coming of age, coming to consciousness of a greater world and one’s place within it, it must always have been a rite of passage fraught with apprehension and possibility. but emerging into a world in civilisational collapse is quite another matter. for those of us who have tended to complacency, too overwhelmed in getting on with all the work of living that this collapsing system has made that much harder, and, we admit in quieter moments, avoiding a confrontation with existential threats that seem both slow and beyond our influence, well. there is now no avoiding the recognition in our beloved young people’s eyes, and what they need of us.
they need us to step up.
we must have compassion for ourselves, now. previous generations ought to have done more. those in power should do a great deal more. and those without, ought not to face what they are facing, daily. now, to step away from blame and shame alike and simply ask, what is this moment asking of me? in my particular life, how can i be of service to life?
it is not that you must change all of this, or that i can, here with little but a few words or pictures to recommend me. it is that however many of us begin to, in all the facets of life that we happen to connect with, not only do we build momentum, a movement, but in stepping into responsibility we hold our young generations in a web of support. young people, young beings, young life in all its diversity. in being alive now we are necessarily parents of a future which has never been more uncertain. what we do now matters profoundly.
there are few grand gestures available to most of us. but if this hour, this day, next week are compounded, if over the coming seasons we are to shift, those around us cannot help but shift. over the next year, there are parts of life that we will touch again and again. if we knew that enough of us already concur, life is only awaiting the tipping point when we say it aloud, declare it, know it to be true in all the actions of our current lives.
it may be that in understanding ourselves as deeply interconnected with all being, as embedded in life, there are parts of our lives that we would change outright. cease. transform. but it may also be enough to take that consciousness of profound interbeing into whatever our jobs are, whatever our home is like, community, businesses, gardens, streets, to see what happens when we introduce it to whatever we touch.
what would it look like to live the day ahead, if we lived it in ways that affirmed a thriving planet, flourishing life? what would need to alter and what can we alter right now? if we imagine that we really do all have each other and that there is no one to fight against, only a collective mindset that has been running a story that has led us terribly wrong, if we can all affect what happens next, what part can we play within the life that we already have? what would we do differently?
there are a thousand answers and we need all of them. and in answering the call, we shift into action. we can look our young ones in the eye. we’ve got them.
this crisis is an opportunity, and each day matters now. to vividly reimagine what happens next to make a life for those we are supporting, to support all of life itself, it is our whole-world rite-of-passage.
***
this piece is free and shareable, and you can follow or subscribe to the appleturnover letters here,