Deep Disturbances

We live in a time of deep disturbance.

There are wars and rumors of wars. Governments rise and fall. Natural disasters shake our well-organized lives with storms and droughts, snow and waves. The ground shakes beneath our feet. Our connection to the Depth in our lives comes loose from its moorings. We struggle to put our deepest values into practice.

We can lose touch with what is most important to us, and we can lose our way.

We can feel our own disturbances as individuals; there are also cultural and social disturbances that shake us.

We hunger for community, yet we build a culture based on competition and conflict. We respond to injustice with force. We say that we value our families above everything else, yet we spend our lives working so we can acquire things we do not really need or want. In a world of hunger and need, we do not have enough space to store, or enough time to enjoy, what we already own.

We drive our economy to the point of collapse, and then wait impatiently for the recovery that will allow us to continue pushing.

We spend hours arguing over immediate questions and give no thought to the long term.

We believe that we are the exception to what we accept as life’s deep truths. We know that there are limits to the earth’s resources, but rely on there being enough for us. We know that the way we eat and do not exercise are killing us, but believe that we can always change later.

We know that everyone runs out of time, but live as if we will live forever.

We claim that we have core values drawn from the Depth of our lives, but live as though we have forgotten.

What deep disturbances do you sense?

How will you put your core values into practice in new ways today?

[Image by Mike Baird]