Finding Your New Normal

Finding Our New Normal

Today we live in a world that has just met itself.

This planet has been here 4,600,000,000 years.  The human race, 200,000 years,   We have been an Industrialized World for a total of 230 years, and a Technological World for forty years.  One hundred and fifty years ago it would have taken two to three months to share your words with loved ones across continents; Traveling to get to you via steamer ship, horse and wagon, and the final miles by foot.

In this time continuum we have honestly just met ourselves.  Our Global Personality began to develop as the ships of days gone by, pushed off from the Western European shores, seeking out the New World that explorers of the 1400's had returned from their grand adventures raving about. These would be the old vessels with two or more masts, called "galleons," "schooners," "clippers," or "brigantines".  These Brothers, and Uncles that would vanish for as much as a decade, some to never return at all would speak of “Oceans of Forests” as far as the eye could see, filled with “dark skinned savages".  We tended not to be what one would today call politically correct, and in all truth acted rather savagely ourselves.   

This Global Personality that we have been grooming over the last 500 years has gone ok, I guess, if one chooses to be critical about it.  I am not, and if I was to be critical about it, and realistic, I would be forced to admit that really it has been exactly how all humans throughout time immemorial have done things.  We seem to take a run at things and cluster fuck the situation almost on a regular basis, but thank god we keep on trying, digging, searching or hunting until we source out a way.  Is that ok, who am I to say? I can say, “It is what it is!”.  Whether we like the past or not, here we are. 

Regardless, that is for an opinion column… and a very deep one at that.   I have never been called light and breezy, so why start now, and disappoint the masses.  But I digress more and more with every word, so back on track, Globalization.  Globalization has created our Global Personality, and is a great catch all phrase for the current vibe that reverberates around the planet.  Some of us are quite uncomfortable with the current Global Personality and the things that come to light as we have unveiled the truths of other cultures.  Around the time, or just before VI Libertus decided it was time to hiatus Finding Our New Normal Blog, as we were not necessarily in the “know” re COVID, and what was expected of a “normal” person around the world.   We here in North America had just had some of the darker side of North America's culture displayed to the world with Harvey Weinstein's “casting couch” being exposed.  First by some very prominent women in Hollywood such as,  Salma Hayek, Rose McGowan and Gwyneth Paltrow, along with another 85 or so other individuals that outed his little ruse. 

I do not want this to become a gossip column on the current or recent faux pas of Hollywood's elite, this is a blog that will post  about Globilization and how we are coming together in a political, cultural, and artistic sense, and what kind of presence are we presenting to the world?  

So on with it!

The Theory, Six Degrees of Separation has been reverberating beneath the surface of our society for a very long time.  As society encroaches upon itself, today we meet ourselves on a regular basis face to face.  We run into people that look similarly to us, dress with the same styles, and share familiar stories.  We find these people online, at the mall, on the telephone, and even at the corner store.

Does your neighborhood still have a corner store? Mine does. 

Two hundred years ago there would have been no phone to call your Mother on Sunday.  No car to take you to school, no work to travel to… at all.  Many people and families were self-sustainable off the land that they lived on, so it was unnecessary to have a job elsewhere.  Facebook and Twitter were so far away from even being thought of, they were like stars in other galaxies.

Our communities, cultures, and the combined life experiences of generations are colliding and it is an exciting thing, as it always has been.  

I have just broken over the halfway point in the journey we call life, and it is different than it would have been for someone 200 years ago.  The tangible, tactile things that help us and guide us through our daily lives, are advanced beyond our wildest dreams.   But the question that I ask myself is, “ Are our souls different than they would have been 200 years ago?”

I understand this is a question that is hard to find a definitive answer to, if not totally impossible.  The science of our souls is yet to be mapped.

What I do know is that things have changed drastically in our world over the last 200 years. It only leads to the conclusion that our souls must have as well.  I believe that this is something that one can only look at individually, but is interesting to pose to a larger group and can possibly be studied by looking at what societies are becoming around the world.

