JANUARY 2021 - BLOG

 

 

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

 

Dear Reader,

 

As we are coming to the end of an exceedingly difficult and critical time that began with a global pandemic and then huge fires in California and Australia, you are invited to reflect about what it takes to survive physically, mentally, and spiritually.

As I reflect upon the great events in Nature while walking in the park near my home, or just sit on my veranda watching the sunset, or experience the light of the full moon at night, I become aware that every living being (from a virus to a whale) is filled with organic change and movement.

In our human experience, we can go through loss, suffering, pain, and all sorts of difficulties that seem to be a constant everyday occurrence. Meeting these difficulties, whether big or small, it is imperative to understand that these are not only outer changes and shifts but also, they are in our own inner nature.

As a psychotherapist with the gestalt orientation, I meet many people in my practice that are full of grief, anxiety, fear, loss, and many turbulent emotions that are carried inside. It seems like the Soul itself is crying for a solution. Yet, most people simply want to run away, blame others, and feel unlucky because they are not healed.

Working with a therapist or taking time for some meditation, or simply walk in a park (preferably barefoot) connects us with the place within that has all the solutions necessary to resolve most if not all our difficulties.

This ‘Journey of the Soul’ offers us important lessons and even amazing “gifts” that in time, will transform our lives. We all have the capacity to heal. We are a self-regulated organism, but we must take time to discover that all experiences, may they be good or bad, are lessons that lead to healing.

As preparation for this blog, I came across a book sitting on my shelf called: A LAMP IN THE DARKNESS by Jak Kornfield Ph.D. Jack trained as a Buddhist monk for many years in Thailand, Burma, and India. I became a follower of Jack’s writings when I was interested in Buddhism some years ago. Now I am happy to connect with his teachings again. I remember what Buddha said: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”.

Here I will not comment on the book but do recommend all readers to purchase this book. The Kindle edition is only $12.34, and the paperback is $34.90. This is a great read for the new year and for your own ‘Soul Craft’ work. The paperback book has a wonderful CD of meditations that are coordinated with the teaching. Here are the titles of the meditations:

1.       SHARED COMPASSION – a guided practice for planting the seeds of Compassion and opening the heart to all living beings.

2.       THE EARTH IS MY WITNESS – a meditation to establish firm footing amid the darkness of the soul.

3.       THE PRESENCE OF FORGIVENESS - known as the only medicine that can release us from the past and begin anew.

4.       THE TEMPLE OF HEALING – a guided visualisation to meet your inner healer.

5.       EQUANIMITY AND PEACE – a meditation to maintain a balance and acceptance regardless of your situation.

I am very indebted to Jack Kornfield by reading his books and meditating on my own journey through the WII as a child in Europe, my learning and healing time during the immigration to Venezuela and then Canada. Finding a place of peace in Australia and a partner who is a great support and, I am grateful to my two sons for being well.

To finish this reflection, I am quoting Jack from his book:

“Every life is filled with change and insecurities, and every life includes loss and suffering and difficulties that arise regularly. We are all nomads in an everchanging world, and we need ways to ground ourselves and remain cantered no matter what happened.”

 

 I WISH YOU ALL THE VERY BEST FOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON - HOPE FOR PEACE AND PROSPERITY.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

 

 

DECEMBER - 2020 BLOG

 

REFLECTIONS YARO BLOG - DECEMBER 2020

                                                                                                                             ODIN - THE NORSE FATHER

 

Dear reader,

Have you heard or read about the Canadian professor of psychology and author of the book “Twelve Rules for Life”? If not, go to YouTube and click on Jordan Peterson. Somehow, he has proven to be a tragic human even though he is highly intelligent and is incredibly involved in promoting the open and  diverse culture of free speech and writing and giving video presentations that are being “killed” by false intellectuals.

Like many great geniuses in history, they alone were able to do the ‘impossible’ and open the world to everyone. Christopher Columbus discovered what now we call AMERICA, GANDHI liberated India, SIMON BOLIVAR liberated South America, Nelson Mandela, and so on.

