This is a time when our core is being shaken.

We are feeling scattered and out of balance. The babel of voices: words, words and more words, promising this and that is a crazy making cacophony. The tsunami of numbers numb us and threatens to dehumanize this dreadful situation.

“The death of one man: that is a catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of deaths: that is a statistic”. Kurt Tucholsky, German Journalist/Pacifist 1932.

Seems that we are living in our own parable. A flu virus started in one place on the planet and within a short time it spread like a wildfire. Globalization is showing us how interconnected we are. Modes of travel make it possible for speedy transmission of a virus. Communication technology quickly spreads rumors and facts around the world. This creates more challenges and confusion. We try to sort things out, but this effort causes us more stress and leads to our feeling more out of balance. This is the dark side to our interconnectivity.

We do not have to be victims of this condition. Within us is the ability to regulate these influences. This new order of globalization makes possible another way of being with positive potential. Perhaps as no other time in history is it clearer that we share a universal connection. The challenge is, how can we find healthy ways to bring our relationships into balance?

Business leaders, companies, and politicians, do not and will not have the answer to this challenge.

The answer is simple and lies inside each of us. Do we want to live in a more aware and respectful way? Will we respect the laws of nature and each other? Will we have the desire to find stillness in the core of our being and create balance? Time will tell. As has happened in the past across many civilizations there comes a time when continuing to live in the same way no longer works, the order we perceive becomes shattered and out of balance.

If we take time to look within the current situation we’ll discover a light shining in this darkness that illuminates a new way. That light is our awareness, it is our respect for nature, each other and our shared unity.

Collectively we have created a globalized economy with profound interconnectivity and complexity. Surely we have the capacity to turn our abilities of intellect, calculation, and management of resources toward the goal of achieving balance through conscious connectivity.

Our way of thinking does not cause calamities like the Covid-19 pandemic. The spread of the virus seems to be caused by international travel, lack of effective preventative actions: staying at home, distancing and sanitizing.

Understanding the link between our being and behavior can help us reset so we can live in a balanced way. Our way of thinking and being can help diminish disorders like the Covid-19 virus and future disruptions.

The individual rocks in the first image were organized with care, intention, and the idea of finding a still point whereby connection between each rock brings the group into balance. This metaphor may help us find a new way of being, individually and collectively. How can we live in relationship in a way that we support each other? How do we strengthen that still point within our core and create a balanced way of being individually and collectively?

There is no one answer, no single ideology. There will be many answers. What will organize the variety of ideas and connect them in a meaningful way is a new, more conscious way of being. The way we are, our being, will inform our behavior. As the age old cliche says, “Change starts with ‘me’.”

I’ve taken time to reflect on these ideas. Looking beyond the damage and death caused by Covid-19, I see an opportunity to reevaluate and understand how we got out of balance. By acknowledging that the way we are living together on the planet is out of balance, we can start a process of finding balance within our individual lives, and together.

Here are a few people I’ve found helpful as I search for balance in my life. They are offering knowledge and insights to us all for free. You may have resources you find helpful as you evolve toward a balanced way of living. I invite you to share them with me and I’ll repost them on this blog so we all may benefit. Thank you, Wayne Eastep

“Hope in Uncertain Times” Oprah & Deepak

“PEPP MWe Up Talk & Gathering” Dr. Dan Siegel

“Gratefulness in Three Steps” On Being Project

“Antidotes to fear of death from an astrophysicist & poet” Brain Pickings

“Intersections” Hitendra Wadhwa