Doing Life with Heike

And just when we thought we had found the tiniest bit of rhythm with all the madness in this world, we got thrown into another round of the Jumanji game, with civil unrest, riots, destruction, fear and panic. We were faced with our fundamental fears and many had literally to fight for their physical life and livelihood – and some still do.  The trauma our country and its people experienced sits deep in our bones and souls.  We are sitting with razor-sharp and ever-present loss – loss of loved ones, loss of safety and security, loss of belongings, loss of our life as we knew it, loss of our spontaneity/laughter/lightness, loss of trust and loss of … the list goes on.

Yet what also happened is that, in the midst of this incredible storm, we also found togetherness, Ubuntu, kindness, reaching out, community spirit, resilience we never knew we had or needed and we found our voices and echoed – ENOUGH!

And then the incredible happened within all of this destruction – people started rising above it. They joined hands and stood up, for what was born out of fear, greed, politics could not survive when the human spirit rose. It started with a hum and in no time became a solid, pulsating and most powerful voice of humanity. And now we can hear the ROAR!

It is not just cleaning up and rebuilding; it is taking back the country in the true sense of UBUNTU – ‘I am – because you are’.  It was the beginning of the rebirth of our collective spirit.

Ubuntu is the heartbeat of the South African people, of common humanity, oneness: community, you and me both – TOGETHER.

And here we are reaching out, lending a hand, sticking together, coming together, and protecting each other irrespective of colour and all those other labels which were created to divide. Tears, fear, hope, grief… is simply HUMAN and we are all in it and experiencing these surreal times TOGETHER.

Standing in our humanness and recognising others within that rawness. Something that was supposed to tear apart this country – tore political structures and corruption wide open – but brought people together in a million ways.

Not something we might have chosen but something we are rising to, for the spirit of the South African People (born here or by choice) is something that is much stronger than anything that can possibly happen to them. South Africa and humankind have done it before and will do it again.

Hear it ROAR – See it RISE – Watch it SOAR – Feel its PULSE, for it will be built WITH each other, FOR each other, in the TRUE spirit of UBUNTU!

Communality, respect, dignity, value, acceptance, sharing, co-responsibility, humaneness, social justice, fairness, personhood, kindness, love, morality, group solidarity, compassion, joy, hope, fulfilment, conciliation … THAT’S what the South African People are truly about!

It is the never-ending cycle of endings and beginnings and, because everything exists in duality, every challenging time has an equal amount of blessings, growth and rewards.  Sure, we sometimes need to dig a bit harder to find it, but it is ALWAYS there.

And with spring beginning, let’s make sure we water those delicate but incredibly strong seedlings of love, togetherness, kindness, hope and wholeness.  It is time to attend consciously to what we do want as part of our being and this world. 

It can be very tempting to fight what and whom we don’t want, yet we will only get more of what we already have way too much of: Greed, hate, manipulation,  – the law of energy is that what we pay attention to is what will grow. Know what you don’t want – find the opposite and flood it with all you have, that’s the only way to bring long-lasting change. Consciously paying attention to what you DO want, being guided by our INNER voice is the recipe for balance and harmony.

And if that means to step back from certain people, places, environments, platforms, etc. in order to do so – then that is what it takes. It is not unkind, disrespectful or rude, for everyone processes at a different pace, in a different way. None of them is wrong, but also not yours to carry as an individual. Energy is an inside-out movement; fill yourself up with what you DO want to bring to yourself and this world and it will automatically spill over.

This (or any other time) is also not the time to convince anyone about what is right or wrong. What you can do instead is to hold space for those that struggle with themselves and others to find some kind of equilibrium and stay true to your frequency.

Right now is the time to be more present, love more, laugh more, listen more, talk less, allowing all these rollercoasters of emotions, without too much attachment. 
    Up your self-care, cultivate quality time with your inner self and, most of all, trust it.  Be present and have patience with yourself and the world.
    If today all you can do is put one foot in front of the other – pat yourself on the shoulder – it is an incredibly brave thing to do, continuously choosing to show up in a world that is in turmoil inside and out. 
     Don’t ever forget that you are still standing in the middle of one of the biggest manure-storms this world has seen in a long time. We might just as well use some of it to fertilise our new beginnings.