassion have grown weary.

We’ve done all we can. Now, humanity has to decide – will it choose compassion and love or will it continue to choose division and fear?

As of today, humanity has not made its choice. But I have. I choose love and will continue to choose love. I’ve done all I can to plant those seeds and to be a presence through which love is made real in our world. Especially as it relates to the current decisions upon which rests humanity’s fate – I’ve done all I can do.

I have no more words to offer that might encourage one to make the choice for love instead of fear. As such, I’m going to ground. As the world works out its fate, I will be safely tucked away in a sanctuary of my own making. One of three-foot thick earthen walls invisible and impenetrable to those who have not been invited. To those who have, the coffee is always on, I have snuggle blankets aplenty, and a comfortable place for you to rest your weary soul. Perhaps after humanity has decided its fate, the world will welcome our presence and yearn to hear our wisdom and we will rise again like the seventeen-year cicada ready to share our songs of love with the world. In the meantime, we tuck ourselves safely away as we wait and watch.

What Privilege Taught Me to Believe

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 1 Comment

and how those beliefs were undone

I didn’t grow up wealthy, but I did grow up privileged. I was born white to middle class parents, raised in a predominantly white third-generation neighborhood of white-collar professionals and tradesmen. In most of the homes around us, the men worked, and the mothers stayed home. The children were feral and unsupervised, only because everyone believed we were safe. We had a roof over our head, three square homecooked meals a day, new clothing (unless you were a younger sibling), and a basement full of toys. We enjoyed piano and dance lessons. Our parents sent us to private school.

Life was good and in that state of perceived safety and abundance, we believed in the promise of “The American Dream” – a good education and hard work was the path to success and the harder you worked, the more successful you would become. We were also taught that welfare was for lazy people and we should judge them and treat them accordingly. There was a clear dividing line between us (hard workers) and them.  And a not-so-subtle dividing line between us (white people) and them (people of color).

All of this happened along side a devout Catholic upbringing. God was the old man in the sky. We were undeserving of God’s love. God’s love had to be earned and could be taken away. And abortion was a mortal sin. We were even invited to join the school’s “Pro-Life” club from whom we would get a bright shiny silver bracelet marking us as “soldiers of Christ” in the war against abortion (this was all on the heels of Roe vs. Wade). As a young adult, I volunteered at a pro-life “clinic” for women facing unexpected pregnancies.

In addition to all of this: we were raised Republican. We were told Republicans were good and were looking out for the good of the people and that Democrats were communists – and that was bad! I remember knock down drag ‘em out fights between certain family members who (gasp) belonged on different ends of the political spectrum. The Democrats were good people, but clearly delusional – at least that’s what we were led to believe.

In college (YES!  I attended university, which was mostly paid for by my parents – another privilege), I joined a sorority (more privilege), continued attending mass and attended adult faith formation classes. I voted for Ronald Reagan, and later, for George H. W. Bush.

Other than being a brunette, I was the stereotypical white girl of privilege.

But then, life happened.

My previous stance on abortion was the first thing to go. In the volunteer position, I witnessed first-hand the violent tactics often used by the Pro-life movement in dissuading women from seeking an abortion. There was no compassion shown, only judgment, accompanied by violent and graphic images of late-term abortions. There was a reason I wasn’t allowed into the “counseling” room at the clinic. Additionally, with over 40% of pregnancies being unplanned, I was bound to eventually meet a young woman, likely a friend, who would have to face a sometimes-difficult choice. As statistics would have it – I did – come to know of several friends who at one time had to face an unplanned pregnancy. Further, I knew of several who had no choice but to seek the termination of the pregnancy for medical issues related to either the baby, or their own survival. Abortion, it turned out, wasn’t so black and white.  How could I judge a woman (or a couple) who was having to face the most difficult decision of their life – one that would stay with them their whole life. The decision to terminate a pregnancy (no matter what the circumstances) is a wound that does not heal.  It changes, but the pain will always be there on some level. Compassion told me to put myself in the others’ shoes and support them through a very difficult decision. And to understand that at any point, I could find myself in a similar position forced to make a similar difficult choice.