Jordan Peterson is another man who single handily is breaking the new PC (politically correct) movement that is shouting loudly in the media about the need to silence his words and want the Penguin publishers to cancel his new book.

Like most religious movements in history the 'nice and positive' preaching is about spirit, togetherness, and community, but in reality, (when we check the facts) it is about power and control. Now the PC movement appears to promote ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’, and ‘tolerance’ at the expense of controlling what we can read or listen to. Speakers, writers, and promoters of freedom and debate and understanding are shamed in public and even prosecuted for their ideas. They say: How they dare to write books that question the natural pattern of being man and woman, male and female? Today Shakespeare would be arrested for what he wrote because he represents the ‘patriarchy’ that has become a swear word for many.

I want to reflect, again, on the word PATRIARCH or PATRIARCHY. It has become a “swear” word in our culture. In analyzing the word, we become aware (note) that PATER is a Latin word for FATHER and in ancient Rome the man in the family was called with the respectful phrase as PATER-FAMILIAS. Here I quote from history: “The pater familias, also written as paterfamilias, was the head of a Roman family. The paterfamilias was the oldest living male in a household and exercised autocratic authority over his extended family. The term is Latin for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate"

Roman law and tradition (mos majorum) established the power of the pater familias within the community of his own extended familia. In Roman family law, the term "Patria potestas" (Latin: “power of a father”) refers to this concept. He held legal privilege over the property of the familia, and varying levels of authority over his dependents: these included his wife and children, certain other relatives through blood or adoption, clients, freedmen and enslaved persons. The same mos majorum moderated his authority and determined his responsibilities to his own familia and to the broader community. He had a duty to father and raise healthy children as future citizens of Rome, to maintain the moral propriety and well-being of his household, to honour his clan and ancestral gods and to dutifully participate—and if possible, serve—in Rome's political, religious and social life. In effect, the pater familias was expected to be a good citizen.” Now much of that authority has changed but the false interpretation of FATHER is being pushed as a negative title for a man.

Historically, the early humans did not have any separation of powers until the advent of agriculture and settlements of groups of families to work the land and contribute to the survival of the tribe or clan. Over time, the cultural shifts, religions, and the need to keep a society in control, the patriarch became a symbol of power out of necessity to survive.

Feminist theorists and writers have published extensively about patriarchy either as a primary cause of women's oppression or as part of an interactive system. Shulamith Firestone, a radical-libertarian feminist, defines patriarchy as a system of oppression of women. Firestone believes that patriarchy is caused by the biological inequalities between women and men, e.g. that women bear children, while men do not. Firestone writes that patriarchal ideologies support the oppression of women and gives us an example the joy of giving birth, which she labels a patriarchal myth. For Firestone, women must gain control over reproduction to be free from oppression. Feminist historian Gerda Lerner believes that male control over women's sexuality and reproductive functions is a fundamental cause and result of patriarchy. Alison Jaggar also understands patriarchy as the primary cause of women's oppression. The system of patriarchy accomplishes this by alienating women from their bodies.

However, in the latter half of the 18th century, clerical sentiments of patriarchy were meeting challenges from intellectual authorities – Diderot's Encyclopedia denies inheritance of paternal authority stating, "... reason shows us that mothers have rights and authority equal to those of fathers; for the obligations imposed on children originate equally from the mother and the father, as both are equally responsible for bringing them into the world. Thus, the positive laws of God that relate to the obedience of children join the father and the mother without any differentiation; both possess a kind of ascendancy and jurisdiction over their children”.

This idea of who is who keeps coming up in many cultures around the world, Today with the many ways to express our own beliefs and theories, we have the social network that instantly communicates to many about what is the “truth”. On one hand, we observe the PC groups that want to control the ideas and on the other, we have still evidence of religious practices that forbid women to show their face in public.

