I’ve been trying to understand my own obsession with following this awful situation in Ukraine. I’ve come to the conclusion that it reminds me of the various difficult times in my own life when I have felt pretty helpless watching loved ones struggle in their own lives, whether it be with disease or with another physical affliction, or with addiction, or with mental struggles, or with a toxic relationship, or any combination of the above, and I have been unable to “fix it” for them. I have been unable to be the dashing lifeboat, that I so desperately want to be. It is a devastating feeling. And most of us have felt this stabbing pain of powerlessness at one time or another, once we have reached this middle stage in our lives.
The heartache is particularly fervent and desperate and sad, when like Ukraine, the loved one, whom we are trying to help, is doing everything that they can to help themselves, too. The person with cancer, is taking their treatment and their health as seriously as possible, the depressed person is earnestly trying with therapy and medication and exercise and prayer, the addicted person is working the 12 steps and keeping in regular contact with a sponsor, and the person in a toxic relationship is taking serious steps towards safety and independence and self-worth. Like most of the nations in the world are feeling and expressing about Ukraine, we naturally want to help those who are earnestly trying to work themselves out of tragic circumstances. We are so inspired by their bravery, and their resilience and their belief in themselves, in the most trying of circumstances, and this inspires us to do everything that we also can do, in order to support their cause. However, in the end, we can’t be their saviors. Sometimes they can’t even be their own saviors. For those of us who have religious and spiritual beliefs, we know that something greater than us and this world, will save those whom we love and who are struggling, but it may not be in the form that we think it should be in, or in the pretty little Hollywood ending that we would like it to be. Our limited minds can’t see the highest views of eternity. That’s why we call our highest virtues besides love, “faith and hope”. We have to believe in something greater than what we are witnessing with our extremely limited human experience. If we don’t believe that all of the many, many good things in life are worth fighting for, and are worth living for, then we will all just despairingly give up, and we will quickly perish. And that’s just not in our collective DNA. Our Higher Creative Mind hasn’t programmed us to give up. So sometimes, we stop and we take a moment to feel the feelings, even the darkest feelings of helplessness and anger and anguish, but then we rise and we put on our boots and we soldier on . . . .
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Such a great post, Kelly! So many good things in there: the dashing lifeboat (yes!), taking a moment to feel all the dark feelings but then we put on our boots and soldier on (genius!), and the quotes! I want to add another thought/quote that I came across recently (gosh, was it from your blog?! I can’t remember): Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it ~ Helen Keller.
I’m going to go put on my combat boots and soldier on now.
Thank you, Gail. Overcoming!! I love it!
Last night I watched the weekly astrology forecast on Astrology Hub, with the guest astrologer, Stormie Grace. (It’s on You Tube if you want to see it.) The host brought up the world situation and the feeling of helplessness, and Stormie had a very interesting perspective on it. She did note that while we can’t do anything directly and individually for the people of Ukraine, we can collectively send them our positive energy in the form of prayers and meditations. But here’s something else she said that made sense to me: we can each contribute to the cosmic consciousness by being at our personal best. By using the individual gifts that have been bestowed upon us, we show others that this is a time to stand tall. We are often afraid to utilize our gifts, we are often afraid to own our talents. But that doesn’t serve the greater good. We were given special talents for the purpose of using them and lifting humanity in our own unique way. To play small, to underutilize or even deny what is special about us is to dim the light that we’ve been given to share. We can demonstrate bravery in our individual space by doing what we were put on this earth to accomplish. That can be really scary because it often means breaking rules or disappointing people who have expectations of us. But we must do it anyway.
One other thought that was put forward regarding the situation in Ukraine: what is happening there has come about because of someone’s vision. Their dream is so powerful, and they believe in it wholeheartedly, and they have brought it into existence. If we are to counteract the evil intentions of their dream, we must OUTDREAM them. We must band together to envision peace and harmony so that it can be brought into existence. Our thoughts are powerful; let’s direct them in a positive, beneficial manner. Just a couple of things to think about for today.
Those are fabulous thoughts! Love can outdream evil any day!!!! Thank you, Kelly. <3