The second thing that went was my belief in the American Dream. The first of this leaving happened in my own professional journey. Sheepskin in hand, I went out looking for work. And this is a FACT – not once in my 40 years of being in the post-college workforce have I made more than $26,000 per year.  NEVER.  Not once.  This was not for lack of effort, work, skills, or abilities. Now at a ripe almost 60, it is not for lack of education, experience, or expertise. The universe has imposed some sort of invisible ceiling between myself and money – never even surpassing (which was also the big privileged promise) the salary of my father.

Hard work and a college education, as it turns out, is NOT a guaranteed path to wealth.

No matter how much someone else wants to tell you otherwise.

Then I experienced poverty. Thankfully not poverty of the sort that far too many suffer, but I have faced an enduring period of financial struggle – the likes of which has had me utilizing some of those so-called “communist” programs. I have received rental assistance and energy assistance. I qualified for Food Stamps and could have been using the Food Pantry (I chose to use neither, but at a grave consequence to me financially – eventually leading to bankruptcy). I have enjoyed the profound benefits of the Affordable Healthcare Act – in fact, my life depends on it. Finally, I am on an income-based repayment plan for my graduate school student loans (if anyone wants to argue with me about student loan forgiveness, DON’T!!!!!  I will direct you straight to Matt Taibbi and his expose’ on the criminal nature of the student loan industry!!!!!) 

Beyond my own personal experience, I have witnessed hundreds, if not thousands struggling with similar or much worse circumstances. I have seen, through clear eyes, that the so-called “American Dream” is a lie and that there are, indeed, systemic obstacles to Americans realizing that dream. This fact of reality breaks my heart and inspires me to share my own journey beyond the lies that come with privilege.

As it relates to Catholicism.  This may be the biggest irony of them all. I have always been a woman of faith (whatever that means). I was a devout Catholic until the local Church made it clear I was no longer welcome. Jesus is my teacher and Mary Magdalene has become a guide. I sometimes pray the rosary and turn to Michael the Archangel in times of anxiety. I cherish my Catholic upbringing – for good and bad – but mostly, for what I learned about social justice:

Jesus calls us to love.  Period. And he was quite clear about what love looked like:

  • Judge not lest ye be judged.
  • Love your neighbor as yourself.
  • Everyone is your neighbor.
  • Welcome immigrants and foreigners.
  • Feed the hungry.
  • Set prisoners and captives free.
  • Clothe the naked.
  • Heal the sick.
  • Give sight to the blind.
  • Welcome “the other” to your table.
  • If someone asks for your cloak, give them your shirt as well.
  • Love one another.  Period.

As it turns out, it is my faith that has called me to depart from the politics in which I was once immersed and toward a political stance that supports the needs of the all. As my own life has shown me, even privilege does not guarantee that life will provide us with what we need. It has also shown me that by our own efforts, our own needs may not necessarily be met. There’s a little story in scripture that seems to provide a solution to this quandary:

All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2: 44-45)

If a sharing among the common good was good enough for Jesus and his earliest disciples, then it’s good enough for me. This is what love has taught me.

Peace is an Act of Rebellion

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

We live in a world that is driven by fear and thrives on chaos. Conflict and violence have become so much a part of life that entire economies are based on the lucrative business of war. Entire family systems have been defined by the abuse they inflict and then inhabit. The relationship paradigms we have been sold are rooted in codependency and hierarchical control. Our educational systems have lost their focus on learning and are now directed toward a definition of success that is rooted in a competition to acquire the most wealth, power, and fame. Careers are no longer centered in the search for meaningful and fulfilling work which helps to provide what a society needs to survive and thrive, but are instead geared toward making billionaires richer.

