I wake up every morning with anxiety and exhaustion. The combination is nearly debilitating some mornings. I think about the natural world struggling to survive air pollution, plastic pollution, soil depletion, pollutant runoff into our waterways and oceans, the whirl of climate collapse as we see it happening around the world. I see the monetization of every action, every thought, every need, the politicization of every organizational structure, every dream, every cause. I see the exploitation of those that struggle to survive, pushing labour onto others, the force of power structures to rule our lives as burn-out overtakes us. I see and acknowledge others with a much heavier load of racism, bigotry and marginalization than I have dealing with all of this in addition. And I see many that are giving up, on the brink of ending their existence, or mentally and emotionally checking out. The exhaustion is across the board, putting one foot in front of the other is too high a mountain to climb.
If I... we... all of us give up and give in to this upside down world, who will be there for the littles? My 3 year old grandson that looks up at the world with hope, trust and innocence expects me to be there for him. And I am, and I will be. My animals trust that I will love and feed them and I will. This small plot of land I live on Turns the Wheel with me or without me. It will face whatever the future throws at it and it will adapt, grow when it can, rest when it must, and always strive for abundance. It's the least I can do to match the effort of the land while being a part of it, the planet and the universe.
Some day all the systems of greed will destroy themselves, and many of us with it. But we don't have to go resignedly or without a fight. We can Turn our own Wheel, be the Gods and Goddesses that we were born to be. We can use every resource, every source of knowledge, every act of will, and every force of love to continue on through the exhaustion and despair. This life, this land, this Earth is magic and we are a part of it, now and forever. Sometimes I forget, and then I remember.