We have a lot to reflect upon and keep learning from every point of view and the internet is a good research tool if used wisely. Perhaps we are in the midst of ending the patriarchal culture of the past or maybe the female goddess that was worshipped in times of early human settlements will ‘give birth’ to a new awareness and a new path to unite the human race.

I am including here a podcast by my great gestalt teacher CLAUDIO NARANJO entitled: THE END OF PATRIARCHY AND THE DAWN OF WHOLENESS.

 

Please click on the link above

Your comments are very welcome.

REFLECTIOS YARO BLOG – NOVEMBER 2020

 

YOU ARE NEVER OLD

                                          

                                                                   Robert Dessaix Author of "The Time of Our Lives: Growing Older Well"

Dear reader,

I am reaching the most important age this October 30. I will be 80 years young and according to my biological age, I am 69 this year.

Definition of biological age: We think of chronological age as the amount of time since you were born—whatever your driver’s license says—whereas biological age is the age your body resembles or functions at. Even though two people may both be thirty years old chronologically, one of them could have a biological profile that is closer to twenty-five, whereas the other might have a biological profile of thirty-five. see yours at https://www.biological-age.com/).

I am noting that the age of very deep reflection is even deeper now. There are many points of view and many research theories about prolonging “old age” or making more time for life and avoid death. But death does come some time and that is not a philosophical exploration but a reality.

However, as a young man, I was very curious bout what is death all about and searched for ideas at temples in India, Zen centers, Buddhist teachings, and so on. All are the most interesting concepts worthy of research and reflection.

Now as I am reaching the age when reflection is a way of taking time to just BE.  I am now exploring a book called “The Time of Our Lives: Growing Older Well” by Robert Dessaix who is 80 and lives in Hobart, Australia. A review of his book was written by Stephen Romei and published in the Weekend Australian. I was so inspired by the review that I bought the book and finished reading it this week.

I am delighted and even entertained by this author who represents, to me, a real OZZIE bloke. His point is: “you are never too old, “there is no fountain of youth” and he starts to give a vivid and joyful description of his own experience. How to grow old happy and well is the theme of his narrative and is full of examples of the encounters he had over his lifetime with his friends.

Since I am completing 80 years, this October, I am joining his club of elders. The book is divided into several topics by the review written by Stephen Romei and thus we can reflect on every topic in the book and then read the book. I highly recommend it. 

1.     Robert Dessaix suffered a heart attack in 2001 walking on Oxford st in Sydney. “I technically died twice,” he said. He was revived first by a paramedic and the second time in hospital. He describes his experience as “nothing happened because there is nothing that can happen”. There is no bright light nor any meetings with the deceased, but it is like a mobile phone that goes ‘dead’ – just dead!

2.     Aged Care - it is a time when Robert visits Rita at the aged care home in Hobart. He describes her life there right up to the final days. His observation of Rita as a characteristically old Rita. She cannot think clearly, and states that somehow Robert is someone called Olive and she constantly asks him if she can come home. Her expressions are not heard by anyone nor anyone cares about her feelings. This is surely a different place from home, and according to statistics, it will be needed as the populations grow older over the years and more of us will need such care.

3.     Sexuality – the author states that “ we need to learn and acknowledge that people’s sexual needs will be met in different ways – raging erections, however, are out of the question as we grow older and appreciating our freedom to either be loving or lonely but certainly LOVE IS FOREVER”.

4.    Friendships – This is certainly an inner feeling of Love that can never be bought.” Our friendships, affections, attachments, understandings and intimacies, some long-lasting and some temporary are the most difficult and most rewarding kinds.”

5.     Heaven and Hell – Labelling or not labeling the beliefs of heaven and hell, is something personal and depends on cultural reinforcement. The hell drama of a devil holding you on pitchfork or being rewarded by angels on a cloud sitting around you is like a TV drama. We know it is a play, but we all want to believe in what the actors say.