Fear, chaos, conflict, competition, violence, and abuse have become so much a part of our lives that we have come to believe that all of this is not only normal, but healthy. We shrug our shoulders and walk away when anyone dare question this status quo. “It is what it is,” we hear people say. Or things like: “it’s just how things are done, it’s what we’ve always known, I have to make a living…” And if anyone dare to offer another possibility – a life, for example, that might be peaceful, gentle, and full of ease, that person becomes a pariah – accused of being a “commie” or just plain insane.

Chaos, conflict, competition, and violence are a choice. It is one the vast majority of humanity has been making for five thousand years or more. But in the same way that conflict is a choice, so too is peace. Contrary to popular belief based on centuries of conditioning, we have the power to choose peace over conflict, collaboration over competition, ease over chaos, and gentleness over violence. But more often we don’t.  And we have to ask ourselves why.

The answer is simple. Choosing peace is an act of rebellion. When we choose peace, we are putting every single system based on fear, power, and control in question. When we choose ease, we are disturbing the status quo. When we disturb the status quo, we become a threat to those who benefit from a system based in fear, power, and control. And when we choose to be gentle, we are challenging all those who have come to belief conflict and competition are not only normal, but necessary.

Choosing peace strikes terror in the hearts of those who either benefit from fear, power, and control, or who believe that nothing else could possibly be true.

As a culture/species, we are addicted to conflict and chaos. For many, the idea of peace threatens this addiction. Because of their addiction, they seek more and more of what gives them a charge. Perhaps they know nothing other than trauma, so to them this feels normal. Maybe they are fueled by anger and resentment. Giving someone permission to choose peace threatens the drug to which they have become accustomed.

Choosing peace is an act of rebellion because of all that is threatened by this choice. AND, there is a way for humanity to choose peace, but it first has to recognize its addiction to violence (physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual violence), and take the critical steps in healing that violence. As that violence becomes healed, and the charge of addiction overcome, it is there that humanity will find its peace. In finding that peace, humanity will wonder, “What the heck was wrong with me that I would choose violence over this?” Choosing peace then becomes the thing that is most valued and what humanity would choose again and again over the violence it has previously come to know.

Choosing peace is an act of rebellion, and it begins with a dream. Dream with me!

Calling All Warriors

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

As the RNC pulls out of Milwaukee, and the DNC moves toward penetrating Chicago, (puns intended), we find ourselves at a dangerous crossroads – all roads leading toward disaster.  At this crossroads we have an opportunity to make a deal with the devil, or find ourselves another way through this mess.

Indeed, we are staring the death of the republic in the face. Horrible to look at and yet we cannot look away!  This is an ending we have sadly brought upon ourselves.

As with the fall of Rome, we are facing an inevitable death – and die it will.  But unlike the Romans, we are being given a choice in the empire’s end.  We can allow ourselves to be destroyed by it – or rise above (or as I prefer – to burrow beneath).

Whether you are a “rise above” or a “burrow beneath” person, the formula is the same:

Be witness.

Hold center.

Be a tower/beacon of light (or darkness whatever the case may be).

Anchor love.

As a shadow worker, my job is to go to ground – to enter fully into the darkness that it may be transformed – darkness made of humanity’s fears and unhealed wounds.  Like a cicada, I dive deep into the detritus of humanity’s pain, wriggling and writhing until the pain has been released.  This I do safely in the shelter of my sanctuary that I call home.

Equally called to be a light bringer, I go about my day to day endeavors simply being me.  I have experienced that in my presence, either shadows are revealed, or others become more aware of their light.  Whatever the effects – the recoiling rejection brought forth by shadow’s emergence, or the welcome of light’s/love’s reflection – I’ve learned to hold it all.

Nothing is personal.

If any of this rambling speaks to you – you are one of the warriors to whom I’ve addressed this message. We’ve been given a difficult call – to witness to the end of the world (as we’ve known it), BUT we’ve also been given the wisdom, knowledge, and tools to endure.  Our task is this:

Endure and Survive.

Love-speed sisters and brothers, we are in this together.  Even if solitary – we are never alone!

Be witness.

Hold center.

Be a tower/beacon of light.

Anchor love.

It is all we came here to do.

With deep gratitude and love,

Lauri

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