Some days, I am just down in the dumps! You too?

Did you know that the phrase “down in the dumps” was a commonplace medieval expression meaning dejection; melancholy; depression.  The expression comes from the Dutch ‘domp,’ ‘mental haze or dullness,’ or from the German ‘dumpf,’ ‘close, heavy, oppressive, gloomy’

And often, you can’t even put your finger on exactly what is wrong or bothering you!

Some days the world is just too much with us

Yup! That about covers it!

Yesterday, while out walking, I came upon a caterpillar plodding across the road in front of me. I stopped, startled.  It was beautiful- all fluffy shining rust in the middle with black colored fluff on both ends- a wooly bear caterpillar, as I later found out.

And I might have missed seeing this tiny depiction of beauty, if I hadn’t looked down at that moment.

Our World- the Beautiful and the Ugly

The world is so beautiful at times that it twists your heart and brings you to tears…

The setting sun streaking the sky with glorious colors…the burbling forest stream, a thunder storm where the flashes of lightening illuminate the mountain peaks, a meadow alive with multiple wild flowers and busy insects, the antics of kittens and puppies, the smile that lights up someone’s whole face, the newborn napping with clenched fists and angelic face.

Despite the messed up things that occur all around us, sometimes we all need to step back and remember how beautiful the world really is. Unknown.      

Such beauty we experience so often, but it is always tempered by the ugly dark face of this world

Raging floods carrying away homes and victims, volcanos spewing lava, trembling earthquakes, whirling destructive hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, ice storms, blizzards, monsoons.

And beyond the natural terrors, are the ones created by humanity- oppression, violence, war, ecological nightmares, volatile politics, greed, abuse, hatred.

I think we have to look much deeper than that if we are to find the real cause of man’s problems and the real cause of the world’s ills today. If we are to really find it I think we will have to look in the hearts and souls of men. Martin Luther King Jr., Rediscovering Lost Values

Sometimes I’m so tired of it all, I just want to sleep, and the only thing I want is peace.

Going on the Mars mission and colonizing that planet starts to sound pretty good. Or moving to an isolated Pacific island also sounds appealing.  Oh to be far away from iPhones, computers, laptops, iPads, tablets, newspaper, radio and tv. Nothing to bury me under with tales of gloom and doom. Just peace for a while.

24/7 Stress

The dangers of a world that over-stimulates and intrudes 24/7 is that it produces stress, fight or flight, and depression.

We all suffer from the constant bombardment of today’s world. It makes for an irritable, joyless existence.  How many of us could say that we are carefree and living the life of our dreams?

I don’t know about you, but I seek something beyond this hectic, crazy-busy, media-driven frenzy that we call modern life.

The brutal fact is that folks have been complaining about the state of the world for millennia. As long as there have been written accounts, we have records of philosophers, politicians, and common people bitching and complaining about some of the same things we fret and worry about today.

Spiral Rather Than Circle?

So many people think of life as a cycle or circle- that we just keep going around and around, dealing with the same stuff over and over.

What if life could rather be compared to a spiral where similar material is dealt with repeatedly, but each time at a different level. And each level is dependent upon the ones before, but further along each time, more complex each time.

The spiral is not a symbol of stagnation but rather of change, progression, growth, and development.

According to ancient philosophy life is not a cycle  but a spiral. Every life lesson that has ever been presented to you will come back again, until you learn it. And the stakes each time will be higher. Whatever you have learned will bear greater fruit. Whatever you failed to learn will bear harsher consequences. Marianne Williamson “The Age of Miracles”

All of which made me think the other day about that spiral of life called DNA- that coded message within all living organisms.

DNA is composed of two chains that coil or spiral around each other to form a double helix. They carry all the genetic instructions used for the growth, development, functioning and reproduction of all living organisms and also many viruses.

Always two strands, side-by-side. And when they split, the other side is always connected to its match.  Our DNA is a double helix.

Like above, so below? From the largest to the smallest, we are a spiral. Macrocosmically, the Milky Way galaxy in which we live is a spiral. Microcosmically we are a spiral on the most fundamental level of our existence since our DNA is a double helix spiral.

