The Forced Unplugging

In Maine, as many of you know, we had a brutal wind storm that knocked out power to thousands of homes. We were lucky to go unaffected, save from the absence of internet. But aside from some minor inconveniences, I found it to be a welcome respite from technology.

Even though times like this are challenging, the opportunity to pause can be like a breath of fresh air. A forced unplugging from the universe. With people coming together to support one another, connecting over our shared experience, one can’t help but notice the good that can come out of struggle. The wheel stops spinning for a moment. People can’t work with no internet or power, so they get sent home. Emails can’t get sent, Facebook posts can’t get posted. And we panic at first a bit…and then we relax.

We are removed from the cycle of work and internet and going and doing, not by choice but by circumstance. Then what do we do? Do we resist? Do we spend all day driving around trying to find a place to check our email? Or do we let go.. and enjoy the time to just be with ourselves, to be with our loved ones… to talk for a change, to go for a walk, to meditate, to reflect, to cook, to make.

I have been cooking a lot from scratch recently, a cake for my son’s birthday, carrot-apple-turmeric muffins for his school snack, roasted butternut squash for a potluck gathering, peanut butter and raisin rice cakes for a school event. It has taken some time but it is a labor of love. My children help with the food prep, and we bond over creating something beautiful and tasty together to share with family and friends. We are using the food grown right near our home (the apples from our apple tree, the squash from the farm across town).

Still, I have been mourning the end of the growing season and my ability to grow my own vegetables from my backyard garden. But I have found a renewed calling in learning how to make things with my hands in these colder months. I “made” my son’s mummy Halloween costume with strips of an old pillowcase, a shirt, sweatpants and a hot glue gun. It took me over an hour but I felt proud of what I had accomplished. My son knew that it was special too, made with love by his mother. So much more meaningful than if I’d had it shipped online (which is what I usually do). And I give thanks for the community of parents and teachers we have found in the loving, peaceful school that of our son’s that is rooted in spiritual, simplicity of Quakers.  A place that is supportive and encourages our desire to live more minimally, more in harmony with the Earth and with like-minded people.

The expansion that I am experiencing and that we are all experiencing is one based on feeling, based on what we feel pulled, or guided, to do. Not what makes sense or seems rational. It is the push and pull between the Higher Self and that of the Ego. Our longing to lie on the Earth and to wander in the woods, to explore and to wonder, to build and to mold, to delight and to discover… these are our inherent qualities that we have forgotten, that we have been trained to ignore.

The time is now here for a shifting.

The Earth shaking off the imbalance and adjusting to the damage that’s been done. The Earth is changing but I believe it will still survive… by adapting. And we are adapting too. We must still do more to heal what we have done to the Earth, but we are getting there. We are re-discovering our essence, our feeling of oneness with the natural world. Our understanding that we co-exist together with the trees, and the wind and the soil, and the squirrels, birds and butterflies. That when they are damaged, we are damaged. That when we pollute the Earth, we also are polluting our own selves.

There are those of us who are choosing to answer this inner longing, this pull. There are some who are noticing this urge, but are hoping it will go away… But it’s going to get harder to ignore as the energies accelerate.

This is what will save our human race and our planet. We will learn to grow in these uncharted waters together (and there is a community of like-minded souls you’re welcome to explore!) with the assistance of the light, our Divine guides (and here’s a video on how to connect with them!) and our spiritual power that lies within. May it be so for us all.