The Awakening

Having been absent from blog and broadcast media for a few weeks, I am grateful for the inspiration to write today. After a bout with insomnia this past week, and futile attempts to bring on drowsiness (instead of outrage) while flipping through various media sources on computer and cathode ray screen, I am still awake, but strangely not fatigued.

Today, as I dropped my son off at kindergarten, I pondered a few things in the quiet solitude of the morning. This time, when three out of our four children are still asleep and the grey skies above provided a calming and contemplative mood, I contemplated this.

The more I live, the more I learn, the less I know, and the more I wish I had more time to learn!

A couple of years ago, having uprooted our family from one state to another and living in complete uncertainty, we followed Oprah Winfrey’s book recommendation and read with great understanding and resonance, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth. We also took the 10 week course she pioneered on Skype, which was groundbreaking at the time. Without going too “deep” into the mind of Eckhart Tolle, we both loved this book.

I don’t think Oprah Winfrey would agree with the kind of awakening we are experiencing now. But there is certainly not only an awakening of the spirit but also of the very depth of soul, which lay so dormant in so many of us for so long. My once mute voice now literally cries out to be free again. It is a palpable shout of “let freedom ring!” I remember well, the wonderful analogy Eckhart Tolle shared of two ducks in the water. They have a squabble and they flap their wings ferociously and then settle back down to continue swimming in the water. He used this analogy to show that with “presence” we can disagree and separate the person from the problem and not malign them in the process–for they “know not what they do.”

When I think of what I see on television in regards to Americans, who in growing number are reconnecting to the idea of what America IS, I think of this story. The tea party movement is perhaps one of the most pure examples of the duck story. It isn’t a monolithic group. It isn’t a group at all. It is a random and synchronous awakening of a spirit that flies in formation, yes, but does not seek to eliminate any bird. United on a direction, but with diverse ideas on how to get there, the more they flap their wings, the more hunters below try to single them out and pick them off one by one.

As we go forward, the flaps will get louder and louder and the other birds will peck, pluck and bite. But if we remain present, calm and resolute, perhaps one day we will all swim together again in a pristine pool without getting caught in the weeds.