I’ve had to sit with my feelings on this one for a few days, it’s a very unsettling time. It’s a challenging time of devastation for many, and there is no greater harm than sitting silent while harm is being done.
I once thought we had to be somewhere to do something; now I know we can decide differently for ourselves.
Peace Aggression is a distinct form of savagery.
It is the terrain of one who wants to be ‘seen as doing good,’ and this is a behaviour without limits at the far end of the spectrum.
This is the terrain of the approval of madmen, and you will see it as jousting behaviour for a time, but it is surely meant to scavenge the earth of all its good will.
By all definitions, this is a storm. I’ll give you a snapshot of this energetic through the lens of the Tao.
The most powerful position you can take right now is to hold steady. Hold steady. Hold steady. Because when Thunder claps above the Earth, it holds no destructive force without the Three Destructives. Only Fire and Water and Wind can lay the path of destruction. Complete inertia would annihilate our purpose for being here, but you better know that when things get rocked, that it’s time to hold fast to the ship in stormy seas and hold steady.
Thunder can’t lay a boot across the throat of another; it can frighten but has no form itself, though it actualizes form through the organizing principle of structure. It MUST recruit others to do so. And others will, at the behest of Thunder, because Thunder has a high vantage point. But Thunder in distortion sees only loose forms and then assembles them into a construct to aim its energetic at.
And so we are witnessing savagery on many levels in the world today, and savagery without relinquishment of harm is preposterous. It can’t be done. Make no doubt about, harm has already been done.
And it is hurting us all to look at the world as these changes are unfolding. For myself, I’ve looked at it through the clear eyes of reason, then distortion, then civility. And like it or not, civility is where civilizations are born.
We’ve witnessed unspeakable things done in the name of good. And despicable actions, can’t be perceived in a brighter light. Those that condone such behaviour are at the behest of the mind in a distorted view and not the heart of compassion.
This past week, the attempt to deny the worth of another country was orchestrated in the most disturbing way, through the rallying cry of fear. And the rallying cry of fear is: I love you, and I’m doing this for your own good.
It NEVER works out that way.
There is nothing simple about these times. These are very complex emotional outbursts, and they are not to be taken lightly. The one that chooses to placate themself with an absolute disdain for another’s way of being, is really only insecure in their own. And so they posture themselves into a role of self-abdication and decide it will be for best, only to realize at some point that they have allowed a path of great harm without realizing it was their own agenda they were pushing forward.
It’s devastation all around. There is no hope for those that can’t see another way, not because there isn’t, but because they suddenly realize it was them all along that was the problem. This brings a kind of hate, and it hurls hatred like an arrow.
We have to remember not to outsmart ourselves because there is no cause greater than Peace, and Peace begins and ends in the mind.
Greater wars have been dismantled in a simple decision to move forward through a wake of distortion, but the common ground that must be reached to get there lies at a very high altitude. And so what do you do when you’re rolling in the muck of ruin?
You stop.
Self-evaluation is hard to come to on the battlefield, but moments arise with clarity, and when it hits like a dagger in the heart, people are going to know where they have laid waste to the ruin of hundreds, if not thousands of lives. Those that are in positions of power have an obligation to carry their duty with forethought and compassion and without shirking the responsibility of carrying nations through harm's way with some form of care for safe passage.
President Zelenskyy held the line against the biggest bully. And he should never have had to do that with an ally. He was an absolute giant in his conduct. A titan of a Mountain and that’s where the landscape begins to change.
Not when we rally, not when we cry, 'War!' But when we simply say, ‘No.’
No, is enough.
There are great minds in the world that are going to have to look at how we conduct ourselves through times of dis-grace and understand that this is a moral and a mortal wound. We all have a job to do. We each have and bear the responsibility for our own inner conduct.
You may not be on the battlefield in the Ukraine or any other war-torn country, and that is by luck or privilege. You can do your part by offering a kindness into the world today on their behalf. You can pray, or you can rant, or you can stand up and say, ‘NO’ with firm civility to each expression of experience in your life that comes to you in the small moments.
Grow your power in certainty instead of the pushback of rage. And if someone beside you can not speak with power because of the stature of another being forceful, stand beside them and say no with them.
I don’t imagine these words as a whisper in someone’s ear. I imagine them as a single stride that spans nations. And the circumference of the globe is not so small that you would think a single act of bravery could reach across the world. But make no doubt about it, that is what President Zelenskyy did in his conduct and composure in the face of an aggressor who called himself friend.
