I touched on this a little in my peace about sharing beauty with the world around us. We create that beauty through supporting libraries and museums, patronizing small businesses in our areas, participating in neighborhood cleanup projects and public art. We have in my mind a moral responsibility, without regarding those we are assisting as lesser, without seeking attention for our good works, and without burning ourselves out screaming about issues, to make our little corners of the world better places. That energy flows outward. We can do this as acts of devotion to our gods. Life is interconnected, even our planet has body, mind, and spirit just like we do. from the sun to the gods to the spirits that inhabit blades of grass, down to Adams with their electrical currents, everything is sentient.
We can witness the social trials of the world without dissolving into them. We don’t need to exist in a constant state of burden and burnout. Instead, we can have space for our own happiness and exercise our agency in a real way that counts on a local level. If the first part of the series was about nourishing our inner flame, this is about taking that warmth into the world around us physically.
I sat on the front steps of an old house many years ago, listening to the story of one blended family across multiple generations, hearing about the compounding circumstances they had had, the challenges they had faced. I was with a group that was engaged in cleanup in the neighborhood of Evergreen bottom in Birmingham Alabama. We were sweeping sidewalks, cleaning up overgrown brush, removing trash. When I compare this moment to the performed distress online, I feel like we give ourselves emotional exhaustion without really changing anything these days. Another moment that gave me immense joy was working in a high school in Leland Mississippi. We washed windows, dusted books, repainted movable stage walls, and talked with the students who were there participating in the work. One moment I remember clearly was cleaning up an old water fountain that no one believed worked, and it actually did. I think seeing their school renewed maybe gave those kids some hope, some sense that the world could actually be a better place. What we got in return, as college kids from a nice school in Illinois, was a different perspective on life. Things weren’t easy for them, but they knew how to connect with each other in positive ways. And they wanted the world to be a better place for everyone. Despite their own difficulties they were willing to step up and work to better their own community. I feel like now, we spend so much time being angry, burning ourselves out, and maybe that communication gets more of us thinking in the right direction, but how does it actually turn into real world change on a micro level? Because that kind of change comes from small acts with consistency. There were many other projects but another that hits close to home for me philosophically is working in a cemetery, where the last burial took place in 1984, on the side of a steep hill in Weston West Virginia. I could feel many individual energies of people who were there. So cleaning off their gravestones, getting rid of old brush, washing the steps that climbed the hill, felt like honoring them. We should honor the places we live in, and the people we share those places with, as we are all divine.
I feel we could step back from the cycles of performed distress, and instead create cumulative change through small consistent actions that honor ourselves, the Earth, humanity and our gods. They’re absolutely must be spaces for anger, empathy, grief and joy. We do not have to sacrifice who we are, doing what we love, or taking care of ourselves. We just have to step up.
Solaria Divina 