Faith, Hope & Love, During Difficult Times

 

 

Now is a time for faith. Or if you prefer, and perhaps more important yet: for perseverance, for patience, for forbearance, for resolve, for courage, for confidence, for sheer determination, for resiliency, or sisu (that beautiful Finnish word), or chutzpah – and for a long term perspective, as the Dalai Lama has advised.

Remember, life is change, and this too shall pass. All is change – and everything is transmutable, as Trungpa said.

That does not mean we should be passive spectators only. Far from it.

Another thing the Dalai Lama said comes to mind now. He said, “When I talk about patience, I mean long term patience. I want a person of action. I want someone who gets things done.”

Exactly.

Always, the work to be done is to live with compassion, and to help others, and other living beings, human or otherwise, as much as we can.

Compassion dictates that we do not surrender to despair, under any circumstances. People need help, so we help them. The Earth needs our help – as humble, yet confident stewards, who acknowledge they are not, nor should they ever attempt to be, the masters of nature, yet must always be her protector and nurturer, as she is ours.

So we act. We nourish ourselves, in body, spirit and mind, so that we can act with compassion, and bring healing to this troubled world. That is what must be done, in this time or any other. Now is no different, essentially, than any other time.

But the people are waking up to our inseparable interconnectedness and interdependence. That global awakening of humanity is a new trend, only a few scant, short, fleeting decades old (mere nanoseconds in the history of the Earth, or even the 300,000 year history of humanity); and it is an awakening that is accelerating rapidly, at an exponential pace.

We truly are, all one family. The people are waking up to that fact, among others. And that awakening is a good thing.

Remember also, as Thoreau said,

“There is more day yet to dawn.”

Or as Yogi Berra put it – and he was right:

“It ain’t over ’till it’s over.”

Keep the faith. Fight the good fight.

There is more day yet to dawn.

JTR,
April 4, 2020