Have a Vision, not a Moan

I met an interesting man in Sri Lanka, just after the Tsunami. He was the founder of a small, local charity called 'Light a candle'. Their motto was: "Its better to light one candle than to moan about the darkness". We talked for a while and I realised that, like many of us, I have a tendency to waste my energy moaning about things instead of using my energy to create, or do something, that might change the things I moan about.

After thinking about this I understood how my brain works when it encounters something that I find unjust or unfair or outright horrendous. My first emotions are sadness or anger. Then I feel immediately powerless. What can I do? I am just one person without much influence. The powerlessness increases my anger. Its a well known psychological fact that if we can get really angry we can avoid feeling inadequate, helpless or powerless. 

So, I moan. What else can I do? I am a person who doesn't just ignore the many heartbreaking happenings in the world. I have a good, angry moan and nothing changes, except that I might feel a bit better afterwards.

I have learned since to strive for 'having a vision instead of a moan'. That doesn't mean that I don't allow myself to be angry or sad about all kind of unjust and horrible events and situations, but I now really try to contribute, in my own, limited way to what needs changing. 

I have also learned that if I wait for the 'big, big vision' I will never do anything. Visions don't have to be 'huge' and 'worldchanging'. Small ones do exactly the same as big ones: they propel us to act, to do something, to contribute to the change we want to see happening.

I don't have a foolproof recipe to 'create visions'. Nevertheless I know that the question 'what would I like to see instead of ... , followed by the question 'what is it that I can do to contribute?' produces the required result: actions instead of moans. 

 

Copyright © 2011 Christa Mackinnon

How to Re-enchant our Lives  

I read an article today about ‘enchantment’ and asked myself: can I actually remember the last time I was enchanted? Fortunately, I can. I was enchanted by the penguins in Antarctica; in fact I was enchanted by Antarctica – full stop. The sheer delight of being in this vast, white, quiet landscape with its bizarre, unreal formations of different coloured ice, its ever changing light and its charming inhabitants is still as vivid in my memory as if I had experienced it yesterday. The idea of being ‘without a personal history’ took on a new meaning. In fact, the idea of ‘just being’ suddenly became very tangible. With nothing around, except ice and snow, untouched by human activities and structures, one slides into a meditative space, effortlessly and naturally. The sensory perception expands, although there is not much going on - or may be because there isn’t much going on -and a deep sense of being connected to what is around us develops dramatically.

When reflecting upon this subject, I wondered if we are condemned to live in a less and less enchanting world. Have science with its focus on the material and analytical, capitalism with its focus on turning us into mindless consumers of more and more non-essential goods and orthodox religions with their dissociated dogmas all contributed to create a world that has lost its wonders?  Have the pressures at work, the daily drivel in our mass media, the huge amount of information we have to digest and the constant bombardments with images, colours, noise and light taken its toll, left us no choice other than to dull our senses. 

Overall, the answer to my question was ‘yes’.  After searching through my memories and reflecting upon the stories I hear from clients and looking at the experiences of participants in my groups and workshops I came to the conclusion that we need to re-enchant ourselves and the world. Enchantment has something to do with our Souls. It nourishes them. It has something to do with experiencing that sense of wonder, that excitement and ‘connected being’ that eludes us more often than not in daily life.