You are not powerless

Do you sometimes feel powerless? As if all is already lost, and the world is way too fucked up for little you to have anything to contribute at all?

I would like to offer this message from Isis, as a reminder that there is always hope…

(The photograph featured above shows the Red Rebels, a group that is part of the Extinction Rebellion protests. But even if such action is not for you, there are plenty of things you can do every day, to help create a better world.)

This is Isis

This is an open call to all who follow a nature-based spiritual path. You have come to walk this path because you feel a genuine love for the earth. You are here, also, because you think it worthwhile to express that love through your spiritual practice and make it into the core component of that practice. And so there is some advice that I would like to offer you.

Start small. Do not allow the wider world to intimidate you into thinking that your opinion does not count, or that the spiritual work you try to do is insignificant compared to the things that threaten nature. That is the most absurd nonsense. Remember that even the biggest of movements once started small, with a single person who dared to dream. And so I would encourage each of you to dare to be that person. Think of one tiny thing that you could do to make the world better. It could be as simple as remembering to smile to the person you cross on the street every morning. Things like that are just as important as lying in front of a machine that is preparing to cut down a forest.

For why do you think it is that so many people seem to have stopped caring, have simply shut down and allowed the magic of corporations and greed to entrance and imprison them? It is because they are afraid. Because they have learned to build a shell of safety around themselves, an illusion of safety that does not allow anything to truly reach their heart anymore.

But the good news is that such shells are never very strong. For most of us, it is actually quite easy to punch holes through it, to create little moments of recognition when we are reminded of the great mystery of love that is out there, and which is the birthright of each of you. So remember that, and be part of the solution by bringing a bit of sunlight into the world. By making love the first principle. By remembering that there is always something you can do, no matter how powerless you feel.

Begin small, and after a while you will find how the shell that you are actually breaking down is your own. It is your own ability to shine that you are beginning to enhance. And you will find that it brings you seeds of joy as well as moments of satisfaction because you see the twinkle in another persons eyes.

Whatever you do, never blame another for their insensitivity. For that is never a productive thing. The only thing you do is thickening your own shell against disappointments. The way to help is by being stubborn, and by trying to be kind to the person anyway. Be patient and accept that you may not get a thank you back. That is not the point. The point is that you are doing something far more fundamental at the subconscious level. You are activating a memory of better times. You make that person better able to access their soft spots, the ones they are probably priding themselves on having overcome, and having outgrown what they see as weakness. But you can help them see the light, simply by continued kindness, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

That is the way of the animist. The path of peace. That is the path that leads to revolution. Are you prepared to walk it?

Beith is a druid who likes to wander through the forest, inviting the trees to be her teachers in life. She also runs a personal blog about her druid journey, that can be found at wandering-the-woods.com. In real life she’s a mathematician, trying to walk the boundary between the rational and the irrational.