Oh, we want insight from The Universe, Great Truths and Fundamental Realities, don’t we?
We want our fundamental realities to be complicated and big and meaty and secret – but they’re so not that. At all. The best truths are the simplest ones. Shit, even the physicists agree about that!
I may have told you this story before, I can’t remember. I’ll try to be brief. It was either late July or early August, and I was sitting out on the back deck late at night, listening to the Cicada Symphonic. (They really are quite good. I highly recommend listening hard and with no distractions.) I felt my molecules starting to relax and get … less sticky that might be useful if I wanted to continue being a single bodied individual, but oh, it felt sooooo good, so I just went with it, eyes closed, barely breathing, just listening to this massive outpouring of surprisingly well coordinated sound.
And then out of nowhere, I heard a female voice, just above the threshold of audibility. Soft, and lovely, and tender, and so warm. I listened, and she repeated the line she had just sung, and over again, until I repeated the line back, and then she moved on to a new line, which I also repeated back. It was such a divine and simple melody, and I found myself singing this impromptu duet as tears of sheer joy and connection streamed down my face. I felt so whole, and so loved. And I knew beyond a single shadow of doubt, that Earth-Mother is alive, well, and not at all pissed at her most recalcitrant kids.
Upon further reflection, I realized that I suddenly knew a great many things I hadn’t known previously.
And they weren’t big, complicated things. They were such small, intimate knowings. Terry Pratchett had a word for these things: hidlins. The hidden wisdom passed down from Kelda to Kelda to Kelda* for thousands of years. Each Kelda added her own unique hidlins to the eternal line of Keldas, and could visit that incredible base of wisdom whenever she needed. But all these tiny pieces of wisdom added up to a force to be reckoned with. Each Kelda was an army on her own.
Even the physicists agree, if a solution to an equation isn’t elegant in its simplicity, it isn’t true. And they have more truck with the ineffable mysteries of the Universe than 99% of any Holy Ones. Think about it, the best wisdom Christ, the Buddha, and the Dalai Lama have on offer is, “Just try to be kind to one another, okay?”
And as wisdom goes, it’s damn good. Just be kind and greet the world and every sentient thing or being in it as a dear sibling worthy of your great love. Choose happiness. Choose to see the best in people even when they are at their worst. Know that we’re all wounded and everybody has pain. Have compassion for everyone and everything. But … know when to resist and rebel and take no more shit from anybody – just do it non-violently and with compassion for the wounds your oppressors are dealing with. It’s pain that causes pain. But pain can also cause compassion.
If you are lucky enough to be able to choose how you want to respond to events, please choose kindness. There are people who can’t, who have lived through such trauma that their nervous system completely hijacks their ability to react. We owe it to ourselves, our families, our communities, and those who don’t have the choice, to respond to everything with compassion. Kindness is the baseline. Please remember this especially now, going into the most triggering time of the year (merry merry).
*Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books involving the infamous Nac Mac Feegle are the source for hidlins and Kelda, the leader of any particular clan of Nac Mac Feegle.
Sound Therapy is one of the best nervous system healers out there. Come on in for a tune-up and balancing.