The Middle Path, The Fight for Middle Earth, Battling Towards Life, all of these sayings are about supposed to be about sustainable communities, a sustainable planet, and sustaining a personal life that is based on autonomy, and then interconnectedness. But fighting is not sustainable, battling and war is not sustainable. Leading by bullying is not sustainable.  This is what these sayings mean for me.  I should not speak for others.  Everyone, everywhere around the world has a different understanding of Spiritual definitions for age old slogans, and mantras. Maybe I am the bully who knows? Huge digression, back to Globilization. This what I just did is the problem, self centeredness, so we can judge another.

We were born to be free, it is a truth I choose to believe, and so was the planet.  As we struggle to control one another, and struggle to control the planet, I feel that some of us are forgetting that it is essential to look inward at our own personal journey, at our own personal souls.  Continuously taking inventory of our stock pilings, money earned, things stashed away, and the judgement we can throw upon others, like cow dung thrown in a child’s game.  Taking inventory of others behaviors, and actions, just so that we do not have to look at what and who we ourselves have become.  This is slowly taking a toll on not just ourselves, but our planet, our cultures, and sadly to say our communities.  As societies, communities, cultures, and individuals tremor under this judgement, we become further and further separated from ourselves and our actions become less gentle, less kinder, more obstinate, set in our ways, eventually ending in violent retribution.  This is how it seems to me.

Imagine if you were not you, you were someone else and you just met yourself today.  Not a casual meeting but a short yet in depth meeting.  A meeting that is brief and explosive, having an exponential growth of knowledge of your peers personality, being your own.

Would you like yourself today?  

Have you intentionally tried to control or hurt another today?  

People often think they may be helping when they are trying to control, but they are not.  

The reality I am sad to say even after these last 200 years is that our souls have not evolved enmasse.  Possibly in certain groups around the world we have had an awakening but not the one that is needed to truly set us free.  But as a whole, “No our souls are not different from 200 years ago.”  

Due to this lack of change the person we are truly hurting is ourselves.  We still clamor for the money, will take the buyout to knife the good guy in the back, and hunger for the power to rule the city, the country and the world.  We are missing out on so many opportunities to learn and to live, while busy stuck trying to control another.

I know when I meet myself.  Stopping for a moment, breathing deep, allowing myself to catch up with me, it can be a shock. Not because of only the dark parts of myself that I hide away, but more so because of the good parts I forget to recognize.    Some of my apoplectic behaviours that I am reminded of and their consequences can be a tad ego smashing.  I still do my best to acknowledge these behaviours when presented to me.  

Ego may keep us alive through the tough times, but it also keeps us very distant from who we were meant to be, as not only does it tell us we are the best, but it also tells us we are not worth shit.  You know when you are up for Woman of The Year, and you think to yourself, I don't deserve this.  That little voice is still your ego, just reminding you that you are not enough. 

We are not ALL amazing people. That is a lesson I have learned in the last ten years, some of us have more lifetimes to live here on this planet before they are truly awakened.  This being said, bad behaviour does not make a bad person, and at any time you or I can choose to do better.  And if we fail, we need to remember that sometimes trying is all that we have.  And have acceptance around our fallibility.

Society has insisted that we focus on our flaws, on the things that we have done wrong, thus encouraging more harmful behaviour as we seek out the only attention many of us have ever gotten.  Negative attention.  So if for a moment we stopped the train.  Took a good long look at ourselves, and took ownership for the things we could have in our lives, possibly could have done better, and said ok, so this is life.  Now we have owned that, when we own it, it allows us to find the solution.  And the solution is looking at the good we have accomplished.

How many days have you managed to put one foot in front of the other, gotten out of bed and done one nice thing for someone?  I have an idea that no matter whether you are amazing or not, it is almost every day of your life.  Whether you know it or not.  If we magnify this part of us, the good part that could be the base of our being.  

Could we magnify this part rather than the part of us that is full of shame and blame?  First off we need to recognize that it is within us to do good for another, and do it!  Start your day with yes!  If we did this we could start to strive to do those good things for others, to think of things that could cure diseases, think of solutions to allow all of us to live the life of the free adventurer we all crave to be.

