Trauma

Numb. Slow. Unmotivated. Paralyzed. Uninspired. Despairing. Blank. Grey. Depressed. Sad. These are the words people have been using to describe how they are currently feeling. It seems we are experiencing a collective numbness, the likes of which no one (in my generation at least) has ever experienced.

We are suffering from what I’m going to call PPTSD: Post Pandemic Traumatic Stress Disorder. We might also call it: Post Political Traumatic Stress Disorder because it seems that literally everything has become a political issue over which people are choosing to argue, fight, and divide.

For the past three years (I might argue since 2016), we have been bombarded with one violent event after another: contentious elections, school shootings, insurrections, a pandemic that some decided to make political, the rising cost of housing, inflation, “supply chain issues,” “food shortages,” global warming/climate change, the whole world on fire, war in Ukraine, the threat of violence from China, etc. etc. etc. The bombardment has been CONSTANT. Every minute of every day we are getting pummeled by one threat after another. It’s exhausting.

No human was meant to experience this kind of constant external assault. We were not wired for this. If you happen to be sensitive, an empath and/or healer, the effect has been even more profound. And there is no sign of things lightening up. Until the current system is done with its dying (for what we are really witnessing is the death of an empire and any system built on a similar foundation of fear, power, oppression, and control), the writhing and screaming will continue.

We have a right to feel numb, unmotivated, paralyzed, uninspired, etc. We were not made for this kind of constant, collective trauma – especially one of this nature over which it seems we have no control.

The old world is dying and dying it must. We cannot save it. Neither should we try. That does not mean, however, that there isn’t SOMETHING WE CAN DO! As the current world, rooted in fear, power, oppression, and control is dying, a new world IS being born to take its place:

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

Isaiah 43: 19a

A new world is being born among us, and we are the ones who have been quietly and stealthily building it. It is being born out of our unwillingness to submit to the status quo. It is being born out of our inherent sense of value and refusing to work in conditions or for pay that doesn’t reflect that value. It’s being born out of our love for the planet and our decisions to treat her more lovingly through our buying and growing decisions. It’s being born out of our care and concern for our children, and out of our hope for their future. It’s being born out of the generation of young people paving a new path to self-sufficiency through the creation of innovative business ventures. It’s being born out of those who have untied themselves from societal/religious/institutional conditioning, discovering their own truth, and living from that truth freely.

While we cannot escape the trauma of the dying world in its death throes, perhaps we can find hope in the new world that is being born, and inspiration for how we might begin or deepen our participation in its creation.

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Sisters and brothers,

I write this to you with trembling fingers and an anxious heart. There is a grave disturbance in “The Force,” and if you too are an empath, you are likely feeling it. I pen this today to assure you that you are not alone!

There is much in the world that is contributing to this disturbance:

Increasing tensions with Russia over the Ukraine and other Russian designs.
Increasing tensions between the US with China (over Taiwan) and North Korea.
A raging pandemic.
Stock market and currency volatility
A phenomenon that I am now calling “The Divided States of America.”
The ongoing collapse of an empire.
Catastrophic weather events.
A supply chain crisis (the most current victim being microchips)
Oh….and a little thing called “government corruption: ie: who really runs the world???????

These are just a few examples of what may be causing (or continuing to cause) a Disturbance in the Force, and they all point to one single thing:

Complete and total systemic collapse.

As Jesus said, “a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:24, Matthew 12:25).” Not only are we a kingdom divided. We are a world divided. The disturbances we are experiencing today will continue to heighten as we approach the end of the system of fear, power, oppression, and control that has ruled our world. A system that by its own design is rooted in division and has no future but collapse.

We are witnessing and living through the collapse.

The question for many of us is, “how do we survive the collapse?” Sadly, many have not, and many more will not. Human life is sadly one of the costs of collapse. With the reality of human casualties in mind, the first order of business is to:

tend to our dying and grieve their loss.

Tending to our dying and grieving their loss is and has become a necessary act of self-care. Tending to our grief will become increasingly critical as the world continues to divide in its journey toward collapse:

grieving relationships we might lose
grieving the loss of what we have known as our day-to-day lives
grieving the destruction of our planet
grieving the hardness of heart of some human beings
grieving the loss of the illusion of security, safety, and control
grieving the on-going unveiling of evil and corruption in our world
grieving the loss of the illusion of the “system having our back”

As the world as we have known it collapses, there has been and will continue to be much to grieve.

What support do you have for processing grief?

Speaking of grief, what support do you have for processing the shattering of illusions? A system based in fear, power, oppression, and control, gets that power through deception. Straight up, bold-faced lies about how the system “protects, provides for, and cares about its citizens.” A system built on fear, power, oppression, and control only cares about one thing – ITSELF. As the system continues in its collapse, more and more of these falsehoods will be revealed along with the loathsome and hideous reality of what has been hiding behind the veil.

What support do you have for processing deception and betrayal?

As the veils hiding the reality of the system are torn away, so too will be the veils of those who have benefitted from the system. There is an old saying about “the Father of Lies” ruling the world. Success in a world ruled by lies is best secured by those living the lie – either lying to themselves, or lying to the world about who they are and what they are offering and promising (ie: Joel Olsteen). Those lacking integrity will be made known – some of whom you may have depended on as perceived sources of support.

What support do you have for grieving these lies?

While we cannot save a world in its collapse, we can take measures to support ourselves in navigating and hopefully surviving that collapse.

It begins with paying attention to what is happening around us and being willing to see (and feel) the reality of things.
It is then a matter of self-care – caring for our fear, our grief, our anxiety, our worry, our sorrow, our disappointment, our shock and trauma.
It is about knowing when we have exhausted our own efforts of self-care and when we need to reach out to another for support.

Who are the people on your support team?

I want to close this musing with the reminder that on the other side of every loss, death, disappointment, betrayal, and systemic collapse, is the promise of new life. New life is found after we have taken the time to grieve our losses and heal our wounds, but the seeds of that new life have already been planted. It is my hope and my vision that the new world on the other side of this collapse is kinder, gentler, more peaceful, collaborative and harmonious than the world we know today. I, for one, am looking forward to that new world that I have already begun to build for myself. Which brings me to my final question:

What tools do you have for building your own new world?

Lauri Ann Lumby was born with a deeply introverted (yet social) and contemplative spirit. She is gifted with seeing the truth beyond the illusion and because of this gift, has been called a mystic, a visionary, and a prophet. Lauri is also a catalyst, meaning that those things that are stuck or which need to come to an end begin to move, simply because of her presence. This reality has earned her the designation of “Priestess of Death” – a title she willingly embraces knowing that in every ending is the promise of new life.