Changing Times

As the days and nights soon pass being lengths, the days are becoming warmer. And I am again amazed at the magical transformation the world is undergoing.

Oh, I have things I enjoy about each season of the year. But the warmer months have my full attention. And I am just as happy to leave the cold days of Winter behind. The brown earth. The skeletal trees. And the only birds which had such little variety in their coloring!

There seems to be a half-week every year when the native plants all burst forth in color. And we are getting close to that time. Already familiar birds of color are returning to the skies. And our winter coats are being phased out for yet another year.

Many of us spend this time doing what we call Spring Cleaning: out with the old, in with the new, and dusting off the rest. Everything is changing, from the cold sleepy days of the dark months, to the warm, vibrant days of the sun. And so also do those of us with seasonal affective disorders climb out of our shells.

But what world do we come out into? This is a time of inreaching; a time of planting the seeds of our future. And here is where we control what our future will be.

Change is the only constant in the universe. Our world is changing before our eyes. The rather comfortable times we've lived in since the last great wars have been replaced by times of fear and terror.

The world is rocked by wars and rumor of wars. Artificial climate changes are becoming apparent. And the voices of intolerance seem to grow each day.

In our time of inreach, we may find many things in the world which bring the fighter out of each of us. But it is important to know when to fight and when to stand firm. Sometimes patience is the best defense against a world of injustice.

This is the time when we must do what our species does best: stop, ask questions to understand the situation more fully, and then make enlightened decisions. As quickly as our world is changing today, we cannot afford the mistakes which often come with knee-jerk reactions.

The Web of Being

When we are children we learn about the food chain: the fact that life feeds on life and that some life even feeds on death. We learn that nothing is truly created or destroyed, but that everything simply changes form. And so, we learn that the process of transformation is at the heart of the universe and that everything is connected.

Often in life-affirming religions, we learn about the Web of Life: that all life affects all other life. We learn that the ties which bind one to another transcend the food chain; that is to say, our actions and interactions affect all others. It is as though each action we take is a drop in a great Pool of Life, and whose ripples gradually touch every other drop in the Pool.

However, I believe even this is a narrow view of reality. For I see our interactions as affecting not only life, but also those things which we do not normally consider as living. I see the Web as extending beyond our world, including all things everywhere. It is as though a great candle sits at the center of the universe and all things are touched by its light. For even in the turbulent storm of Creation there is peace at the center.

Paranoia

During the Cold War, there was a sense of paranoia created by a world now living in the uncertainty of the nuclear age. The space age was opening up and two superpowers were constantly at odds, trying to decide the politics of an entire planet. The natural reaction to this was simple: the public became paranoid.

First, the Roswell Incident made people suspicious and fearful about alien creatures. Then in the 1950’s and 60’s the science fiction and horror movies made their fears seem more concrete. In fact, during the height of the Cold War the science fiction media was obsessed with bug-eyed monsters who were bent on the destruction of the world.

As calmer times emerged in the 1970’s the public’s paranoia began to turn to conspiracy theories: often involving the government. Such beliefs as the hiding of secret technologies from Roswell, conspiracies involving the Bavarian Illuminati, and so forth, ran amok. And today, many of these conspiracy theorists abound: especially in our modern world filled with the uncertainty of terrorism we’ve been introduced to in the past decade.

As with any conspiracies, I always have to ask those who believe such things: “To what end?” If our government is lying about Roswell, or the 9/11 attacks, then why? If a small group of scientist-minded individuals has been countering the Catholic Church in secret for millennia with a bent on destroying the world: then to what end? And what will they do next?

It seems paranoia is a quick attempt to lay the blame at another’s feet when things don’t go the way we want them to, or when we’re fearful about the future. Over the years, I’ve known many in my own life who have had the same reaction on a more personal level. I’ve known a man who believes the government (or a secret organization) is secretly sabotaging his life and his employment prospects. I’ve also known a woman who believes many people who used to be a part of her life are constantly plotting against her. In each case I have to ask again: to what end? Do people such as this honestly believe that the government, or former friends and family members have so much free time on their hands as to constantly be turning their attentions to causing the misfortunes of another? Is there some form of coherent evil at work here that would drive a group to get some sort of sick pleasure out of causing such pain?

In each of the cases above, and in other similar cases, I have been close enough to the individual in question to make a few discrete observations. It seems that these people simply make bad choices in their lives. And when things take a sour turn, they look for a scapegoat to blame these bad decisions on. They may believe the world is plotting against them. Or perhaps they are cursed!

In any case, the most successful curse is one placed upon oneself. And the countercurse is just as simple: if things in your life are not turning out the way you want them to, look at the patterns in your life. Look at the choices you are making. Are you doing the same things over and over expecting better results? Are there ways to break out of those “bad” patterns and make better decisions. Are you hanging out with the wrong people, or dating the wrong kinds of people? Are you turning down jobs that aren’t good enough, waiting for the perfect one to fall into your lap rather than taking what’s available until something better comes along? Are you letting other people tell you what you should be doing in your life rather than making decisions on your own?

The only way out of a mess of our own making, is an escape path of our own doing.

Pattern Living

Our lives are governed by patterns. We understand the ways of the seasons and know when to plant and harvest our crops. And we know when to dress warmly and when to prepare for the summer heat. We know when a storm is coming because we've seen certain patterns in the clouds before. And we begin to understand the patterns of our lives, perhaps too late to do anything about them.
We study the patterns of our bodies and so are able to treat our illnesses. We can watch our weight for changes and adjust our diet accordingly. We can be prepared when our bodily rhythms change with time. And we can be prepared for growing old.
We can study the basic building blocks of all matter in the universe. We are better able to create new things, transform older things, and destroy obsolete things.
Patterns are everywhere in our lives. We can learn a great deal from them.

Patterns can tell us a great deal about the nature of the universe in which we live. And yet so often we simply rely on the earlier understandings of our forebears. Those who went before us, centuries ago, could only see the patterns in their immediate surroundings. And so their answers were incomplete. Today, we can see things on a much more global scale. And hopefully we can learn more about the nature of the universe by seeing the patterns with a much broader view.
For example, persons who lived in a harsh climate may have perceived God as a strict deity: easy to punish, and slow to appease. Yet, those who lived in a more lush environment may have seen numerous deities controlling the many life-giving forces of the world. But today we understand that the world has many different types of climate in every sort of range. The pattern is much broader than our ancestors could have ever imagined!

Every bit of understanding in the universe comes from seeing and understanding patterns. And some of the patterns are so clear.
The "birth, life, death, and silence" cycle is repeated throughout the universe everywhere. It plays itself out in our lives, and in the lives of stars. It governs the behavior of all elemental particles. And it also signals the recycling of raw materials from one life to the next.