Now imagine if we did this with ourselves and then the world.  As I said earlier, we are just meeting ourselves.  We are an ever changing being, independently and as a whole.   We have had changes that are magnificent in the last 200 years.  Yes we have done some bad things to this planet, yes we have hurt ourselves, but when was the last time you sat back and looked at what has happened that has been fantastic in the last 200 years.  The Polio vaccine, unions, steam engines, combustible engines, solar power, financial contributions to cultures that are struggling, forward movement against patriarchy, computers, technology in general and these are just some of the beginning pieces.  Change is always an amazing thing; many of us are uncomfortable with it.  But change can be a gift if accepted as such.  And we can not give up now!  

Even the terrible, shameful pieces of Humanities history such as The Plague of the 1300's, or our two World Wars, brought about some gifts that we are utilizing and sharing with each other; with ancestors of the victims of these horrible situations.  Without disease and famine in Eurasia, humans would never have been motivated to look for land with more room.  And although what happened during World War One and World War Two were disgusting, horrid tragedies, the science and forced technological development have allowed us to move forward in leaps and bounds over the last century. There are so many building blocks that we have put in place that could be part of a solution to how we are going to move forward in our lives and on our planet.  The possibilities are truly endless.  I  believe that if Humanity relaxes and starts living in the solution, more will be revealed to us when we are ready.  Don't give up on me, and I won't give up on you.

(Can you believe that in 11 years from now there will be the beginning of a human colony on Mars.   And this is no joke.  There really could be. They are actively working diligently on this project today.   http://www.mars-one.com/  They are aiming for first humans to be there for 2022.  Now can you imagine where that will take us over the next 200 years.  Someday planet earth, if we take care of it, if we take care of ourselves, if we let go of control just a little bit, could be a place where we, the human species, come for holidays.)  An excerpt from my first copy of this script that I wrote in 2015.  Wonder if they pulled it off?

We are all one, whether we choose to accept this today or not.  We are not just one with each other but with this planet.  No matter our skin colour, no matter our education level, no matter the money we make, or don’t make, and definitely no matter the God we choose to worship.  Do you know, or realize that as the level of our oceans rise and the percentage of the earth becomes more and more water then it was the day before, so does the amount of water our bodies are made up of increase.  An interesting tidbit of knowledge for the Almanac of History.  We are all one.  This is a gift, that is shouting warning to us, that so many of us are choosing to ignore.

Fear can do that. 

So our souls have not changed, ok, we have looked at why this is negative, but remember that guy that climbed up on the cross for us supposedly?  Or the soldier that got dressed this morning that won't be coming home tonight.  The person we want to be is waiting for us.  

This is really important to me or I would not bother.  I would just throw my hands in the air, and say show me something better.  But I cannot.  Some days it is my sheer stubbornness that does not let me.  Deep down I know that we, not I, but we can do this.  And it is the we that matters to me.

We can put our grievances aside, and no matter what has happened, we can seek to heal ourselves and heal others around us.  To always remember, but to forgive, and let go of the pain and hurt.   We individually do matter, and need to make moves and choices in our lives that show others we respect ourselves.  Yes.  As we do this and grow into ourselves and find our new normal, looking for solutions to the problems, activating change, our communities, not cities, will grow, our societies will bloom.  This growth and blossoming will not just be for them, or for me, it will be for all.  With each positive step we take for ourselves we will heal, and create one more person in the world that is trying to make a difference.

As we look to each other may we “Find our New Normal”.  Not the “normal” born of Covid.  Not the “normal” on the washing machine.  But may each of us find our inner warrior that allows us to fight for ourselves, against our egos, against our power hungry, money grubbing selves.  May we “Find our New Normal”  that allows us to live a life of autonomy, maybe we are too late, for some of us anyways, maybe we are too injured, but I stand today, having hope for you, even if my time has come and gone, hopefully not, time will tell.

Today I hope we have a day that honors who we were, what we are, and where we are going.  I have got a lot of work to get to, so let's discuss this later.  Have a great day!

