All’s Well

Photo Credit: Unsplash/Omar Lopez

By Jo Mooy

Someone somewhere is shining a light into the darkest places we inhabit.

The final month on the calendar announces the end of the year. The sun’s low light confirms it. In ancient days, with the harvest put away, the ancestors went inside to wait out the winter, telling stories and planning for spring’s return. As the days shorten, I spend the “going inside” hours of December reflecting on the year past, while anticipating the flip of the calendar and what’s coming in the new year.

We didn’t end the world in 2019 despite our best efforts. Some of the highlights of the year are beyond startling. How did we get to the point where “mass shootings” were so normalized, that the headlines “More Mass Shootings Than Ever Before” read as an achievement? When the same headline “Hottest Year on Record” is repeated annually, do governments think it’s maybe time to do something? Did the heat waves across the planet this summer register loudly enough on human awareness? It did to the families of the 1,500 people who died in France. It definitely registered when India’s sixth largest city faced an unprecedented 118 degrees, and 4.6 million people ran out of water.

In 2019, the glorious experiment of global unity, prevalent for decades, took a backseat to tribalism and nationalism. It showed itself on the international stage when voters on every continent elected far-right candidates to lead them. Buried under the covers was the tumor called racism that we thought had been excised. It wasn’t. It was cloaked in patriotic fervor and symbolism or in religious ideas that fed the anger and hatred of zealots.

With all that as a backdrop to the year gone by, you might think we’re on the brink of extinction. Probably not, though some think the asteroid can’t come quickly enough. Old teachings refer to the Precession of the Equinoxes, where the cycles of time are divided into quadrants over 26,000 years. At the top of the cycle is the Golden Age; at the bottom is the Dark Age known as the Kali Yuga. It’s where we are now—the lowest and darkest state where the environment is assaulted and strife, discord, anger and fear reign. It’s a lengthy period of time where ignorance, lies and low ideals govern the masses.

But it’s not forever. There’s always some good news in the mayhem. While it appears that everybody is that way—they’re not.

Global unity is still alive with the many good people who are doing good things in a world seemingly gone mad.

All the rest of us have to do is seek out the good news that’s usually hidden under the deluge of dark news. It’s there. Look for it.

A young boy gave up all the money he was saving for a trip to Disneyworld. Instead, he sent it to a charity helping the victims of hurricane Dorian. When Disney heard about his generosity, they treated him with a trip for him and his family to the Magic Kingdom, all expenses paid.

An author thought she was writing about an abandoned school bus. When she opened the door, there was a family of seven living in it. The school bus became her new project, Venues for Change. She enlisted an engineer who had designed tiny houses. In nine months they renovated a bus that became a real home for the family, complete with a garden outside. Their objective is to create one new “skoolie” home every year so families can stay together.

The most endearing story on bullying took place in Florida. In a state with three powerhouse football teams, a little boy came to school wearing a tee-shirt with a handmade logo of the University of Tennessee. Classmates ridiculed, teased and bullied him for wearing the shirt. His teacher put a picture of the tee-shirt along with his story on Facebook. Within hours the university made his design an official logo and put it up for sale on their website. The overwhelming response crashed the website, and the little boy became an internet star.

These stories often get lost in the regular newsfeeds, but they’re actually more important. These stories remind us of the inherent goodness in people. These stories endorse the belief that someone somewhere is shining a light into the darkest places we inhabit. These stories affirm that humans can rise above the divisiveness, maybe not en masse, but surely one by one. These stories assure as that as one year ends and another begins, the Kali Yuga will also end and a Golden Age will follow that embraces universal ideals.

As 2019 closes out, I look back solemnly. Yet I’m filled with hope for 2020. We didn’t blow ourselves up and probably won’t next year either. I think of the words of Julian, the 15th century Abbess of Norwich. When the hours were darkest she said to remember this prayer—“All is Well, All is Well, and All Manner of Things Are Well.

Jo Mooy has studied with many spiritual traditions over the past 40 years. The wide diversity of this training allows her to develop spiritual seminars and retreats that explore inspirational concepts, give purpose and guidance to students, and present esoteric teachings in an understandable manner. Along with Patricia Cockerill, she has guided the Women’s Meditation Circle since January 2006 where it has been honored for five years in a row as the “Favorite Meditation” group in Sarasota, FL, by Natural Awakenings Magazine. Teaching and using Sound as a retreat healing practice, Jo was certified as a Sound Healer through Jonathan Goldman’s Sound Healing Association. She writes and publishes a monthly internationally distributed e-newsletter called Spiritual Connections and is a staff writer for Spirit of Maat magazine in Sedona. For more information go to http://www.starsoundings.com or email jomooy@gmail.com.

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