6.     The Arts – Although we have great art, music, and stories, many are over one hundred years old and still inspire us, but the modern culture of today is teetering on the edge of an abyss. ‘It is a culture that is losing its soul and is nearing death”. I am thinking now of the youth culture following YouTube or Tik Tok. There is some attempt at entertainment, but it mostly gives vent to nothingness.

7.     Clutter – As we grow old, we must get rid of things as much as we can. Declutter all the things that accumulate in your life and free yourself for new space to create new projects. He said that the only book worth keeping is CRIME & PUNISHMENT by Dostoyevsky. I would personally keep my Gestalt therapy books to remember to BE HERE AND NOW.

8.     Travel – I agree fully with Dessaix that we must travel as much as possible when we are young. In this way, we can remember all the adventures when we are old. I was extremely fortunate in this area of my life as I would travel around the world for six months after 3 years of teaching at the University of Queensland.

9.     Caring less – less care (worrying) for people’s opinions, evaluations, comments about our self, that have little importance. This is true freedom of being yourself and to be able to tell some people to just “piss off”! and enjoy their reaction. This is the secret of nurturing yourself.

10.Contentment and happiness – The difference between these two concepts is central to Dessaix and I agree. As we grow older, we realise that contentment is much broader than happiness. Part of this is that we can share our contentment with others. Naturally, I do feel happy when I am dancing to music or listen to my favorite Mexican 'ranchers', and particularly my happiness is great dancing the Tango. I took Tango lessons for some weeks, years ago, and still can happily dance the Tango. It is the secret of a good life.

11.Remembering and forgetting – writing, painting or just being involved in my own projects is a way of putting my experiences either on a canvass or a book. Then things are ‘set in place’ and people can then recall what you did in your life. I have written my own story in a book called JUST PASSING THROUGH, as a way to give my friends, relatives, and my two sons my version of my life so they can ‘re-call’ me. Recalling stories is one way not to lose memory.

Finally, a quote by Dessaix: “I do not think that many of us find death ‘unbearable’ at all. It’s the process of dying that we are fearful of”.

 

 

 

                                                                                          HAVE A GREAT TIME !!

OCTOBER BLOG - 2020

 ELDERS IN INDIA

TRANSITION – NOT CHANGE

 

Dear Reader,

In the last blog, we examined the topic of LIFE AFTER LIFE. In this October Blog, I am reflecting on the meaning of change and what we can do to make our life a transition to something rather change into something. We can think of ‘changing our clothing’ as we dress in the morning, but what we call transition is a deeper notion.

At some time in our lives, we begin to feel the physical body older (the symptoms are there). Everything in the Universe is going through what the scientists call ENTROPY. This means deterioration break up, collapse, degeneration, destruction, worsening. Just pick your own word.

At this time, we all have a series of anthropic events that indicate a movement toward the end. The COVID-19 epidemic is only one example. Then there is the climate change crisis, cultural and economic upheavals, all direct most of us to the experience of feelings of despair and chaos. At the same time, there is an opening for more sharing on a global scale.

All is impermanent as Buddha said about 3000 years ago. But today this sense of shifting sands is more intense and is experienced on a global level. As I read and watch the world news every day, I cannot but feel deeply the end of life as we knew for centuries.

As an ‘older man or elder,’ I am developing an ‘elder men’ project that will examine the idea of LIFE AFTER LIFE. I reflected on this idea in my last blog and now I am putting this project into action. I have invited about half a dozen men to come for a half-hour video interview with me. These men are of pre-retirement and post-retirement age. All men are known to each other because we meet every Saturday morning at the Brisbane West End market. We sit around a table, drink good café, and just share whatever comes to mind: opinions about politics, own stories, events, and so on. Nothing is sacred or forbidden and we laugh a lot.

