Fully Powered

I’m just another voice. We hear so many from various sources on the daily. Some voices we agree with, other’s make us cringe. These days, it seems more and more difficult to find voices that are gentle or friendly. It seems that way. It’s very easy to just stare into the abyss of negativity and let that inform how you see the world entirely. When we stare, we don’t interact with the millions of actions, beliefs, and voices to the contrary.

The void often time speaks back, drawing you into it, wanting to keep you there. It’s saying, “stay, stay for a while, get comfortable.” It says, “there is no way out.” When we get trapped there, it’s incredibly difficult to be swayed. Maybe we are there by choice? Maybe someone we trusted put us there? Maybe it’s what we’ve always known? Or all the above. If we find ourselves there through our own choices, to turn back means going down a completely different path and can be incredibly uncomfortable and intimidating. How do we then find our power? How do we take control of the narrative surrounding us, our families, our communities, our countries? We start small.

Power takes many forms. Some of it comes from us, but for the most part it’s fuelled by our environment, our loved ones and or people we respect and trust. From childhood, we learn the rules and how to limit ourselves in what we know, what we want to know, and what we can know. Authority is often the primary source of power. As we grow up, we maintain that rule and stick to it. Some learn how to navigate that rule, push against it, want to break it. What happens? They find fear, judgement, punishment, shame, discomfort. Using power no longer becomes a strength, it becomes a point of contention.

I have two children, one boy and a girl. I have watched their evolution from being fearless to being cautious, as they navigate social constructs. Much of relates to safety, but I also see their willingness to question, to challenge, to be curious, shift. As adults, we have learned to go with the flow, because ultimately that means we are protected. But what happens when the flow doesn’t lead to safety anymore? When our trust in the flow falters, where do we go? Who can we trust? We spiral into chaos.

It's easy to panic, to think there is no other way. The alternative takes work, it takes intention, it takes a shift that might lead to an unknown. That’s scary. For those of us who want a different world, we need to ask ourselves when it’s time to step out of line and lean into discomfort. We are already uncomfortable, right? We must choose. We need to remember that we have power, it’s there in the middle of us, burning brightly. We can break away and find others who want the world to be free of hate, free of toxic authority, free of the belief that we can’t do anything.

You are fully powered! Those who would tell you otherwise want you to forget. They want you to cower away. They want you to feel hopeless, they want you to feel like there is nothing to be done. It’s time to look away from the abyss. It’s time to step out. It’s time to understand that there are billions of people who don’t want the world to be the way it is.

You are never alone.

So, from this no body, this citizen of the world, I hope you find and cultivate your power. I hope it becomes the distraction from sorrow and worry. I hope that we can scream into the abyss, together, until it ruptures and melts away. Good wins in the end for a reason, because power doesn’t just belong to the wicked.

It belongs to everyone.

Be well!