Contrasts

Friends,
We returned from our week's Hawaiian vacation rested and grateful for our time away. After we had time early in the week to be outside for beach time and a two hour bird watching tour, the first of the big Kona storms of wind and rain created forty eight hours of power outage, but it didn’t really affect our visit, and actually gave us more time to enjoy lots of good rest. Before we flew home we had an affable afternoon visit with Hawaiian college friends in Honolulu. But the dramatic part of the trip happened after we left. It turns out a second, extended Kona storm followed the day after we left, in the very place on northern Oahu where we had been staying. The area was inundated by the horrible flooding many have seen on TV. We simply got out before we would likely have been stranded for several days with road and power blockage. The climate crisis became very personal by seeing the capacity for major disruption and destruction in an area we knew well. We were so fortunate not to be directly affected.

As the never ending wars, and the threat of wars, continue like a terrible cancer across the globe, in contrast I also keep thinking about the expressions of the enormous adoration and respect for the Vietnamese monks' peace walk that, perhaps unexpectedly and warmly captured the hearts of millions of Americans as the monks modeled an imagination and hope for peace. And the “No Kings” demonstrations, like the one to be held next Saturday, have drawn millions in a lively spirit of communal solidarity and expectation that the peril of presidential madness will end. In contrast to our times of despair we are thus reminded of some equally powerful force of antidotal, cellular goodness and salvation that is offered as a counter to the hatred, destructive wars and fear-driven cultural divisiveness. So these contrasting forces compete like frightening pre-storm thunder and lightning in the night sky. May they resolve into life-giving rain.

The contrast between my relatively tranquil life and so much of the rest of the world’s turmoil, continues to confound me. Maybe it has always been so, but now we have such visual and daily reminders of the current state of our world that it is difficult not to be affected by such a broad span of disturbing reality. When I pondered this yesterday as we celebrated the Equinox and officially welcomed the planetary springtime, I realized there is something so reassuring about the constancy and dependability of the planetary rotations, regardless of how they may apply to each population in our various stations on the planet. In contrast to the planets, the on-the-ground world of politics, climate change, war, and the overall unsettledness of nations, we have no dependable or certain course. We may feel we are at the mercy of some yet unidentified transformative process that is changing our current global, ethical path. And this is probably more true than we can imagine.

In the meantime, we carry these contrasts as tensions in our hearts, minds, bodies and souls. We may shift back and forth between despair in the face of all that can seem so desperate, and - inspired by the planets - the peace monks’ determined faithfulness, and our “No Kings” solidarity, that enables us to abide in hope.

In conclusion, I was deeply impressed with the wisdom of a poem sent me via a friend on Facebook entitled“Tending the In-Between,” by Connie Anderson. I was especially taken with the idea of describing our nation as experiencing an "adolescent initiation.” Recalling the often anxious years of our own adolescences we remember the challenges - and frustrations - in figuring out who we really were as this burgeoning person or who we wanted to be. We struggled between the contrasting demands of conformity and defining our individual identity. So it seems for us as a nation now. We truly seem to want to be in the image of the peaceful monks while we actually support billion dollar wars and live under an emerging autocracy. It truly is a confusing time - like adolescence. (Enjoy the full poem in the footnote.)

Perhaps we just need to live into and cope with these contrasts and tensions as messy transitional phases before we are to become the whole and healthy individuals/nations we were likely meant to be.

Peace,
Tom

“Tending the In-Between” 
Connie Anderson

Something is happening in the United States right now that isn’t showing up in the headlines...
It isn’t about politics.
It isn’t about parties.
It isn’t about personalities.
It’s happening in the nervous system of the nation.
In the way people are pulling inward.
In the way trust is dissolving.
In the way old identities are quietly falling apart.
This is not a breakdown.
It’s an initiation.

There is a story being told about this country right now.
It is loud.
It is theatrical.
It is engineered to keep nervous systems hooked into fear, outrage and endless distraction.
But that story is not the real one.
Beneath the headlines, beneath the politics, beneath the manufactured conflicts, a very different process is unfolding in the collective body of the United States.
This is a reading of that deeper field.
Not as opinion.
Not as ideology.
Not as prediction.
The American psyche is being asked to:
• Reconcile shadow
• Admit mistakes
• Release superiority
• Mature emotionally
• Learn humility
• Develop wisdom
This is initiation.
Not punishment.

