How to Reframe These Uncertain Times
We are living through very intense times, where so much of what is familiar to us is not certain anymore. All the social and ecological systems are collapsing around us. It can be very disheartening and even scary, at times. But, believe it or not, there is an upside to this lack of surety that I find very inspiring. Margaret Drabble has this great quote that I recently came across, which is quickly becoming my anthem for these times. I hope it inspires you, fuels your imagination, and fortifies your resolve, as much as it has done so for me.Want to listen instead?
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Expansive with Anna Gatmon here. And today I want to share with you a quote that I heard recently that is becoming one of my most favorite quotes of all time.
It is by Margaret Drabble. And it says “When nothing is sure, everything is possible. When nothing is sure, everything is possible.” It is a very powerful and profound quote.
And this is why I think it’s so timely for us in what we’re going through in these really troubling, intense times that we are living through. Because we are living in times where nothing is sure. All of the systems as we know them are crumbling and collapsing slowly, slowly and some fast. Ecologically education-wise, financial, political, social, health. I mean, everything is crumbling. And so nothing is sure. And often when nothing is sure, our first reaction is to contract. Oh my God, nothing is sure, let me hold onto what’s safe and familiar to me. We become more fearful. We might think that we’re not going to make it through this period. Where we become maybe selfish, but when nothing is sure, you can imagine the worst-case scenario.
But the second part of the quote is “when nothing is sure everything is possible.” And that is what excites me. Because you could equally go into worry or go into excitement about creating, being part of the force that’s creating a new world. Where we care for each other, where everyone experiences human dignity, where there isn’t any racism, any sexism, where there isn’t child trafficking, where we don’t treat the earth as a commodity for us to use and destroy ourselves in the process, where we don’t pollute the oceans, everything. Where we don’t in the US get a booster after we got already two shots for COVID and third world countries who don’t even get the first vaccination. I mean, how crazy is that? Or where there isn’t universal healthcare in the US where as universal health care is like a no brainer in European countries, in Israel, where I’m from in Sweden, where my mom is from. It’s like, it’s not a, it’s not a thing. It’s human dignity. Everybody gets healthcare. People don’t have to die or to go bankrupt because they don’t have the money to go to get the medical care that they need. This is not about each one should work hard for themselves. That’s the old consciousness that we are living in. Each one should fend for themselves.
The new consciousness, we’re here in this together. If you’re suffering and I watched that on the news, I’m suffering, it’s not your suffering, but I’m okay. Tomorrow I might be suffering and you be okay. And we’ve each had childhoods that have been traumatic. I mean, I have difficult childhoods that have been harsh and hard. So we’ve all suffered. And we all know what it is. And no one escapes, certain events and occurrences in our life, which are traumatic and hard. So we all suffer at different times. So, but what happens when nothing is sure, it means that you don’t have to stick to how it used to be, that wasn’t working, that isn’t working for everyone and just for some.
Instead, as the quote says, everything is possible. So we can each find the cause that we care for something that is dear to us. So we don’t need to do something that we don’t care for, but we each have causes that we care for, that have to do with our life or a disease that we’ve had, or someone dear to us who has gone through something or the social group we belong to, or the ethnic or racial group, whatever. There’s so many interests that we have that part in on the planet where we live, we each have something that’s dear for us and we can pour our love and devotion and our care into it. And this cause becomes our spiritual practice. It becomes how we learn important spiritual lessons through this cause that we care for, through the cause that we are willing to stand up for, and work hard, and then some more, because it’s hard work. It’s hard work to change the world, but everything is possible. Everything is possible.
So I invite you, when you feel this when you see something on the news, or you think about your life situation, you go, nothing is sure and you have this instinct, normal desire to contract and going to, oh my God, it’s disasterrous, we’re not going to make it, or I’m not going to make it, or someone I care for on the other side of the planet is not going to make it. Instead think of the second part of the quote, because nothing is sure everything is possible. We can recreate institutions that are loving, that are caring. We can create a healthcare system where everybody gets to be healthy as much as they can, because there is help fromthe government, from the state. We care for each other. We have a ministry for peace and not just a ministry for war. So we don’t just go to Afghanistan for 20 years and just fight. And then when we leave, there’s no infrastructure to actually create a transition. But we create peacefulness and institutions of love and caring and peace, wherever we go.
So, wherever you’re watching this, leave me a comment. There’s much to think about in this very simple and short quote “When nothing is sure everything is possible.”
I leave you with food for thought, what are you going to pick when you experience that nothing is sure. Are you going to go into fear, into the chaos that’s already in the world and contribute to the fear and the chaos? Or are you going to say, that means everything’s possible? What do I dream of? What do I imagine? What do I want for, for the groups that I belong for, for humanity, for nature, for, for my world, for my people. And what can you do as a first step to start doing that?
I send you blessings of everything’s possible.