So far, the four men that came for the video interview shared amazing stories. Even though we met every Saturday at the Brisbane West End market, the stories impacted me greatly and given me deep insights about the many roads we have traveled in life and the many stories about ourselves we collected. Each man has a unique and original journey offering us an amazing mixture of cultural and educational wisdom. They represent the typical Australian modern people. Finally, I am aware how, despite so many differences, we are all interconnected

My other perspective about the interviews is that we are not old but spiritually ancient. We represent the ancient wisdom of many cultures It is more than living a life, but it is a gathering of each men’s Soul Energy that enables us to grow and develop no matter what the circumstances and a creative way to put forward the creativity and wisdom to others.

My mentor, Michael Meade, the mythologist, speaks of the ancient wisdom referring to the moon phases indicating that as the moon faces change, they represent the movement form new to a three-quarter to full moon and new moon again without any stopping but always changing. Thus, we are being taught by Nature itself how we grow and mature and end to - begin again.

 

Here is a link to Mead’s podcast, please listen.

 

SEPTEMBER - 2020

YARO BLOG SEPTEMBER 2020

 

LIFE   AFTER   LIFE

                                                           El Camino de Santiago Spain - 2006

Y. Starak & A. Moffat as pilgrims

Dear reader,

I am now reflecting on my years of retirement and the challenges that kept me well and occupied with family and art. In my ‘other life’ I was working 9am to 5pm most days of the week lecturing students at the University of Queensland dept. of Social Work and Social Science. Those were indeed wonderful years; teaching, researching, and publishing. At the same time, I was a founder and co-founder of several Gestalt Therapy institutes throughout Australia.

Now, in my New LIfe, I am an artist; busy painting portraits of friends and family and exhibiting my work with my partner and wife Gemma Garcia. Even the terrible situation with the COVID virus cannot stop us. We are now very busy with our creative work. (see www. arttherapygestalt.com).

Someone said to me, the other day: “WHAT NOW, HOW IS LIFE AFTER LIFE?” I was not sure of the meaning but decided to reflect on this challenging question. My own calling to a new life was my first experience walking the CAMINO in Spain and a real calling to a new way to walk life. And that is exactly what Michael is describing below, those were my own feelings as a pilgrim walking the 900+K.

My mentor, Michael Meade, indicates that a sign of certain courage is needed to follow what is calling us. This is also linked with my previous blogs on the SOUL. Here is his article that I am happy to share with you and hope you can also “follow your bliss” in the next stage of your life.

A certain kind of courage is required to follow what truly calls to us; why else would so many choose to live within false certainties and pretensions of security? If genuine treasures were easy to find this world would be a different place. If the path of dreams were easy to walk or predictable to follow many more would go that route. The truth is that most prefer the safer paths in life even if they know that their souls are called another way.

What truly calls to us is beyond what we know or can measure. It uses the language of hidden treasures and distant cities to awaken something sleeping within us. The soul knows that we must be drawn out of ourselves to truly become ourselves. Call it a dream or “the treasure hard to attain”; call it a vocation or the awakening of our innate genius. Call it what you will, upon hearing the call we must follow or else lose the true thread of our lives.

A true vocation requires shedding anything that would impede or obscure the call. A true pilgrimage requires letting go of the very things most people try to hold onto. In seeking after what the soul desires we become pilgrims with no home but the path the soul would have us follow. As the old proverb says: “Before you begin the journey, you own the journey. Once you have begun, the journey owns you.”

 After all, what good is a dream that does not test the mettle of the dreamer? What good is a path that does not carry us to the edge of our capacity and then beyond that place? A true calling involves a great exposure before it can become a genuine refuge.

In the soul’s adventure, we become a self-unknown, a self-unexpected, and in that way, we find the greater soul and genius self within us. Answering the call gives primacy to unknown places and foreign lands; it requires that we seek farther in the world than we would choose on our own. We enter our essential “creatureliness” and learn to sniff at the world again. We learn to read the wind and find our way by sensing and intuiting, by imagining and by dreaming on. Eventually, the dream of the soul becomes the only hope; it becomes a prayer and a map as well. In allowing the journey to “have us” we become lost; we lose our usual selves to find our original self again. Lost souls are the only ones who ever get found.