~The National Nervous System Is Exhausted
The dominant frequency in the American field right now is not anger.
It is fatigue.
A bone-deep, cellular exhaustion.
People are tired of being alert.
Tired of being manipulated.
Tired of being told what to think.
Tired of being pulled from crisis to crisis.
The collective nervous system has been in fight-or-flight for decades.
9/11.
Wars.
Economic shocks.
Pandemics.
Cultural wars.
Digital saturation.
There has been no real integration period.
No collective exhale.
So the body of the nation is showing classic trauma patterns:
• Emotional numbing
• Hyper-reactivity
• Dissociation
• Withdrawal
• Cynicism
• Apathy disguised as “not caring”
This is not weakness.
It is what happens when a system has been overstimulated for too long.

~A Fractured Identity: “Who Are We Now?”
America is in an identity crisis.
The old story—exceptionalism, certainty, moral authority, endless growth—no longer holds.
But no coherent new story has taken its place.
So the field is split.
Some are clinging desperately to the past.
Some are trying to dismantle everything.
Some are quietly disengaging.
Some are rebuilding internally.
There is no shared mirror anymore.
This creates:
• Polarization
• Projection
• Tribalism
• Moral inflation
• Enemy-making
When identity collapses, people look for something—or someone—to blame.

~Unprocessed Grief Is Everywhere
One of the most suppressed frequencies in the American field is grief.
Millions of losses have never been metabolized:
• Lives
• Livelihoods
• Relationships
• Health
• Trust
• Stability
• Futures that never arrived
There was no ritual.
No pause.
No collective mourning.
So the grief went underground.
And underground grief becomes:
• Rage
• Depression
• Addiction
• Numbness
• Compulsion
• Escapism
You see it in the rise of substances, screens, gambling, porn, shopping, constant scrolling.
These are not “moral failures.”
They are coping mechanisms for unresolved loss.

~Control Structures Are Losing Coherence
On the surface, institutions still appear powerful.
But in the subtle field, something else is happening.
They are hollowing out.
People no longer trust:
• Media
• Government
• Corporations
• Medicine
• Education
• Religion
Not because they are “anti” everything.
Because too many contradictions have accumulated.
Too many lies.
Too many reversals.
Too many exposed incentives.
So faith in centralized authority is collapsing.
Quietly.
Individually.
Privately.
This is why you see people turning inward, decentralizing, building parallel systems, learning skills, forming micro-communities.
It’s not rebellion.
It’s instinct.

~Two Timelines Are Running Simultaneously
The United States is now operating on two energetic tracks...
Timeline One: Spectacle Consciousness
• Addicted to outrage
• Hooked into identity wars
• Consumes endless media
• Feels constantly threatened
• Lives in reaction
Timeline Two: Embodied Sovereignty
• Withdraws from noise
• Strengthens inner authority
• Builds resilience quietly
• Seeks coherence over drama
• Lives from discernment
These timelines are diverging.
They occupy the same geography.
But not the same reality.
This is why people feel like they’re living in different worlds.
They are.

~A Quiet Awakening Is Underway
Contrary to appearances, this is not a “dark age.”
It is a composting phase.
Beneath the collapse narratives, millions are:
• Questioning narratives
• Healing trauma
• Reclaiming intuition
• Leaving abusive systems
• Redefining success
• Choosing depth over status
This is happening without hashtags.
Without movements.
Without leaders.
It’s cellular.
And that makes it powerful.
The Field Is Calling for Integration, Not Revolution
The next phase is not chaos.
It is integration.
The American psyche is being asked to:
• Reconcile shadow
• Admit mistakes
• Release superiority
• Mature emotionally
• Learn humility
• Develop wisdom
This is initiation.
Not punishment.
Nations, like people, must outgrow adolescence.

~What This Means for You
If you are feeling:
• Pulled inward
• Less interested in noise
• More protective of your energy
• More selective
• More grounded
• Less reactive
You are not “checking out.”
You are checking in.
You are aligning with the emerging field.
You are becoming a stabilizing node.
These are the people who carry societies through transitions.
Not by shouting.
By holding coherence.
Final Transmission...
The United States is not “falling apart.”
It is shedding an outdated identity.
Painfully.
Messily.
Imperfectly.
But purposefully.
What comes next will not be built by institutions.
It will be built by regulated nervous systems.
Clear minds.
Rooted hearts.
Sovereign spirits.
If you are doing that work in yourself--
You are doing it for the whole.