Embracing the journey of life: Adventurers stride towards a breathtaking sunrise, transforming competition into exploration.

I understand this is a question that is hard to find a definitive answer to, if not totally impossible.  The science of our souls is yet to be mapped.

What I do know is that things have changed drastically in our world over the last 200 years. It only leads to the conclusion that our souls must have as well.  I believe that this is something that one can only look at individually, but is interesting to pose to a larger group and can possibly be studied by looking at what societies are becoming around the world.

The Middle Path, The Fight for Middle Earth, Battling Towards Life, all of these sayings are about sustainable communities, a sustainable planet, and sustaining a personal life that is based on autonomy, and then interconnectedness.  This is what these sayings mean for me.  I should not speak for others.  Everyone, everywhere around the world has a different understanding of Spiritual definitions for age old slogans, and mantras.

We were born to be free, it is a truth I choose to believe, and so was the planet.  As we struggle to control one another, and struggle to control the planet, I feel that some of us are forgetting that it is essential to look inward at our own personal journey, at our own personal souls.  Continuously taking inventory of our stock pilings, money earned, things stashed away, and the judgement we can throw upon others, like cow dung thrown in a child’s game.  Taking inventory of others behaviors, and actions, just so that we do not have to look at what and who we ourselves have become.  This is slowly taking a toll on not just ourselves, but our planet, our cultures, and sadly to say our communities.  As societies, communities, cultures, and individuals tremor under this judgement, we become further and further separated from ourselves and our actions become less gentle, less kinder, more obstinate, set in our ways, eventually ending in violent retribution.  This is how it seems to me.

Imagine if you were not you, you were someone else and you just met yourself today.  Not a casual meeting but a short yet in depth meeting.  A meeting that is brief and explosive, having an exponential growth of knowledge of your peers personality, being your own. 

Would you like yourself today?  

Have you intentionally tried to control or hurt another today?  

People often think they may be helping when they are trying to control, but they are not.  

The reality I am sad to say even after these last 200 years is that our souls have not evolved enmasse.  Possibly in certain groups around the world we have had an awakening but not the one that is needed to truly set us free.  

Due to this lack of change the person we are truly hurting is ourselves.  We still clamor for the money, will take the buyout to knife the good guy in the back, and hunger for the power to rule the city, the country and the world.  We are missing out on so many opportunities to learn and to live, while busy stuck trying to control another.

I know when I meet myself.  Stopping for a moment, breathing deep, allowing myself to catch up with me, it can be a shock. Not because of only the dark parts of myself that I hide away, but more so because of the good parts I forget to recognize.    Some of my apoplectic behaviours that I am reminded of and their consequences can be a tad ego smashing.  I still do my best to acknowledge these behaviours when presented to me.  

Ego may keep us alive through the tough times, but it also keeps us very distant from who we were meant to be, as not only does it tell us we are the best, but it also tells us we are not worth shit.  You know when you are up for Woman of The Year, and you think to yourself, I don't deserve this.  That little voice is still your ego, just reminding you, that you are not enough. 

We are not ALL amazing people that is a lesson I have learned in the last ten years, some of us have more lifetimes to live here on this planet before they are truly awakened.  This being said, bad behavior does not make a bad person, and at any time you or I can choose to do better.  And if we fail, we need to remember that sometimes trying is all that we have.  And have acceptance around our fallibility.

Society has insisted that we focus on our flaws, on the things that we have done wrong, thus encouraging more harmful behaviour as we seek out the only attention many of us have ever gotten.  Negative attention.  So if for a moment we stopped the train.  Took a good long look at ourselves, and took ownership for the things we could have in our lives, possibly could have done better, and said ok, so this is life.  Now we have owned that, when we own it, it allows us to find the solution.  And the solution is looking at the good we have accomplished.

How many days have you managed to put one foot in front of the other, gotten out of bed and done one nice thing for someone?  I have an idea that no matter whether you are amazing or not, it is almost every day of your life.  Whether you know it or not.  If we magnify this part of us, the good part that could be the base of our being.  

