You Are Not Alone

Note: This was originally published in our bi-weekly e-newsletter, Liminal Spaces. To get future issues delivered to your inbox (and get our ebook for free!), sign up here.

Recently, I (Gary Alan) had to come to terms with the fact that my anxiety levels were off the charts. Not only was I easily triggered by a social media post or the latest email from my boss, these trivial concerns were dictating my moods and disconnecting me from reality. Thanks to some advice and therapy, I came to see that my daily routines were creating unnecessary suffering. I needed grounding, not stimulation, something to remind me of who I am and why I’m here on this blessed earth. 

So instead of grabbing my phone or opening my computer the minute my feet hit the floor, I’ve been working to build a new morning ritual. With coffee in hand, I retreat to the back porch to face the rising sun and sit in silence for several minutes, bathing in the light of the new day before quietly repeating this prayer:

Sister Sun, I greet you and thank you for the gift of this new day,
A new day brings new hope, a new life, a new me.
May I live today with humility, peace, and reciprocity
Knowing I did not bring it into being 
Nor can I effectuate its end.
I freely live by your goodwill
You give your warmth forever. 

This little liturgy helps me start each new day with a gentle reminder of how connected we are to one another and to all created things. Nothing exists in isolation; all living beings abide in and for one another in a great web of being. Connected and dependent, I cannot move my little finger without causing a ripple effect to reverberate throughout the universe. 

Why do I need this daily reminder? Because we, as individuals and as a collective whole, have become alienated from the natural world, “the larger sacred community to which we belong,” to borrow Thomas Berry’s description. We are divorced from the living earth, the sustenance of our souls. We live, as it were, “in a self-imposed exile from the rest of Nature,” warns Brendan E. Williams. Sadly, our religious institutions tend to reinforce this exile with theology that emphasizes humankind’s dominion, control, and separateness. And it is not without consequence. Berry goes on to explain that “to be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence.” 

The truth is that we are—I am—part of creation, not above it. When creation suffers, so do I. When I am removed from it, I am removing a part of myself. That’s why I need a daily reminder of my connectedness. And perhaps that’s why, now more than ever, we all need to contemplate Derrick Jensen’s questions: “What if the point of life has nothing to do with the creation of an ever-expanding region of control?....What if the point is to invite these others into your movement...and in so doing abandon any attempt to control them? What if the point all along has been to get along?” 

A Reflection

Set aside some time over the next week to consider how your health and life would change if you made space each day to connect with the beauty, wonder, and sacrality of our shared existence. How might you help your mental health by deliberately pausing to remember you, too, are an integral part of a hallowed whole, a needed member in this sacred universe? What small changes could you make in your daily life to tend to this beautiful garden that is our sacred home?

Reserve Your Seat!

Only 8 days left to reserve your spot in our upcoming digital course, Making Sense of the Bible Post-Deconstruction. Held LIVE on Zoom in July (exact dates and times TBD), you’ll join fellow sojourners in learning a new framework for understanding the purpose and function of the text we now call the Bible (and how we got so far away from it). The course is free for donors of the Sophia Society and/or Patreon supporters of the Holy Heretics podcast, so click here to learn more about how to reserve your spot before July 1, 2021!

What We’re Reading, Listening To, Watching

Melanie

• Listening to: “Jerry Falwell Jr. and Liberty University” (Gangster Capitalism podcast, Season 3)

• Reading: The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

Gary Alan

• Reading: Prayer in the Cave of the Heart: The Universal Call of Contemplation by Cyprian Consiglio

• Watching: Unforgotten (Amazon Prime)