FEELING POWERLESS . . .
is a common experience in this world of ours.
Last week, we touched on a fraction of those global issues that might lead us to feel powerless, and this week we want to talk about a different way of viewing that feeling.
Because although empowering yourself and others is a major part of what we see as the meaning or the point of our work at GFJ...the simple truth is that we don't always feel powerful. In fact, something we were ruminating on the past couple of weeks is how our reaction to feeling powerless might be the more important thing to focus on.
Feeling powerless is often associated with shame, weakness, guilt or helplessness. Yet when we stand on the beach watching a storm come in, or gaze (from a safe distance) at a wild animal in its natural habitat, we touch that feeling of powerlessness that can be connected to awe, gratitude, compassion, and spirituality.
When we feel powerless as a response to something that isn't wonderful, like a problem of dehumanization on a massive scale, or the destruction of those magnificent natural sights...I'm noticing that the negativity associated with that response is related to a tendency toward individualism. The sense that if only I could fix it all myself, I wouldn't have to feel so powerless. If one could only dominate the problem, do it alone, control it, make it perfect.
What I'm turning to this week, instead, is a willingness to respect my feelings of powerlessness. I have a hunch that powerlessness must be allowed to be without fear, judgment, shame or dominance, in order for it to then be transformed into power through connection, community, and engagement. This is why grief, truth, recovery, and healing are so vital: they are our human attempts to let powerlessness be, so that it can transform us. So that we can recognize our power where it rests, and put it to use.
As Thich Nhat Hanh writes in Letter Nine of Ten Love Letters to the Earth,
"All humans, without exception, have this potential to become awakened beings able to protect you, our Mother, and preserve your beauty."
And Alok Vaid-Menon shares in their New York Times Magazine interview,
"What a precious moment, where how we show up is going to inform the future century. "
Yours in food justice,
Tay + Dor
photo by Sophia Piña-McMahon
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