By Molly Sturges on August 24, 2020
When I reflect upon the concept of climate change, I often feel fear. How is flow related to something so large and so hard to lean into and face?
Climate change isn’t a subtle share. It is not a gentle resourcing.
It is overwhelming. It is scary. It is disruptive.
The imagery of flow often brings to mind ease and gentleness, not the tsunami climate change invokes.
However, I do feel there is flow to be found in climate change work. Over many years working at the intersections of spirituality, creativity, community making and education, I find there is a flow to be found in meeting this work with an open broken heart. As we meet and turn towards the pain and challenge climate change work involves we can find a new sense of flow requiring us to come into deep and honest relationship with ourselves, each other and our beautiful planet. It’s the water fighting for its way for a path through the dam, where it’s held back from the dried up bed, thirsting for it to rush through.
I ask you to reflect upon what happens in your body as you feel into the massive earth changes upon us. Where do you contract? What is enlivened for you if anything at all?
Climate change is a wake up call. It is an invitation and it is about us rising together for the long haul as we remake our world. It asks us to face the overwhelm and find the next best step forward in our vulnerability and uniqueness. No one can fix it alone. We are in this together.
Having worked with hundreds of people in the US and Europe on climate change, I find we know much more about what we don’t want than what we want. It is hard to open to the flow of possibility but it is our path. We are in bondage when giving energy to unhelpful narratives that invoke fear. However if we engage our creativity, identify our unique part to contribute and bring our deep hearts into the work we can find sustenance, inspiration and new solutions.
It’s difficult to find our footing and in fact there is no way to find footing in old ways. We must find ourselves stable in the unknown and emergent, able to resource ourselves within as we redefine what security is. This process is often intimidating and it asks us to cultivate new parts of ourselves, to assess our values and to clarify how our actions reflect our values both personally and collectively. We need patience, deep inner care and permission to be wholly imperfect.
The good news is we are powerful, infinitely creative and courageous. We actually know how to do this. We know how to heal, love, serve and protect.
We each have the power of the ocean within us and once we connect to this we can indeed flow in new ways.
It may seem far away but often it is just opening the space for the collective wisdom that is always available. If we turn away from the feelings, bury them or fail to ground them in small concrete actions we lose the immense opportunity for growth and learning.
I believe music, and the arts have the power to change the world. In my experience they are the language of the soul and of the deep heart. This is tremendously powerful.
I have spent years and years creating participatory art and facilitating spaces of contemplative inquiry and community making. In almost all cases I am humbled by depth that emerges with the slightest invitation that values diversity of perspective, earned trust and compassion. I have seen that when we connect with our own deep heart, to our own flow, the wisdom makes itself known. There is a real miraculous power that blossoms when connecting people to their creativity.
When people connect authentically with what is life affirming, even as it pertains to a topic as devastating as climate change, flow becomes rejuvenating.
That’s when the barriers burst, the waves crash in, and the desert becomes the oasis.
That’s when the miracles come in!
To learn about some of projects related to climate justice and healing please feel free to visit:
My SOS Message of Hope:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xczfhqjfV58&feature=youtu.be
Waking The Oracle:
Firerock: A Musical Of Awakening
SOS Soul Station:
Molly Jane Udaya Sturges
Link