Winter is Here: The Coming Storm

Perhaps there was a time when it felt like society was guided by clearer rules, expectations, commandments, a code of ethics, or responsibility to some greater cause. And now, everything seems to be a free for all. We see our structures crumbling, our institutions dismantling, our belief and value systems under attack, and our way of life challenged. Circumstances feel chaotic and uncertain. The path ahead to our futures may appear dark and tumultuous. Storms abound and we are at sea. Perhaps we aim to escape, adopt or create an alternate reality, tell ourselves everything is fine as we move through our days, or attempt to swim against the current back to the past. Difficult times can make one feel nostalgic, and it is easy to do so with rose-colored glasses. Needing to believe that there in the certainty of the past, was a better, safer, kinder time. Where the harshness and uncertainty of the world cannot harm us. But the past was just as imperfect as it is now.

In the present, we seem to exist in a part of the life cycle that feels as if some great, destructive storm is brewing. And perhaps it has been for some time. We’ve seen glimpses of it far away, across the horizon, thinking, oh we have time. And as it nears and slowly creeps closer over time, we adjust, thinking, oh this is fine, it’s normal. Humans are incredibly adaptable beings, we can adjust to the shades of grey, even as we veer into the darkness.

Let us ask ourselves and ponder our current state way of life. For most, is it “fine” to spend our lives and give most if not all of our energy to working in order to make money, while also feeling one can never make enough to pay for all of the numerous living expenses people are constantly being advertised to? To know that most people spend more time in the office then doing literally anything else in their entire life? Unrealized talents, gifts, dreams, and beauty unborn and lay to waste. Or how a majority of people suffer from chronic, “incurable” health conditions, and accept that chronic stress, anxiety and depression is just a “normal” part of being? Or how our only form of “health care” and “wellness” is designed solely to keep people in a cycle of disrepair and sickness? Or that our idea of adult fun is to drink alcohol to supress our immune systems, exchange sexual energy with people we do not know or respect—devoid of trust and meaningful connection, drain our energy via endless social media, netflix, and television, and give over hard-earned money that people have exchanged their energy and life force for to buy objects fashioned out of plastic and waste because they were told it would make us feel better, fill a void, or make us feel important or valuable? Meanwhile cost of living expenses continue to increase astronomically, disproportional to living wages. Basic, life-dependent natural resources like clean air, clean water, clean land and food disappear. We’re told that nature does not matter and is insignificant, as it is bulldozed over with more concrete, more steel, more plastic. More novel inventions like HVAC systems and air purifiers designed to purify the clean air that we once had for free. Water purifiers to purify the clean water, we also had for free. And synthetic fertilizers and GMO crops to produce produce that looks like produce but lacks all of the nutrients of one. And legal systems and money to buy the land that once was free to all.
Most people live in plastic, eat plastic, inject plastic, smother themselves in plastic, wear plastic, carry plastic, drive plastic, and bathe in micro-plastics. Grocery stores are lined with processed, petrolium-based foods. Living foods are pumped with growth hormones to artifically grow the item because the land is devoid of any real nutrients, and antibiotics and pesticides regularly showered because of inherent disease in the toxic process of industrial manufacturing. Not only are people eating petrolium, people are also slathering petrolium-based products, skincare, cosmetics, etc on their entire bodies, and willingly cut themselves open to put even more plastic inside their bodies through the form of fillers, injections, plastic surgery, etc. This way of being is a living nightmare, a version of hell, glossed over with seemingly picture-perfect plastic packaging of an illusion. People are brainwashed to believe this is all good, to desire it, and it to give anything, including themselves, for it. But in reality, it is a real sickness.

The storm that is coming is a result of centuries, if not a milennia, of pent-up injustices, lies, repression, traumas, violence and disrepect inflicted upon each other and our planet. Culminating in one great destructive storm, existing on a cyclical basis to break down the illusions we have created, and purify the sickness from our hearts: the greed, the selfishness, the isolationism, the indignity, the disrepect, the apathy—within and towards each other and our natural world. It comes to break everything down, no mercy. For it does not place value judgement on what we deem good or bad, only what is unaligned with who we really are. Yes there will be casualties, in any great storm there always are. But in the fire and chaos, it serves to trigger some dormant light within us to show up and fight, to love and extend compassion without condition, and to do what is true and right for each other. Like a volt of electricity to awaken the heart, we awaken to the truth of our true nature and our desire for a free, loving, and peaceful world to be in without fear. It reminds us what is really important deep down, beneath the artifical layers. It reveals our most fundamental and universal beliefs and values as a soul and a human being, and it reconnects us all to each other to do better.