Making it Through the Apocalypse
The Greek origins for the word apocalypse mean to uncover or reveal: to lay bare. While we look around and see so much destruction in the world today, it is helpful to remember that these times of destruction are also revealing something. Not only are they showing the underbelly of the systems which have dictated our lives for so long, they are also revealing something new about how we understand God, ourselves, and one another.
As we have witnessed genocide livestreamed through our phones since October, the reality of war has been revealed in a new way. No longer can we deny the violence of colonialism.
As we watch our elected officials justify and explain away war crime after war crime, the thread of lies that we’ve been fed for centuries is uncovered. No longer can we deny the inhumanity of white supremacy.
As we see those calling for an end to violence met with increasing violence, the brutality it takes to uphold capitalism is laid bare. No longer can we deny the barbarity of our financial systems.
We are at a time in our collective history where we have the opportunity to create the world so many of us feel being born. Healing is a process of coming home so fully into one’s own experience that they realize we are all part of One cosmic, eternal experience. By bearing witness to the brutality of the world while refusing to lose sight of the connections bringing us all together, we have the capacity to see the abundance that already exists in both the now and the not-yet.
Bearing witness is not enough, though. Our witness is the springboard of our action, giving us the energy we need to embody the transformation within ourselves that will translate to transformation beyond. We must find ways to integrate healing, using our bodies as the vessels for transformational action in the world. As such, we’ve begun to create programs utilizing yoga to heal from religious trauma, meditation practices for activists and those in the movement. We believe in our capacity to heal, and that our healing connects with the healing of the world.
When we started Every Table in 2021, we knew the focus needed to be on healing from the ways so many death-dealing systems were destroying us. As we’ve gathered over the last couple of years, we’ve seen two notable things happen: the world has continued to fall into destruction; and we’ve found a steadiness within ourselves we’d previously not known. In short, the healing is working. We are learning that the goal is not to calm the chaos of the world, but to find the stillness within and among, so we find the strength and resilience to not only survive, but thrive in this time of such profound transformation.
As we watch our courts and governments fail us, as we see the rise in fascism both at home and abroad, we refuse to give in to the nihilism permeating so much of the world. Instead, we stand with those calling for and working to create systems of nourishment and repair, of interconnectivity and imagination. We are casting our lots with those who believe in a better way of being, and who are embodying that way together in community.
