Pausing to assess

Ashes are not black or white

I’m pausing this week between Part 2 and Part 3 of my series Seedballs, Willow Wattles, and the Bear Theft to share some thoughts around the recent wildfire that destroyed Lahaina.

Let us weep about all that has been lost there, and in the other extreme weather events around the world. And then let’s take action, dance, sing, and celebrate.

Our hearts can hold so much if we allow ourselves to feel it all: the joy and the sorrow.

We must learn how to weep and celebrate simultaneously.

It is much easier to put the blame on government, the media, or even climate change when devastation happens. Theories and stories, the need to understand and simplify can give us a sense of outrage and righteousness that feels good and powerful.

But them vs. us thinking creates dogma and an inability to peer into the ashes and sift through our own grief, sense of helplessness, and fears of the unknown.

In these times we are all part of the problem and we are all part of the solution.

When we can face the complexity, stop blaming, shaming, and judging, and courageously acknowledge that we are part of the problem and part of the solution, new possibilities open.

Here are some supportive steps to being with the contradictions, chaos, and heartbreak:

• Feel your emotions, without the story

• Lessen the ways you swamped or confused by information so you numb out or dogmatically take sides

• Locate news sources that share facts in a non-inflammatory way

• Look for the beauty and the wisdom of the indigenous voices and responses

• Learn to rest into a daily centering and deepening spiritual practice and loving community

Feel your emotions, without the story

Learn how to separate emotions from thoughts. There is great healing that can happen when we feel our grief, anger, or fear as pure energy moving through us. This takes practice and learning how to feel what we are feeling very directly in our bodies without needing to justify, explain, or understand.

Close your eyes and feel your emotions and the sensations in your body without the story. Practice simply being with what you are feeling, breathing into all tension, tightness, and sensations. This is not always easy, but it is essential that you learn to separate out the feeling from the story, without exiting or repressing your emotions. 

https://bestselfmedia.com/warrior-of-the-heart/

Locate media sources that share facts in a non-inflammatory way

Lessen the ways you swamped or confused by information so you numb out or dogmatically take sides.

If you find yourself feeling highly emotional, disempowered, helpless, righteously angry and blamingly judgmental, or paralyzed, analyze the way you are using media. Make concrete changes.

Some that I follow to stay informed, sobered, and also delighted:

- 1440 non-biases daily news briefing
- Civil Discourse
- Free Will Astrology
- Ask E. Jean

Look for the beauty and the wisdom of the indigenous voices and responses

Please watch and let yourself weep. For all of it. And witness the the art of rising.

In Lahaina a 150-year old Banyan tree that is the heart of the community was severely damaged by the fire. Arborists say that it will be three to six months before they will know if the many prayers, soil restoration, and daily watering will help the tree survive the damage.

https://people.com/150-year-old-banyan-tree-still-standing-after-maui-fires-7660493

The Hula Festival, which happens annually under the banyan tree each year, was two days after the wildfire that destroyed Lahaina and burned most of the sacred tree. When it would have been easy to cancel it, the organizers and dancers decided to share it live on Facebook as a fundraiser for Maui.

Watching the beginning of the performance gave me the crack my heart needed to let the tears flow.

From npr.org:

When an extreme event like a wildfire burns through a place, it's not just culturally meaningful physical structures that are at risk. The same goes for the rituals and traditions connected to those places.

One example is the annual Emma Farden Sharpe Hula Festival, which usually takes place under the banyan tree in downtown Lahaina, a local landmark that was badly burned. Organizer Daryl Fujiwara said he had intended to cancel the 2023 festival, because he thought it might be too much for the dancers.

"A lot of dancers in these hula schools, they're all facing so many hardships," he said. "A lot of them lost their homes."

But Fujiwara said the performers still wanted to go ahead. So he pivoted to producing the event virtually, on Facebook.

The performers this year danced indoors in front of a backdrop of white sheets and floral arrangements instead of under the tree. It wasn't the same. But Fujiwara said that because of the plundering and negligence of colonial powers, Hawaiians have learned to deal with the loss of many important historic and sacred sites.

https://www.facebook.com/EFSHF/videos/3473459319587514

Emma Farden Sharpe Hula Festival 2023, which continued as a Facebook streamed fundraising event two days after the fire that destroyed Lahaina.

We need both tears and hope to metabolize grief. May we seek out things that help us let the tears flow, and in the spaciousness after the grief open into the beauty and love and healing as we get steady with the long, hard work of cleanup and restoration post devastation.

Learn to rest into a daily centering and deepening spiritual practice and loving community

We need each other, and we need deeper connection to the sacredness of this present moment and time, the elements, the cycles and seasons, the ancestors, the plants and rocks and animals. Make sure to take time to disconnect from mental stories and screens so you can connect to your inner sweetness and the wild wonderful diverse web of this beautiful, abundant, generous planet.

Grieve what is lost, celebrate what survives, rebuild from love.

And don’t let your emotions get hijacked.

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Here is one of the articles that sparked this article... The Hotshot Wake Up shares news about wildfires, fire tech, and wildfire policy from a former Hotshot Overhead and Crew Supervisor. I started following their Substack during the New Mexico wildfire last year. While it was incompetence that started the wildfire, the response from both our local volunteer firefighters and paid firefighters all over the country was remarkable. This article really struck me.

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