Praying Towards the Resolution of All Divides (Divisiveness: The Greatest Epidemic of Our Times.)

Aug 23, 2021 | Blog, Featured

I went down a troubling social media rabbit hole the other day. Shocker, I know.

You know the kind, where you’re somehow compelled to read the lengthy comment thread on a seemingly benign post, and suddenly are bearing witness to the most virulent, insulting, and offensive dialogue, that leaves you wondering (once again) when it became popular (and acceptable?!) to be so aggressively self-righteous and mean?

But what I was most interested to notice, and not for the first time, was the impact of this dialogue on my own energy and heart. As I tuned into the violent undertones of some of these comments in the thread, I noticed an anxiety creeping in.

The divisiveness felt contagious, and poisonous within me. It unsettled and unnerved me. It hurt my heart. It invoked a feeling of weariness and hopelessness.

Polarity is a natural and essential aspect of life, as is the diversity of perspectives that we hold as a people. An argument can even be made for the healthy necessity of fighting as a means towards social, political and spiritual evolution. Yes.

But there’s something about this continuous, underlying current of divisiveness in our culture and in our world that seems to me to be the greatest epidemic of all.

It seems to be a distracting battle of bickering minds that leads to nothing new and nothing good.

Here’s what’s tricky: When we’re talking about any number of certain human perspectives and behaviors, it’s easy to feel there’s an obvious right and a wrong way.

Depending on where we personally stand on any given topic, it’s easy to feel that certain other perspectives are dangerous to the whole and so objectively judge-able.

But the thing is, both sides feel this way about the other. Both sides feel the other is the tragically mistaken one, the stupid, gullible menace, the serious problem with our world.

The division that is playing out in our families, our communities, on our global stage and certainly on our social media stage, can only be a reflection of what’s divided within us, within our own hearts and minds and souls. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be appearing. After all, it’s all a mirror of our own self, right?

And so, I find myself praying towards the resolution of all divides within my own self. How can I heal myself of this disease??

What does it take to be whole in a divided world? It starts with belonging to ourself, finding the way to come home to ourself, ALL of ourself, just as we are.

It starts with taking refuge in that which contains and unifies all the divides within US.

Here in these profoundly divisive times, do we dare to mend the divide within our own hearts—between our love and what we deem un-loveable?

Deeper than all the splits I have embodied—awakened and ignorant, lost and found, right and wrong, sick and healthy, sacred and profane, the blamer and the blamed—I’m claimed by the wholeness of my own true love.

I’m claimed by silence, by stillness, by what is before and beyond any divisive thought-pattern.

Do we dare call for healing resolution between the judge and the judged, the hate and the hated, the shamer and the shamed within us?

In our willingness to open to the pain of the war within us, to burn in the ache of our inner divides, and to fervently pray for peace, HERE, in our very own bodies and hearts and minds, we tend to the polarizing divides of our world.

Wherever there is a posture of self-righteous arrogance, or a stance of judgmental superiority, we can guarantee there is a blind spot…

If we are certain that we are right and they are wrong, and we feel all fired up about it, maybe it’s time to take a closer look at what we are getting from this stance of “rightness”?

Does it make us feel safer? Does it make us feel powerful? Does it give us a cause or mission to identify with? Do we enjoy the feeling of being “against”? Does it make us feel like we belong to a certain group that is in the “right”?

When we war against others, subtly or blatantly, based upon any position or cause, we are using our life energy to feed the forces that benefit and profit from this polarization.

This is not life-promoting, health-promoting, love-promoting or peace-promoting. This is not sanity-promoting.

Is this how we want to use our precious attention, our fleeting lifetimes, our words, our gaze—to war with one another? To feed the divides?

Lay down your cause. Your position. Your self-righteous stance. Your surety of knowing. Even if just for a moment.

Lay it down long enough to inquire into what’s even truer, even more present, even fresher and more alive.

Even quieter that any thought about any of it. Even sweeter. Even more supportive. Even closer to what you love.

Where do we meet, all of us, in Being? What unifies all divides?

Love—in the form of true compassion and open curiosity—is a healing wonder. It rectifies all the splits that source all the wars, within us and without.

Love is where we meet. Love for ourselves, for our world, and for one another.

Life is where we meet, first and finally.

Be life.

Be love.

💖

Photo Credit: Natalia Newman

Facebook Comments

More Blog Posts

Praising Angels

One of the many gifts that came from my early childhood intimacy with traumatizing illness, was the way in which it opened my psychic centers to be able to “see” and “hear” energetic realities that remain elusive for most. While it took me a couple of decades to work...

Stewarding a New Way

As I witness all this outrageous trauma playing out on the global stage between man and woman, one of the most poignant components it illuminates for me is the power we hold in how we choose to steward our daughters and sons in these times. What is our part to play in...

Smoky Grateful Boredom Breakthroughs

My son Ezra and I had a glorious breakthrough about boredom a few days ago, and I’m inspired to share it with you, in case it just might be contagious. (And no, it wasn’t about boredom breeding creativity or genius or whatever it was someone wise once said, though I’m...

A Year of Leaning In

A couple of weeks ago Orionne and I celebrated our one year anniversary! What a meaningful threshold for us to cross. And what a profound year of leaning in it has been. We met (re-met) one year ago in July and immediately bowed in to a most extraordinary love. We...

“Free of Mom”~ Attachment & Surrender

The other morning I was sitting at my desk writing, when suddenly my son Ezra was beside me, tapping me on the shoulder in his fluffy red bathrobe. As I turned to greet his morning brightness, he surprised me by tumbling completely into my arms, so I had to move fast...

“But either way, isn’t Love always the answer?”

“But either way, isn’t Love always the answer?”

“But any way you look at it, isn’t Love always the answer?” That’s what my beloved partner said to me yesterday with fierce truth pouring from moist eyes, devotedly calling me back, in a moment when defense had gotten the better of me, to the common ground of our...

Graduation from a Life Chapter; The Endless Changing of Form

I’ve got some big news to share~ about a large life change in the works for my sweet family. One night, about 6 weeks ago, as I closed my eyes to go to sleep, I was suddenly struck with an unexpected lightning bolt of revelation. It went something like this: “And Now You will Move With The Children Back To Ashland.” It truly felt more like an announcement from my soul, than any kind of choice I was being offered to contemplate. I was shocked, confused, and somewhat triggered. I […]

Being Single~ Yearning, Prayer, Surrender and Fulfillment

Garethrockliffe.com I’m inspired to tell you a story from a recent bedtime conversation I had with my son, on the topic of being single, and the prayer for partnership. It’s a tender topic to personally speak and write about, but one that so many of us share in common. And so I humbly offer my voice to the collective conversation.I’ve been contemplating my own single womanhood and single motherhood a lot lately, in a particularly focused way. It’s interesting to consider the stigm […]

Nurturing Self-Love as Healthy Self-Image~ A Clothes-Shopping Story

Due to the vulnerable nature of this writing, this piece is published with explicit permission and blessings from my brave and generous daughter Arayla, who after reading it shared her hope that our story might serve in some small way~ especially other mothers and daughters, in navigating the steep challenge of healthy self- image and radical self-love in our culture. One of my most treasured delights as the mother of my beloved daughter Arayla, (newly 12 years old,) is the incredibly swee […]

Our World, Our Mirror~ Rupture, Projection, Responsibility & Repair

Our World, Our Mirror~ Rupture, Projection, Responsibility & Repair

It's difficult to know what to say in these times, but I'll give it a try.  While this horrifying drama is playing out on the world stage, I’m finding it useful to notice how this translates in my own privileged life. For it to get this crazy on the outer stage of our...