Could it be that DNA reflects the nature of our existence as being eternally connected to divinity? Two strands, side-by-side.  And that therefore we are never alone, never separated from divine presence.

For me, DNA now stands for Divinity Never Absent

How Would Our Concept of Divinity Be Affected?

How would that change our understanding of God/Infinite Mind/Love…? And would or could that make a difference in how we live out our lives in these difficult, stressful times?

In answer, let me quote from a TED talk by Tom Honey in 2005. In his talk, he is wondering how we can reimagine God in light of all the natural and human tragedy- and particularly in the eternal question of why doesn’t God intervene.

What if God is IN things? In the infinitely complex world of relationships and connection that make up life.  In the natural cycle of life and death, the creation and destruction that must happen continuously.  In the process of evolution and the incredible intricacy and magnificence of the natural world. 

In the collective unconscious- the soul of the human race. In you and me, minds and body and spirit.  In presence and in absence, in simplicity and complexity, in change and development and growth.

To have faith in this God would be more like trusting an essential benevolence in the universe, and less like believing a system of doctrinal statements.

How could one practice such a faith? By seeking the God within.  By cultivating my own inwardness, in silence, in meditation, in my inner space…In awareness of the inner conversation.

How would we live such a faith? By seeking intimate connection with your inwardness, the kind of relationship where deep speaks to deep. If God is in all people, then there is a meeting place where my relationship with you becomes a three-way encounter…

How would one deepen such a faith? By seeking the inwardness which is in all things.  In music and poetry.  In the natural world of beauty.  In the small ordinary things of life.  There is a deep indwelling presence that makes them extraordinary.” ( Go here for complete talk)

(Tom Honey’s appeal goes far beyond his own congregation which is now St. David’s Church, Exeter, England. For years he was the vicar of the church in Oxford attended decades earlier by the Christian thinker C.S. Lewis.  As Reverend, Honey built a reputation there for thoughtful sermons that disdained cliché or easy answers. They were often willing to grapple with the darker side of life — pain, loss, grief — and the challenges these presented to the concept of a loving God.)

 Conclusion

So what’s the answer? Where is a solution to unencumber ourselves from life-numbing stress and enable us to have the freedom to just be?

Perhaps it is by seeking the Divine even in the trials and difficulties of this life, in the large important things, and in the common everyday events. Doing so, we reframe the whole way we perceive our existence.

Instead of being bogged down, we can relish the fluffy caterpillar, and the helping hand, and the moments of introspection. Nothing startlingly new- we’ve been told forever to stop and smell the roses.  But…perhaps part of today’s problem is that we rarely if ever stop and take that sniff.

Call To Action

This exercise comes from the University of Minnesota, “Take Charge of Your Well-Being”.

Viewing your life in a big-picture context can help you develop a better picture of where you came from and where you’d like to go. The Life Spiral shows your whole story, from birth to death.

1. At the bottom of the spiral, write your date of birth. At the top, write the age you think you will live to be. Mark the place on the spiral which represents your current age. How far along are you in this life? What feelings does this evoke?
2. Record three trigger experiences that shaped your life story. These could be any major life events, breakthroughs or breakdowns, such as weddings, divorces, moves, losses, career changes, etc. Write down the age each trigger took place. What was the life lesson learned in each case?
3. Focus on each of these life lessons—what did they teach you, and how did they change you? Can you gauge from this exercise where you are in your life today and where you’d like to be by the end of it? What would a life well lived look like? Seeing your life in this broader perspective can help identify what is meaningful and valuable to you.

(from Omega)

Have you ever stood at the bottom of one of those old city buildings that has, at its center, a spiral staircase that goes all the way from the lobby up to the top floor? 

Well, those buildings look a lot like our lives. With each step we climb, we gain greater and greater perspective. But buildings have a finite number of steps and floors. In the case of life, the staircase is infinite. The staircase never ends… You’re constantly in a new place of awareness and experience. You’ll never meet the same step twice.