It has become so easy to believe that we hold dominion over the world. That we are in control. That the forces that gave us life can be bent and shaped by our will. In our personal lives we encounter hardships that can slow, or sometimes stop us, but we have faith that we will persevere, that we will emerge on the other side stronger, stripped away of what is non essential.
But this isn’t always the case.
There is so much of this world that is bigger than us, stronger than us, so much that will outlast us, that all we can do is hold on, find our center, and do our best.
This is faith.
Our world is changing. It doesn’t matter what you believe in or who you think might save it. Whether it’s illness or war or climate change or any other crisis we face, we cannot expect that our lives will not be disturbed, that we can go on as we always have.
We have to make changes.
We have to disrupt the very systems we rely on. We will have to suffer or go without, there is no other way around. We cannot have it all. We can wait until the bitter end, until our systems are stressed and our security broken, until our air is choked and our water is poisoned, until our family is sick and our loved ones are dying, or, we can think ahead.
We can act.
We can sacrifice and adapt so that the most vulnerable among us might be spared the most damaging consequences. None of us asked for this responsibility, none of us want it, but it is our fate. We have to find compassion for the process, solidarity for our sacrifices, or we will be stranded alone.
This is our world. A life out of balance.