When Reality Won’t Go Away
Last month, I wrote about speaking your truth when you can no longer be silent. I described it as “that moment when the fire in your belly and the love in your heart suddenly converge, breaking through the floodgates of your soul, and your truth comes pouring out.”
This month, we go a step further to meeting the troubling realities of our restless world. Meeting the moment for what it is—especially when what is happening is not what you had hoped for, much less what you could ever have imagined would become our reality.
Meeting the moment means being present with it, sensing it in a bigger context, and being honest about the motivations driving what is happening (often more than one). In short, sensing beneath the surface for what it’s really about. And putting your attention and focus on how it’s asking you to respond–ways that you can make a difference. Not just for yourself, but for the well-being of all. Even if what you can do feels small and insignificant.
Maybe the troubled reality in front of you is in your family, or maybe in your company, or in the politics of your country. Maybe it’s a human rights issue or a humanitarian crisis that is getting your attention. Or maybe it’s all of the above. Some of the troubling realities today are so big you don’t know what to say or where to begin. So, maybe it feels easier to just not talk about what is happening, or to avoid thinking about the danger signals, or to tell yourself the situation is out of your hands—there is nothing you can do. Maybe it’s too painful or exasperating to follow the news reports, to see the pictures, to read the stories, to stay informed, so you avoid those, too. You just hope and pray that these situations will somehow get resolved.
Yet somewhere deep in the heart of your being, you know that momentum is building. These situations are not going away. They could, in fact, take us over a metaphorical cliff. Unspoken tension and anxiety fester. The family, the company, the country, the world is increasingly on edge. What do we do?
It’s time to meet the moment head on, yet from a different approach. The Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön speaks an enormous truth that we as a collective have not acknowledged:
Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.
Pema Chodron
Another way of saying it is that it’s not going away until we’ve learned what we need to learn.
Breathe that in. Let that statement land in your life. What situation in your personal surroundings will not go away until you and those involved have learned what it has come to teach you?
And then zoom out: What situation in our world will not go away until we—the mass consciousness—pay attention to what it’s trying to teach us?
A Creative and Sustaining Intelligence at Work
I believe there is a creative and sustaining Intelligence or Wisdom at work in the matrix of universal consciousness. Some people might call that God, Spirit, Mystery, Intelligence, or Universe; my preferred name these days is Mystery. In my understanding of how life works, all of creation and every situation or circumstance comes into being through that matrix of consciousness.
I also believe we are here for a reason—that we have a life purpose or soul mission—and that we come into this life, individually and collectively, to learn and grow and evolve. That growth and evolution requires recognizing our response-ability (our ability to choose how we respond) for who we are, our choices and decisions, and the impact of our presence on the collective consciousness. While attitudes of blame, guilt, criticism, and attack loom large in our polarized world, they only serve to keep us trapped in old and unsustainable paradigms: power, control, greed. The leading yet unspoken question is too often:
How do we get what we want, regardless of the cost?
What if we started with a different question:
What is this situation asking us to learn?
This simple yet powerful question shifts the focus from criticism and blame to compassion and connection. It’s a shift from manipulating people and facts to listening and co-creating in service of something bigger. It begins with tapping into the greater Intelligence and Wisdom within what is happening and letting that greater Intelligence and Wisdom show us what the situation is really about. More specifically, what it is trying to show us about what we need to learn and what needs to transform for a healthy and thriving world.
It’s not a miracle fix; things are not likely to change overnight. It’s a shift in focus as a place to start. As more of us listen and respond with new patterns of learning, awareness, and action, there is a better chance that the momentum might slow down and, with consistent attention, reverse course. As this happens, old paradigms begin to slip away. New doors begin to open, new connections and relationships are sparked, and we begin to sense a possible path forward.
Which brings us back to meeting the moment for what it is. To do that, we have to stop everything we are doing and every story we are telling that is keeping us from addressing the truth of what is happening. That demands a fierce tenacity within us and a commitment to something bigger than ourselves. It demands courage, strength, and incredible humility. And it demands our ongoing and persistent attention to listening, sensing, and feeling into the moment and what it is asking for, what it is trying to teach us.
I leave you with a poem to the mass consciousness—words that have been pulsing through me for days and finally flowed onto paper. Because the fire in my belly and the love in my heart can no longer keep quiet. It’s a poem to all of us, myself included. And it’s a clarion call to the decision makers, the policy influencers, and the leaders in governing bodies and judicial systems all over the world. The Great Breaking Open continues to reveal one profound challenge after another. Yet the initial response, no matter the challenge, can start with: Stop. Meet the troubled moment. Ask what you need to learn. Say Yes to the learning.
Stop. Meet the troubled moment.
Ask what you need to learn.
Stop.
Stop
avoiding
rationalizing
pretending
running
busy-ing
denying
excusing
appeasing.
Stop.
Stop
going on as if
it’s all ok.
It’s not.
So, stop.
Stop looking for an
easy way out.
Passing the buck.
Kicking it down the road
for someone else to
deal with.
Stop.
Be present.
Right here, right now.
Be present with
what is unfolding
right in front of you.
Stay with
whatever is
rising up
inside of you,
even if you
can hardly bear to
be with it,
even if you are
impatient or
lost in grief or
seething with anger or
terrified your world is
falling apart.
Stay with it.
It’s not easy.
It wasn’t meant to be.
If it was easy,
we wouldn’t pay attention.
Acknowledge the
deeper layers of
what is happening.
And acknowledge
what is not happening.
Listen for the truth in both.
What is that truth asking you for?
What is it asking us for?
Meet the moment
like you have never been
willing
to meet it before.
It doesn’t mean
you have to fix it.
Actually, you probably can’t,
at least not by yourself.
And we’re
past “fixing” anyway.
Something new
wants to be
created.
Meet the moment.
Don’t walk away.
Meet the moment
Stay with it,
be open,
listen, sense, feel.
Be honest about
what you sense.
Ask the moment
what it’s trying
to teach you.
And say Yes
to the learning.
Go there.
Stop.
Meet the moment.
Your life will transform.
Maybe others’ lives, too.
Maybe even our world.
Stop. Meet the moment.
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Since October 2023, I have been writing weekly articles and posts on my Substack blog, Transformational Presence: Conscious Living, Conscious Leading. Please have a look. If you find the articles helpful, please subscribe for free or as a paid subscriber. The content is the same for both. Becoming a paid subscriber is simply a way of showing appreciation if you wish. Thank you.
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