Where’s the moral high ground in all of this? Well, a Mountain stands very well and without dissolution. It needs those around it to nourish and nurture it. Care for its people, its birds and flowers, and land.
Assault hurts everyone.
It’s arrogance that thinks it has the right to do so and that the sacrifice of human life bears no cost. The people in Ukraine are making a choice to stand together and say No and move forward. Russia, and now America as a nation, perhaps not as a people, has chosen to impose power as leverage; it’s a weak man’s move.
I don’t really care to mince words anymore. If I have something to say, I’m going to say it. These are not discussions of economy or politics or religion to me; this is the basic construct of energy in materialized form and how it is mistaken as forms of chivalry or broad-mindedness.
The smallest action that exists is the one where you have to lay your boot across another man’s throat to make him see things your way so that you can come to a common viewpoint.
If someone has to stand up for their right to be, you better believe they are going to do it, and at that point we have one choice: be who we are. Because no one’s folding like a lawn chair on this.
The Common Wealth of the world IS aligned to Peace.
I feel I should have a better segue here, but there are things that just piss me off. Like, take no prisoners, means TAKE NO PRISONERS. Pick ‘em up. Patch ‘em up. Feed them. And send them home. What discipline does it take to throw someone in a cage? Humanity is bearing down on us to make better choices. Stronger choices—in our thoughts. In our words. In our behaviour.
Do better. For ourselves. For each other. For our children and all the battle-weary land. We have a responsibility to save each other, offer comfort and care, and then sit down and talk with a sandwich in hand for every man, woman, and child in this world. Every. Damn. One.
Be uncommonly grateful.
Be unequalled in good will.
Be unnervingly calm.
Be uncharacteristically bold.
Be unflappable in the worst of circumstances.
Right the ship and sail home in a calm sea.
You’re worth it. I’m worth it. We all are. Even that guy you don’t like the look of that smells a little funny from time to time.
There’s harm done in every breath you hold back in uncertainty. Let me assure you that no good ever comes from being uncertain about doing the right thing.
The right thing is not the right to bear arms; it’s the right to stand up and say, ‘No, this is unacceptable.’ And then turn away to approach the conversation from another direction again another day.
Peace Aggression is a sidestep towards condoning war for the sake of proving your point. What a load of horse shit.
Take a back seat to no one in your advocacy for human rights. Human rights include the right to live, the right to breathe without fear of harm. The right to sustenance and shelter. The right to peace and love and family and companionship. And nobody has the right to break any of those ties.
Stop turning a blind eye. Look directly at it and then say, ‘How can I help?’
Zelenskyy is right; he needs resources to bring stability to his people. And Trump representing America, is being a bad neighbour when he tries to put an arm around Zelenskyy’s shoulder and tells him, ‘Let me punch you in the face so I don't have to hurt you worse.’
Every country has a natural-born peacekeeper within it. They are the ones who should be at the peace talk table; not the politicians and the pundits. War efforts are made in every country in the world to keep peace. Maybe it’s time we started making it.
I am not condemning having a military; Peacekeeping is honourable and necessary and has brought safety to many in the world who might otherwise not have known it. In my view, there is the potential for greatness in the military. A powerful one is not the one with the greatest fire power; it’s the one that demonstrates valour and pride (as in distinction of self and service), camaraderie, loyalty, purpose, perseverance, resilience, and distribution of worth among many. It’s commonplace common vision, connectedness and consideration.
The men and women I know who are in the military are there because they care about the lives and future of everyone.
There is not a moralistic compass in common hatred, it’s an upliftment of the right of others to be that makes a union of warriors step forward.
Malposition of thought and intent is what turns a military towards war, and that is the landscape of a regime. We’re not all dealt the same playing cards, hell we’re not even playing with the same deck.
Enough, already. Enough. It’s time to turn this ship around.
We need a chance to cheer. To rally in the streets and kiss the girl or the boy because life lifted you off the perch of your despair, not because anyone is being scandalized. Simple actions of common decency have been kicked under the bus of political correctness and it’s time to be a little braver and a little kinder.
We all have reason to be here at this time, and it’s to hold the light for another. Don’t be the chump that kicks dirt on someone’s face when it’s your turn to offer a hand.
Today, all I can say is, I hope we all come to see things differently.
Janice