Yes, it’s true. Our world is turning itself upside down. Whenever we humans find ourselves on the brink of a major shift in consciousness, the old paradigm grabs on tightly to try and hold on. But the new is already underway, so the divisiveness becomes even more inflated. And sometimes it is hard to know what to do about it. But I say, ‘Hold your thoughts and actions on what you would like to see.’ Poke your head up out of the sand; there are already plenty of places where we can start to build the new. Simply doing something, anything, can help us to feel a little bit better about all of this change. Here are ten things to consider.
1. For my part, I’m a gardener at heart. So, I’ve started growing food plants to share. Frank and I have put in eleven fruit and nut trees this past month. The last of the bare-root plants, in the nurseries, came into their end-of-season sale, so we jumped on it.
Several years ago, we adopted an untended parking lot near our home and cleaned up the trash, began to build the soil and now have it blooming from spring through fall with hardy florals and flourishing native oaks.
During WWII, when the Germans tried to starve the island nation of Britain out, she created her “Victory Gardens,” in every backyard. With the changes that we are about to experience, food prices may well jump sky high. Certainly federally funded care programs providing nutrition for the young and the elderly are at risk. Fruit trees yield the most food per acre and potatoes can be abundantly grown in banks or in bags. Oak trees have provided native peoples world round with balanced nutrition in easily stored acorns. As federal funds are further removed from Agriculture, producing our own food may well become increasingly important. Gardens are bountiful. They make it easy to give and to share. And working in them brings us exercise, serenity and great peace of mind.
2. Sing and dance or play music. Music connects us. It is the song of life and we all move to that rhythm. I’ve heard it said that if you are not singing and dancing, you are not truly alive.
3. Align your purchasing power with your ethics. To get you started, visit Goods Unite Us.
https://www.goodsuniteus.com/
Or get the book for The Better World Shopping Guide https://betterworldshopper.org/
4. Try not to drive or fly, and avoid using plastics, which are made from oil, as much as possible.
5. Go to the website DuckDuckGo and switch your search engine to theirs so all of your on-line research and data is no longer being easily and shamelessly tracked and sold for advertisers and others to target.
6. Write to your members of congress, state and federal. Visit https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/current for federal congressional addresses. Let them know that you expect them to honor their oaths to defend our constitution and respond appropriately if they’d like to continue to gain your support.
6. Spend time with friends. Get together with neighbors. Host Monday night potlucks. We may need to depend on each other a lot more in the future. Forming relationships now and creating community can ease this sort of transition, should it occur. Plus it is fun. And if you wish, governmental study groups or affinity groups and forums can be formed. Visit sites like Choose Democracy at https://choosedemocracy.us/what-can-i-do/ Sometimes it simply helps to band together and share our feelings and experiences.
One of my guiding lights, Peace Pilgrim, had wise advice for those with concerns over what the future might hold. She said, “Stay in the present moment. Do what needs to be done. Do all of the good things you can each day. And the future will unfold.” For me, her words are a steadying influence. They bring me both direction and peace of mind.
7. Watch and rewatch shows of your favorite comedians so you can laugh. (I like Kathleen Madigan’s “Don’t Bother Jesus.” Raised a catholic, she was supposed to first go to her priest for absolution, if the situation was dire enough, he might recommend a Saint, specific to her need. If that wasn’t adequate and if the repentant one was really good, they could hang with Mary, but no one was really ever supposed to bother Jesus.)
Play with children. Kids laugh hundreds of times a day. Adults not so much. Figure out a way to get yourself laughing again.
8. Eat clean and get plenty of exercise. Let those endorphins flow and build your own health and strength for the work and times ahead.
9. Spend time out in nature, even if it is your own back yard or the city park. Let nature speak to you and guide you. Answers to our problems always come to us more easily when we are out in nature. As John Muir famously wrote, “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”
10. Imagine what you’d like to see. Use your right brain. Get creative. Remember that caffeine holds us in our left brain where we focus only on known solutions and tend to contract around fears about the future and worries about the past. So consider herbal teas instead and cultivate your right brain potential by laughing, day dreaming, and playing. This is the realm of cooperation rather than competition. It is expansive and collaborative and it cultivates and holds you in joy.
(For more about accessing our right brains, check out Jill Bolte Taylor. See either her TED talk at https://www.ted.com/speakers/jill_bolte_taylor or read her book, Whole Brain Living at https://www.drjilltaylor.com )
(For more about the effects of caffeine on our brain's health and well being, read Michael Pollan’s This is Your Mind on Plants. https://michaelpollan.com/books/this-is-your-mind-on-plants/)
We are all in this together, so together let’s find ways to create anew.
Love is stronger than fear. We shift the energy with our mutual support, while listening within to find our unique service.
Create something alive and empowering. Follow your calling. Share your experiences and knowledge.
Ask for and give help.
As we gather together in small groups of support and connection, we build resilience and find our clarity. Doing this is disempowering to realms where fear and division reside.
Learn from the children. They know how to laugh. We’ve all witnessed kids cracking jokes even right after they’ve been in trouble. There is always something fun and funny to see and do. Charge into that.
I recently heard that heroes are just ordinary people. They happened to be at the right place at the right time. And they just simply held to their values and ethics.
Trust in the larger vision. This is after all the Age of Aquarius. It holds the promise of harmony, egalitarianism and understanding. It was the dawning of this age that brought us the Civil Rights Movement, Women’s Liberation, Gay Rights, AIM the American Indian Movement, and The Environmental Movement. These movements now have deep roots that have firmly taken hold and risen strongly. They have provided insights and support into the eons of beauty and equality and justice that lie ahead for us all. But first we have to clear out the old. And that dying grasp is making one last powerful lunge back into the unsustainability of massive consumption and resource depletion and all that that brings with it.
Years ago I heard a talk by the feminist, Sonja Johnson. She was driving into the city to work one day when she passed through an open space of beautiful green forest and meadow. She was so moved by its beauty that she stopped the car and got out to marvel at the scene. When she did this, she was swept up in a moment of profound epiphany and compared the truth of nature to the falseness of the city that she had been heading towards. She found herself realizing and deeply understanding that we are all doing everything all wrong. And there is truth to this, we have become completely lost in the citification, or the ugly-fication, of the natural world. And our massive over consumption has become more than critical. So, yes, things do need to change. And we are here, older, wiser, ready to create what is new. And creativity is fun. It brings us joy. I’ll leave you with these words from Louis hay, author of You Can Heal Your Life.
“All is well.
Everything is working itself out for the highest good.
Out of this experience only good will come.
And I am safe.”
Josephine Laing
© 2025