November 8, 2016 – What the world needs now

“One of the paintings I’m working on – almost done with the background.”

Listen to this post:

You’d have to have been on a sojourn to some other part of the Universe, to not feel the tension, and have experienced the negativity of this election season in the United States. It has to be the thing most people can agree upon – that we cannot wait for this to be over. It will be – today. But we have the opportunity to choose not just who will be our next president, and those who will hold other offices, we also can choose how we will go forward – whether we live in fear and dread, or will have faith in the future and in the goodness of people, who are our fellow citizens. Regardless of how many of us wish, that everyone who doesn’t think like we do would ex-patriate – we are the United States of America – an amazingly diverse country that has – for 240 years – held us together as Americans. We are not the same country, unless it includes all of us.

It’s said, that we live in post-modern times. I’m not a social scientist and am not well versed, on exactly what is post-modernism. But a cursory look into the definition, added to the experience of living in our culture, and what I see is that, as I heard our president say last night, we live in cynical times. Being cynical is wrapped up as smart, informed, prudent, realistic. You see it on both sides, especially at the extremes. But no one is immune. And I can see why – cynicism is useful; it is a really good protector. It keeps us from having to realize, that we actually do care – and even more, how much we care. Because caring exposes us, it’s risky as hell. Cynicism shows up in comments on posts and in tweets and cable TV news shows. It is dismissive, objectifying, emasculating, de-humanizing, polarizing, disconnecting. It is a really effective tool of the shadow.

A post about the need to resurrect reverence, has been brewing in me for a while now and this seems like the right time for it. I looked up this word too. Its definition is pretty straightforward: reverence simply means deep respect. It doesn’t necessarily mean being religious, as in worshiping or idolizing – nor does it in any way, require that we set aside what matters to us. It means finding within us, a genuine positive regard for someone or something else. I think we do have the choice – to be cynical or to have reverence – about a person, a group of people, the political process or our country – we can even have reverence for a situation. I also know that regardless of our capacity to do this, being human means, that there are always times when our instincts take us over and we protect ourselves. We can come back, though. In fact “seeing again”, is the root of the word respect – literally, to take another look.

• Reverence gives us the capacity to experience beauty. When we have deep respect for something, we see its beauty. And we cannot see beauty without it.
• Reverence requires connection – it’s impossible to have appreciation for something we are disconnected to or not connected to on some level, at least.
• Reverence requires conscious awareness – we must be present, truly awake, in order to see what is really there.
• Reverence requires us to have an open and receptive mind and heart. If we are affixed to seeing things one way, our way, the view is clouded by what we believe, by our own agenda and pre-conceived notions.
• Reverence asks us to be willing to be changed. We can’t have reverence for something, unless we let it touch us – and this will change us.

When I look around, I see so many opportunities for reverence to be conjured up. I know I can have a whole lot more of it for myself – especially my body and, say its need for water. When I look at the list that I wrote above, I see the opportunity for reverence to be the antidote. When what I see is ugliness, when I feel disconnected, when I have fallen asleep in my life, when I am closed and rigid, I can choose to find something about what is to respect and appreciate.

And like anything, it is a practice. In an argument with Joe a few months ago, I found myself saying to him – in a really upset voice – that I’d never loved him more, and I was so incredibly angry at him – at the same time. This hasn’t always been the case – mostly when I’ve been angry with him, I’ve had zero access to the part of me that appreciates and respects him. This is how I experience transformation in my life.

It was inspired by something I heard Alison Armstrong say. When she and her husband – or anyone else she is in partnership with – “blow up the laboratory” (in other words, get in a big conflict) – it is her commitment to stay with it, teasing out the understanding behind it, until she’s so fully on the other side of it, that she’s reaped the benefits of the upset and is glad that it happened. She said, her prayer was to be willing to have him break her heart over and over again. She just wasn’t willing to have it be for the same thing more than once. To do this requires real reverence – for her husband or partner, for herself and for their relationship.

Life in Full Color is reverence to me. It is exactly why and what I paint; it is exactly my intention when I lead my watercolor groups. It’s not edgy. It’s not very cool. But it’s what I’m here to do and who I’m here to be. Painting gives us an opportunity, for us to make real our experiences of reverence. And then it expands into the world. We see something as beautiful, we capture it and bring it to life anew in a painting; all the while we are seeing it again and again, as we find its shapes and colors. This then brings greater appreciation for it – more reverence. The resulting painting is a reflection of our reverence, which then others can see, thereby receiving the transmission of appreciation and beauty.

I know we cannot have a steady diet of only reverence – it’s sort of nauseating – even to me – to think about a life with too much of it. Irreverence, disconnection, discord have their place too, otherwise we are all in one gooey soup of connectedness. But the reason we all want this election over, is that there’s been too much of the latter and not enough of the former. Something else I’ve learned from wise ones in my life, is that whatever we feel is lacking we need to bring. If I’m feeling like I’m not being appreciated, if I then bring appreciation, all of a sudden, I’m experiencing it coming to me. It’s like magic.

Those of us who paint, who have a creative practice of some sort, have a way to easily bring reverence. We do our art. If you don’t, I’m certain there is a way that connects you to beauty and appreciation, for what is. If you are a voting US citizen and you’ve not already done so, please vote today – voting shows our reverence for our form of government. And for all of us, today and as we go forward, please find a way to bring more reverence. Our world is waiting for it.

With my love,

Cara