worry

I spent yesterday with two of my besties. Over coffee, lunch, and a long walk, we chatted about each other’s lives, as friends will do. The greater part of the conversation, however, was around the events that are currently playing out in our world. Most pointedly, the transfer of power in American governance. The unanimous feelings were anxiety mixed with dread – not, as one might expect because of the individual coming into power – but because one can never know exactly what this individual might actually do. Words might say one thing. Actions might prove otherwise.

We are worried and anxious. Not just because of the transfer of power, but because of all that is unfolding at the hands of the human species. We are standing at a crossroads as a species and if you’re not anxious then you are either part of the problem, or not paying attention.

Never, it seems, have we been bombarded by so much chaos, uncertainty, anxiety, and dread. Nothing is as it once was. Once-treasured institutions are collapsing. The world is either at-war or burning. We’ve been made to see the true corruption and evils hiding behind the masks of those individuals and institutions we once held as sacred.

For many, this constant bombardment has left us feeling emotionally and mentally as if we have suffered through a war. For those who are currently suffering through war, the impact is far greater.

The world as we have known it IS COLLAPSING, and we are being forced to bear witness to the collapse. We are made to experience the chaos and fear of collapse. The collapsing is ongoing and relentless, and we are left wondering, “what if any of this will remain?”

Perhaps nothing. Maybe not even ourselves. The reality of this brings us face to face with our own mortality and the possibility of death.

We are all suffering through the dying of what we have known. BUT, you need not do this journey alone. I am here – with you and for you. For sixty years I have been cultivating the resources and tools to restore myself to peace and resolve when the anxieties of the world become too great. If I can do this for myself, I can do this for you. Whether you are in need of a listening ear, or tools that you can use yourself to make it through this dying, I am here for you.

All you need to do is reach out. If you have my cell number, text me. Otherwise, my email is lauri@lauriannlumby.com. I am here as a source of support. We can meet one-on-one in my home, over the phone or via ZOOM. Wherever and however you are, DO NOT weather this journey alone. You have support. I am here with and for you.

With love,

Lauri

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.

It cannot be ruled by interfering

(Tao Te Ching Verse 48)

The wildfires in California.
The genocide in Sudan.
The destruction of Gaza and Syria
The war in Ukraine
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene

These are just a few of the devastatingly destructive experiences that are in the forefront of our minds – all in some way brought about by the actions of human beings. We pray for those affected. We hold them in our thoughts. We wish, and hope, and plead for things to change so that the world might live in peace and humans might be safe from other people’s actions.

When we have the resources and the opportunity and it is within our power to do so, we take action – like my friends with The Beacon Network who have been boots on the ground providing help and support to those areas impacted by Hurricane Helene. Most of the time, and in most cases, however, there is literally nothing we can do. All we can do is stand back and watch these events unfold and perhaps grieve for those affected and hope these devastating experiences never come our way.

Grieving, and hoping, however, do nothing to ease the anxiety we feel over the suffering of others. Whether our anxiety is fear over the possibility that these kinds of events might find their way to us, or empathetic concern for those harmed, the impact is the same. We experience fear, unrest, worry, concern, and maybe even panic. In an attempt to calm our anxiety, we ruminate about all the ways we might protect ourselves from such disasters, how we might help those who have been harmed, we fixate on the terror that those who are facing these horrific events might be feeling. Again, none of this calms our anxiety. In fact, it likely makes it worse.

Fixating on the devastation others are experiencing or creating for themselves helps no one – lease of all ourselves, most of all those affected. All this misplaced worry does is cause us harm and prevents us from being present to what is around us and within our field of influence or control.

We cannot fix it. We cannot solve it. We could have done nothing to prevent it. We cannot save humanity from the devastation brought about by their own actions. As is true each and every day, the only one we can truly save is ourselves – and even that is debatable (when it is our time, it is our time, period!).

Soooooooooo, what do we do when humanity is destroying itself and the world along with them? We get out of the way.

I know! I know! I can hear the collective gasp, “How can we just stand back and watch the world go up in flame?”

This is where the wisdom of the ancients provides us some guidance and support:

From Ecclesiastes (3: 1-8):

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
    a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
    a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
    a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
    a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
    a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

From Jesus (MT 6: 25-27):

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^?

From HH the Dalai Lama:

“If a problem can be solved, there is no use worrying about it. If it can’t be solved, worrying will do no good.”

From the Quran (Surah Al-Imran Ayat 173):

“Sufficient for us is Allah, and [He is] the best Disposer of affairs.”

From the Tao Te Ching (vs 48):

In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.

Less and less is done

Until non-action is achieved.

When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.

The world is ruled by letting things take their course.

It cannot be ruled by interfering.

In short, the wisdom teachers know through their own personal experience that the closer one draws to Source (God, Tao, Presence, Truth, Love, etc.), the more we are able to meet the reality of the human experience from a place of equanimity. We are able to ride the joy, the sorrow, the celebration, and tragedy without getting caught up in any of it. In the face of tragedy, especially, we experience our initial human and empathetic reaction (anxiety, fear, worry), but we are then able to walk ourselves back and see the tragedy through the wider lens of the human experience and recognize that this too serves a higher purpose. Maybe the tragedy begins to wake people up. Perhaps it calls them into action. Maybe it invites them to make a change in their own life. Or quite possibly, they see it as something over which they have no influence or control, so they are able to let it go and experience the restoration of peace.

As human beings, survival is our first instinct, so it is natural to feel anxiety or worry in the face of devastation. Equally is it natural for our instinctual response to drive us to seek out ways to keep ourselves safe. It is wisdom, however, that allows us to move beyond those initial instinctual reactions and ask ourselves over what we actually have influence or control. If nothing, then the invitation is to let it go, trusting the natural unfolding of the human experience while turning back to ourselves which in truth is the only place we can actually know peace.

Into the Wilderness provides a process and protocol to support you in cultivating inner peace, non-attachment, and to heal from the conditioning that drives us to try to interfere in those things that are actually outside of our control.

Online course
At your own pace
Pay what you are able.

Learn more HERE.

Lauri Ann Lumby

Monastic Living in the Modern World

Here: With and For You

The Practice of Non-Interference