We all come in as infants with biological and mental capacities determined by our biological ancestors. What we look like, the capacities for good health, our natural talents, etc. all ours as we enter the world. Some would say that our soul capacities are also inherited from our ancestors who could come from different lineages than our biological ancestors. The possibilities abound for whom we could be in life.
Immediately we start to be shaped by the family and culture that we are born into. Between 2-3 years old we are set into the language and social structure of the larger society that we are being raised in. We are children, siblings, playmates, cousins. Past 7 years old, we move into comparative/critical thinking no longer accepting all that occurs around us as ‘this is the way’ families, society, the world, is like. And yet, there are unconscious habits of living, of observing and of defining ourselves that are already settled deep in our minds and hearts and thus determine much of our thinking, our behaviors and beliefs for the rest of our lives. For each of us, there can come the time or circumstances that helps us release those old habitual thinking and feeling habits.
As we age, the roles that we take on can be student, friend, colleague, lover, parent, spouse, aunt/uncle, mentor. In each role, we present ourselves a bit differently. We bring forth a particular way of being in each role. We behave differently as a parent than as a colleague than as a friend. Each of those roles shape how we mature, grow and develop. Through these times we change because of circumstances, whether they be job changes, health changes, societal changes or planetary changes. At each moment in time, as we are being differently, some habitual behaviors stay and some leave. Those habitual behaviors that stay are often unconscious and can hold us back from adapting to changing circumstances or changing expectations. Some new ways of being feel more ‘me’ as if there is a core of our personality that was previously held back.
For myself, in all these habitual behaviors and changed behaviors, there are core ‘human’ ways of being that are valued. Cooperation, collaboration, listening to others, respecting others, compassion to name a few. For the most part, we look for the demonstration of these ‘valued ways of being’ in others. If we meet people who don’t listen to others, who are vindictive, who disregard others or are cruel, well, we usually take pause and choose to not interact with them. So, we choose our friends and our leaders according to the behaviors they exhibit, the behaviors that we feel are supportive of creating cohesive and coherent relationships and communities.
Why this conversation? I guess that I am trying to understand the behaviors exhibited by humans in my society. Some have grouped together to be against other groups whether or not that ‘againstness’ is triggered by gender, race, religion, economic status. As a ‘us’ group they start attributing all good behaviors to their group and bad behaviors to the other group(s). They become isolationists and lose their capacity to be open to listening to or have compassion for the other.
I believe that this ‘otherness’ does not build a society that can adapt to the changes that are occurring on our planet. I believe that it is in collaboration and cooperation that we start to cultivate the best of our thinking and our being. You see this in natural disasters where the previous lines of demarcation fall away, and people work together to create safety and support systems for others. It is my sense that this capacity for collaboration and cooperation is natural to human beings. I see it operative in new businesses and services that are created to adapt to changing social norms and educational needs. For example, new schools have risen who focus on the gifted neurodiverse children. Let’s explore the possibility that we need to adapt to these new learning styles evidenced by these children instead of forcing them into the structures of a model of education hundreds of years old that was created to educate people to work in factories or be soldiers. What we need for the future is people who are nurtured to imagine differently, to learn on their own and to work collaboratively with others. Our dominant educational systems don’t provide those capacities.
These times are not just reactive to climate events but also to higher dimensional energies entering our planet and impacting how we function. Are they coming from solar flares, shifts in the earth or other planetary bodies or from Source/God/Great Spirit? I tend to think that these energy shifts are from those Beings in the etheric realms that are entering our planet to help us move as a species and as individuals into our next greater whole. I have seen changes in others that are responsive to meditations they do; to a different focus in how they BE in their life; to teachers they follow. These individuals feel differently about how they BE in the world which seems ultimately to affect what and how they act and do in their lives. It doesn’t seem to matter the age at which they bring in this new experience, they shift who they BE. Habitual thinking patterns or doing patterns fall away and each person gets to rediscover themselves, their higher way of being.
Presently young people have a variety of choices about how they describe or label themselves. Some enjoy living the societal norm for what it is to be female or male. Clothing, makeup, attitudes fit the mold. Then there are those who don’t fit the mold and don’t want to dress or act as the societal norm. Fifty years ago a young person could struggle against the norms and expectations of their society, and they would for the most part still have to look and act within the restrictions of their gender or race. Today young people still have that struggle, and they name themselves earlier differently…gay, trans, neurodiverse, creative, technical, etc. It’s both an expansion of opportunity to be more of whom they feel they are and harder as they feel that they need to name themselves as different from the norm. Even though there have been many changes in the possibilities and rights of women since the middle of the last century, I see that young people still feel they don’t fit the mold and must start labeling those differences. How do our children find language that can give them the wider opportunities to better describe who they really are, to have the freedom to discover all that they are becoming? They have so much time to explore and expand that self-description and they are starting that journey so much earlier than my generation did.
Each of us as adults are also experiencing this shifting of our self-description whether or not we choose to label ourselves. I believe that this shifting of our experience of ourselves is impacted by the energies coming into this planet as well as shifting of the planet herself. My hope is that we all continue an openness to thinking and being differently and that flexibility of role adaptation continues and grows as these changing times continue. In that continuing adaptability to change, our society will benefit and create new systems that serve all of humanity differently. Allowing all to think differently, be differently and operate in the world from compassion and respect for others. We each have unique skills, capacities and capabilities. Society should be nurturing the development of these skills, capacities and capabilities. My craving for a future society is one where we honor the uniqueness and essentialness of each human on this planet. Our children are starting to demand these supportive systems of change. Let’s follow their lead and build the foundation for a future society where all beings on the planet are valued and respected for their unique and essential selves. I will do what I can to support the building of the foundation for that world so that the coming generations will have possibilities for a future where all life is valued and only those systems that support life will flourish.