Divided We Fall

“Hear me, four quarters of the world - a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds.” ~ Black Elk

Years ago, Emmet Fox wrote that the word, individual, means indivisible. Upon reading that, I decided to do a bit of research. Sure enough, indivisible was listed as one of the definitions of individual, though most of us don’t think of it that way. The idea that an individual cannot be divided or separated from the whole illuminates the deeper truth that we are all connected. Though we are unique, individual expressions of the Divine, we are not separate or apart from it. or from each other. To think so, is to deny the essence of who we are.

The illusion of our separateness is what makes our lives exciting, but it is also what gets us into the most trouble.  It is a double-edged sword requiring a delicate balance between our needs and desires and the needs and desires of those around us. Navigating this fine line seems to define a lot of our experience in this 3-D world.  Loving oneself is a necessary prerequisite for loving others.

Giving and receiving are part of the circle of life. When the input and output are in balance, life feels good. It’s when the scales are tipped too heavily on one side or another, that life feels painful. It seems that we are constantly making adjustments in both extremes, in order to find our way back to the middle again. The costs of living too selflessly or selfishly are great to our health and well being, but in order to know those extremes we often have to touch them. Some of us get stuck in those extremes and life becomes a living hell for awhile. Some of us don’t ever find our way back a place of balance. Some of us are fortunate enough to get help and support to do it.

We’re not alone, and it’s our belief that we are that puts us in danger. Feeling cut off from others, unloved or undervalued leads to a distorted perception of our place in the world. By the same token, feeling worshiped or overly important can create a false idea of ourselves and our place in the world.

As a friend once said to me, he neither wanted to be placed on a pedestal nor crucified; instead, he preferred having his feet on the ground. Staying grounded requires finding our place in the whole, seeing each and every one of us as significant and necessary for our evolution. This, of course, has never been more clear than it is now. There is no escape from the mistakes of the past or from the current destruction of the planet we call home. We collectively created the mess, and it is up to us to solve it. The economic crisis drives this message even deeper. The era of the individual in the sense of the word that means separate is over. The deeper meaning of that word is bubbling to the surface in the midst of our turmoil, reminding us that we are indivisible, that we are in this together and that we need each other.

The earth is a ship traveling through space and we are its passengers. There are no lifeboats or evacuation plans, therefore, we must work with what we have, together. Those who think only of themselves will continue to lead us astray into certain destruction. It is those who think of the survival of the whole that can save us.

All the best spiritual and political leaders have said that love and cooperation are the answers. Competition implies that someone has to win and someone has to lose. We are now past the point where there will be winners and losers because we are all in the game.

The question now is not so much will we survive, but rather, if we survive, how much of what we have now will remain? The answer seems to me to be based solely on how quickly we are willing to stop operating as independent agents and acknowledge our connection to the whole.