from whenonearth.net
Out
Of a great need
We are all holding hands
And climbing.
Not loving is a letting go.
Listen
The terrain around here
is
far too
dangerous
for
that.
-Hafiz
Rage and Tenderness
This world can stupefy us with its cruelty... Our response to such suffering is often a helpless rage. Rage can be cathartic in the short term, that blast of power, noise or energy that can blow things apart or shut things down. And, often it goes inside, which sucks up the lifeforce. That is called depression.
Anger does carry power. It is loaded with energy and can provide a sense of worth. But, this kind of self-protection is not necessarily self-care. Whether angry or raging, the response of tension we experience from this comes from emotional hurt. It is a strategy of self-protection to tend to the hurt. Anger creates tension, rigidity and sometimes aggression, either within or without.
For a survivor, history and programming - and creating some semblance of safety- have been what one had to survive the assaults and the abuses. One might have used (or continue to use) fear, passive aggression, or manipulation as strategies instead of outright aggression. But this takes a toll on our bodies certainly-- and our spirit.
Is it possible to use anger and the energy it creates as a source of both compassion and power? Is it possible to see the point of view of the person on the opposite side of the political, gender, racial justice spectrum without diminishing our own truth or safety? Can we neither give our power away, or on the other hand, bully our way to what we think we want? If we have been the aggressor, or the one with the power to harm, can we find the ways or words to apologize without our own diminishment?
It has been an inspiration to observe that recovery itself is a form of activism.
We learn the ways to be mindful, to respond instead of just reacting. We track the ways that our abuses have conditioned us and break those patterns by mending our own minds. We perform inner brain surgery on our programming We also bear witness with fierce compassion to the suffering of others and of ourselves—as a response to the racism, illness, loss of life and work, and the struggle for justice.
Anger can work as a creative force, not a destructive relationship with others or within ourselves. But dealing with the inequities, the injustice and the abuses of this world calls for creating space between the stimulus and the response. Can we find that one heartbeat between so we can redirect and meet the situation instead of using our old habits and addictions. Can we re-member ourselves instead of resorting to the old patterns that no longer work and perhaps never did. It is why we need community, not just our own individual resources.
Then we can act, respond, serve, choose to engage or disengage—love.