The other day I cheered you up, demonstrating that we're all in this together by writing about being glum. As suspected, it didn't last for too long and I think by later on that day I'd already started working on the following day's Daily Reminder.
These things happen. I don't tend to take them too seriously, because if I do, they have a habit of sticking around for longer!
🤷🏻♂️
As always with these low states of consciousness, the first thing a mind does is observes it and asks, Why?!
And then goes to great lengths to deliver a long list of reasons why we're in a low mood, created from all the data it's collected in the past, right up to just moments ago.
So. Many. Reasons.
(But usually from its list of greatest hits, eh? i.e. your biggest fears 👹)
I don't tend to take those too seriously either, because it's like whack-a-mole: reason one away, and another'll just pop up in its place.
But… we do live in a world of form, and lest we slip into spiritual bypass, it's worth honouring those feelings and exploring the misery from time to time, and blimey, I hadn't realised how much of The (bad) News I'd been properly taking on board.
Until I read this piece from Caitlin Johnstone, about being well-informed and happy.
In it, she rails against the notion that it’s “hard to find the balance between educating yourself on current events and not making yourself so indescribably sad that you can’t properly function,” by pointing out that the two are not diametrically opposed.
In her words:
“It’s very possible to be both happy and well-informed. We live in an explosively beautiful universe, and getting to experience anything at all is amazing. The fact that our world is plagued by human butchery and degradation does not cancel out the majesty of a bird in the sky, or the ecstasy of the wind upon your skin.”
This is true, and it's so easy to lose sight of when everywhere we turn, the world is burning/drowning/collapsing, innocents are being exploited by those in power, there's oppression and war and we're all going to end up as slaves to our robot overlords, like, next week or something, if you believe what you read on social media.
Really easy.
She goes on:
“Find your happiness in that which cannot be corrupted by this fraudulent dystopia.
Your connections with your loved ones. That’s real and authentic.
The radiance of the natural world. That’s real and authentic.
The crackling aliveness of the senses. That’s real and authentic.
The boundless peace deep down at the heart of your being which reveals itself if you listen closely enough. That’s real and authentic.
“These things can supply endless happiness, even as the world burns, and even as you weep at its burning. Because it is entirely possible to honor the grief and tragedy of this world while also delighting in its beauty.”
And I think for a moment there, I'd lost sight of that a bit. I'd inadvertently let the mind slip into either/or mode, when really it's ‘and’.
I really recommend the whole piece, if you're feeling a bit out of kilter at the moment. Because there's so much wrong … and so much to celebrate.
Dave Gahan said it best:
“Sometimes I forget
All I will regret
When I leave this world behind”
💟
Giles
Caitlin Johnstone
The full article from Caitlin Johnstone