- Michael Meade, "Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul" 

Father and son finding treasures of the unbelievable by Damien Hirst

THE DARK VEIL OF IGNORANCE - AUGUST 2020

 

THE DARK VEIL OF IGNORANCE

Dear reader,

 

We are rapidly approaching the second half of 2020. This year has already created a sense of a new reality or new normal. Earlier this year, I reflected on the Chinese astrological name for 2020 – THE YEAR OF THE RAT. The rat symbolises “the midnight” and an earthy quality. It also means A RENEWAL. This symbol is also the first in the rotation of the 12 Zodiac signs in China. It is the beginning!

My own intuitive thinking is that the rat is also a scavenger and a carrier of viruses. It symbolises the shadow aspects of life.

As we are now experiencing a global pandemic, where an unknown virus is running out of control, killing thousands all over the globe and thus altering completely the way we are accustomed to live our daily life. But it is also a time of great opportunity to speed up the climate change plans, to clean up the coal energy plants, to use less plastic( see the news below) and produce electric transportation.

Now is the time to activate the cleaning up of our waste, to clear the oceans of garbage, and insure a sustainable future of all humankind. We have lived too long in a dark veil that we cannot see and now the virus (Covid-19) is giving all of us a clear message: “All humans, you must make serious changes the way you live. How you use resources, how you only care about making money – if not, the consequences will be catastrophic and apocalyptic for the next generations”, No politician can ‘fix it’ and if hope is an eternal belief we must begin NOW to take personal response-ability and start lifting the veil and enter the light of the SOUL. This is what my mentor Michael Meade says:

“A primary meaning of apocalypse is “lifting the veil,” both uncovering what was covered up and discovering things previously unknown. An example of the kind of surprising discovery that can happen in troubled times appeared recently. Astronomers identified a cosmic curtain of thousands of galaxies just beyond our Milky Way. Although enormous and relatively close, this expansive system of galaxies had been obscured by the dust of an area called the Zone of Avoidance.

This cosmic event can also be symbolic of the human psyche, where we can have inner zones of denial and avoidance that obscure insights and illuminating meanings that can expand, enrich, and enliven our lives. During all the current crises on Earth, it's important to know that there can also be the emergence of hidden truths appearing like stars that were formerly obscured. (my addition: Note the star-like Covid-19).

One way to imagine this potential inner lifting of the veil is through the psychological dynamic of fate and destiny. Fate involves all that limits us in life, while destiny calls us to find and follow our star. In avoiding fateful issues in our lives, we build the inner zones of avoidance. When we face our fate, we can find the inner “twist of fate” that reveals and aligns us with our destiny in life.

At this time, we are being called to find the courage, both collectively and individually, to face aspects of fate that constrict our lives and darken our world. The cosmos wants us to know that just beyond the zones of denial and avoidance there are unseen stars, bright ideas, and brilliant flashes of imagination that can light a multitude of pathways through this troubled world. Michael Meade

 

Note: His essays have appeared in To Be A Man, Tending the Fire, Wingspan, Walking Swiftly, and The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart. The latter is an anthology of poetry, which he edited with Robert Bly and James Hillman. His book Men and the Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of Men was published in 1993 by Harper San Francisco. He is the author of the books The Water of Life, The World Behind the World, Fate and Destiny, the Two Agreements in Life, and Why the World Doesn't End, Tales of Renewal in Times of Change. He frequently contributes essays to Huffington Post,[2] and Sun Magazine. Meade uses story, song, and mythology, as a means of discovery for others to find their inner wisdom and inherent gifts.

