We live in a time of great darkness and isolation. Swarms of meaningless signals and machines vie to dominate our lives, attention and world. Malign processes and cruel situations are the norm throughout much of our modern experience and the technologies that once held the promise of peace, liberation and understanding have, by and large, delivered their opposites.

And though we may wish to believe that ‘things are getting better’, the obvious fact is that they are getting worse, in new ways, faster and more invisibly than our ancestors were capable of imagining. Many of us feel the terrible urgency of the plight of nature, the animals, our relationships… and the ecologies of our world being buried beneath the endless toxicity of our common ‘modernity’.

And millions of us walk alone in great darkness.

It is not the first time that dire situations have plagued humanity; but we were born in a time when we must bear witness to ‘the great adversity’ that has become the hallmark of our societies and their precipitously misguided priorities.

This grim darkness touches each of us uniquely, and it is entirely natural and human to feel demoralized… or even terrified by these matters.

But this is not our only option, nor shall we fall quietly into oblivion or despair; for in great hardship we are called to learn and relate in ways that would otherwise almost certainly elude us. The heroism implicit in our essence recognizes such times as a call to action, to kindness, to mutual concern and deep awareness.

The truth of our situation cannot be ignored, but it can become a catalyst that calls forth the noble virtues embodied in our humanity. In times of great darkness, great kindness is more powerful, more healing, more reassuring… and absolutely essential.

Though we are challenged or even demoralized, we carry within us the essence of our ancestral places, allies and forebears. Let us recall to mind their dreams, bravery, compassion and skillfulness… and be thus reassured and equipped to bring forth the beauty and nobility that is the root of our being in this time — together, with and for all people, the animals, the living places… and whatever the future may bring.

May we together inspire each other to make of this darkness a time of powerful remembering, learning, caring, and perhaps… medicine.