Could we magnify this part rather than the part of us that is full of shame and blame?  First off we need to recognize that it is within us to do good for another, and do it!  Start your day with yes!  If we did this we could start to strive to do those good things for others, to think of things that could cure diseases, think of solutions to allow all of us to live the life of the free adventurer we all crave to be.

Now imagine if we did this with ourselves and then the world.  As I said earlier, we are just meeting ourselves.  We are an ever changing being, independently and as a whole.   We have had changes that are magnificent in the last 200 years.  Yes we have done some bad things to this planet, yes we have hurt ourselves, but when was the last time you sat back and looked at what has happened that has been fantastic in the last 200 years.  The Polio vaccine, unions, steam engines, combustible engines, solar power, financial contributions to cultures that are struggling, forward movement against patriarchy, computers, technology in general and these are just some of the beginning pieces.  Change is always an amazing thing; many of us are uncomfortable with it.  But change can be a gift if accepted as such.  And we can not give up now!  

Even the terrible, shameful pieces of Humanities history such as The Plague of the 1300's, or our two World Wars, brought about some gifts that we are utilizing and sharing with each other; with ancestors of the victims of these horrible situations.  Without disease and famine in Eurasia, humans would never have been motivated to look for land with more room.  And although what happened during World War One and World War Two were disgusting, horrid tragedies, the science and forced technological development have allowed us to move forward in leaps and bounds over the last century. There are so many building blocks that we have put in place that could be part of a solution to how we are going to move forward in our lives and on our planet.  The possibilities are truly endless.  I  believe that if Humanity relaxes and starts living in the solution, more will be revealed to us when we are ready.  Don't give up on me, and I won't give up on you.

(Can you believe that in 11 years from now there will be the beginning of a human colony on Mars.   And this is no joke.  There really could be. They are actively working diligently on this project today.   http://www.mars-one.com/  They are aiming for first humans to be there for 2022.  Now can you imagine where that will take us over the next 200 years.  Someday planet earth, if we take care of it, if we take care of ourselves, if we let go of control just a little bit, could be a place where we, the human species, come for holidays.)  An excerpt from my first copy of this script that I wrote in 2015.  Wonder if they pulled it off?

We are all one, whether we choose to accept this today or not.  We are not just one with each other but with this planet.  No matter our skin color, no matter our education level, no matter the money we make, or don’t make, and definitely no matter the God we choose to worship.  Do you know, or realize that as the level of our oceans rise and the percentage of the earth becomes more and more water then it was the day before, so does the amount of water our bodies are made up of increase.  An interesting tidbit of knowledge for the Almanac of History.  We are all one.  This is a gift, that is shouting warning to us, that so many of us are choosing to ignore. Fear can do that. 

This is really important to me or I would not bother.  I would just throw my hands in the air, and say show me something better.  But I cannot.  Some days it is my sheer stubbornness that does not let me.  Deep down I know that we, not I, but we can do this.  And it is the we that matters to me.

We can put our grievances aside, and no matter what has happened, we can seek to heal ourselves and heal others around us.  To always remember, but to forgive, and let go of the pain and hurt.   We individually do matter, and need to make moves and choices in our lives that show others we respect ourselves.  Yes.  As we do this and grow into ourselves and find our new normal, looking for solutions to the problems, activating change, our communities, not cities, will grow, our societies will bloom.  This growth and blossoming will not just be for them, or for me, it will be for all.  With each positive step we take for ourselves we will heal, and create one more person in the world that is trying to make a difference.

As we look to each other may we “Find our New Normal”.  Not the “normal” born of Covid.  Not the “normal” on the washing machine.  But may each of us find our inner warrior that allows us to fight for ourselves, against our egos, against our power hungry, money grubbing selves.  May we “Find our New Normal”  that allows us to live a life of autonomy, maybe we are too late, for some of us anyways, maybe we are too injured, but I stand today, having hope for you, even if my time has come and gone, hopefully not, time will tell.

Today I hope we have a day that honors who we were, what we are, and where we are going.