 

a cosmic event 

LATEST NEWS:

 https://www.sbs.com.au/news/ocean-plastic-pollution-flows-to-triple-by-2040-study-finds

JUNE 2020 BLOG POST

RESILIENCE AND HUMAN NATURE

 

Dear reader,

This June blog is inviting you to reflect on the current events that have made all our global community a place of crisis of major proportions. I the USA alone 100,000 deaths and more to come. This is not new to humanity, we have suffered many pandemics, wars, and all sorts of damages but came out with more creative ways of dealing and healing. People are resilient in times of troubles. Michael Meade states:

“The common usage of the word resilience suggests “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties” the current push to reopen the country after shutting down to stop the coronavirus exhibits this desire for a quick recovery, especially at the economic level. The problem is not just that the choice between open or closed is a false dichotomy; there are many nuanced paths between the two positions. The greater issue is that those who worry most about the economy and want to rush back to save it, may cause a much greater loss of human life and still fail in trying to force the economy to recover quickly.

The word resilience means “to rebound, to leap or spring back.” There is also a connection to the word salient as in “salient point,” the tipping point at which the heart of a human embryo seems to leap towards life. Seen that way, the point of resilience is not simply “going back” to a state that existed before; nor is it seeking a “new normal.” True resiliency involves both springing back up and arriving at a new starting point in life.

Human nature, like great Nature, harbors a deep, but often untapped, capacity for resilience that leads, not back to how things were before, but rather leaps forth with new ways of envisioning life. Only then can the meaning of a life crisis be found in a process of inner growth rather than a simple return to the spell of normalcy. What I am calling radical resiliency involves using the hidden energy in a crisis to generate a creative vision and new starting points that quicken the pulse of life at all levels.” He adds:

“We live in a time of multiple crises, radical changes, and increasing adversity in terms of both nature and human culture. Only when faced with obstacles, stress, and even environmental threats does resilience emerge. Recent psychological studies show that children who do not face adversity early in life tend to lack a capacity for resiliency. As an old proverb succinctly puts it, “Smooth seas make bad sailors.”  That also implies that resiliency can be learned and that people can become wise old salts when it comes to facing waves of adversity and finding meaningful ways of resetting the course of life. The issue in a crisis is not simply survival, but also a transformation of the survivors”.  

               

CREATION AND CREATIVITY – ART

I am reflecting on what my mentor Michael Meade describes as RESILIENCE. I am back in my earlier life as a young teen in Venezuela when my mother left Europe after WWII. I am incredibly grateful to my mother who alone (father was killed in the Ukrainian conflict with communism) developed a great resilience to survive and give me a model of creative work for more than 70 years. She was a great cook and managed to earn enough for us to live well until migrating to Canada. There she worked in a food store and cooked for others, and thus we lived well until I graduated from University and was able to work. So, I find that only our soul is the centre of resilience. Meade states:

“The soul is the only thing in a person that cannot be overwhelmed. The soul is also the seat and living source of human resilience. Even in the midst of a great crisis or a tragic descent, the soul can find salient points at which the human spirit can awaken further, and a quickening of life can occur. Whether it is a crisis, a conflict, or a great loss; creation is the only outcome that satisfies the soul.”

As we are experiencing a global pandemic and slowly many countries are relaxing their strong rules of protection of people, we note, on the news, how everyday carers and helpers in all types of work are being very creative in developing new ways of saving and protecting whole countries. Leadership is required to direct all countries no matter of what political persuasion, to confront the coronavirus pandemic that causes greater activation of both the archetype of the healer and that of the leader. To consider how failures of leadership can undermine even the most heroic attempts at healing, Michael Meade turns to an ancient myth from India. When Indra, the prototype for all subsequent leaders, becomes wildly inflated and endlessly demanding, the growing sense of chaos threatens the entire realm of life. In the myth, an intervention on the part of the gods reduces the hubris of the ruler and brings balance back to the realm. At this critical time on earth, an awakening of genuine and inspired leadership may have to come from the hearts and minds of a multitude and diversity of people for even greater tragedies to be avoided. But human nature is resilient.

Finally, let us reflect on the source of creative resilience – the SOUL. Wisdom comes from a developed soul. Let the collective culture of all humanity start to listen to each soul that has great wisdom to heal and creatively lead us all forward to a new and different and more peaceful future.