Remembering How to Be Wrong
An Act of Grace
Dear Reader;
We have forgotten how to admit we have been wrong. The day has come, to remember.
It is not that any of us are always right, nor even right most of the time. In fact, to be human is to be mistaken; that is not the issue at hand. What seems to have been lost somewhere along the way is the self-permission, the ability to see that we have become attached to being right. We have found it more comfortable to abandon critical examination of self and circumstance, and instead enrol absolutely in a paradigm that has been handed to us, as pretty as the compliments from a boy to a girl he wants to bed, and as hollow as the walls of a Hollywood set. We so prefer the safety of the lie that we invest everything in it, until we would rather die, both in pride and body, than admit it was a mistake.Â
To be wrong became terrifying, not only in our fear of a new truth, but because of how utterly committed we have been to insisting that we were right. The more afraid we are of our own doubt, the more fiercely we defend, and the more violently we punish others for what we cannot admit in ourselves.Â
We are unable to change our minds with grace, precisely because in our hearts, we cannot trust our own simple awareness and common sense. We have sold our souls to the devils of compliance, dependency, flattery and tribalism. The need to call out the bad guys, so we can be reassured that we are on the side of the good. The impulse to divide between us and them, because without division, we are so uncertain of who we are.Â
I am so afraid of the dark within, I must give it away to you. I am so afraid to be complex in my inadequacies, I must convince you that I am everything, all the time.
Our attachment to righteousness is like a spark in the wind. Wherever it lands, that which is dry of awareness will burst into flame. Fire feeds fire, and how good it feels to be so hot that one’s inner shame is melted in the blaze. My rage has permission, because now, I can turn it on you.Â
How did this happen, and how do we escape this prison of pride? How do we give ourselves permission to reconsider, to grow instead of defend?
In the personal construct, the crux of our healing lies in a willingness to be humbled in our own eyes, to give ourselves the freedom to be a work in progress. To acknowledge that wisdom is not static but an evolution, and if we wish to know expansion, there will be times when we contract. We will mess up. We will embarrass ourselves. We will have crass impulses, make emotional decisions, be childish in our expressions. It happens. It is to be human.
This is true tolerance, rather than the hoisting of merit badges of suffering.
It is out of the fertile soil of our errors that our gifts are born. There is no other way. But to give ourselves this permission means we must grant it to everyone. No more hiding behind the myth of our perfection as we cancel those who threaten us. No more gleeful attacks upon others to distract from our own self-blame. The pure magic of genuine honesty and forgiveness await us, holding the key to our own freedom, and all hope for the relationships of which we dream.
We can do this. We are brave enough to set ourselves free.
In the moment we allow ourselves to have been wrong, we return to the grace of authenticity. And with the seeds of such courage scattered far and wide, oh, what a world this could be.Â
In the collective construct, we are asked to release our identification with the safety of how we thought things should be. So long as we want to perceive the darkness as something we must control outside of ourselves, we will play the game of duality. We will generate false demons to slay, to maintain the illusions we so fear to reveal.Â
We want to believe that governments should care about their citizens, so anyone who decries them becomes a traitor. We want to believe that doctors should first do no harm, and so we take their poisons without question and demand that others do too. We want to think that our media speaks the truth, and so we refuse to perceive their corruption. We want things to be the way it has always been, so we don’t have to face the destruction of our false beliefs, and our own mistruths.
It is with our personal submission to humility that change will begin. To see the dark we have not wanted to see, so that we may once again invite the light to return. To admit to our own delusions, so that the wizard behind the curtain may be exposed, and this, dear travellers in Oz, is how the new Earth begins.
This act of dropping to our knees may be the most difficult surrender we have ever known. It may seem that our familiar world has dissolved before our eyes. We may continue to resist the truth, until it rises up to drown our delusions, until there are no more words of denial to express. It may be hardest on those who have propped themselves up the highest, for they have the furthest to fall.
But know that, as so many prophecies of the Indigenous wise ones agree, this very collapse is the beginning of everything for which we have waited. It is our very letting go, our absolute fall from grace, which makes space for its return. And in the days to come, nothing but Grace will do.
I was blind, but now I see.
Dear Local Readers in Toronto;
Won’t you join us on Saturday at a juice and smoothie cocktail party for beloved friends in the World Without Fear Community?
After long years of restriction sometimes it feels as if we have forgotten how to gather, to be present with one another in the flesh. So World Without Fear invites you to our free, introductory juice-cocktail party at the wonderful Farmacia Health Bar on Queen Street East in the Beaches. There is no cost to join us, but we do ask that everyone purchase a fresh juice, smoothie or kombucha as a thank you to our host. Our party will be alcohol-free.
This is an informal, short and sweet chance to stop by and reconnect with friends in Toronto's conscious community, from 4 pm to 6 pm, Saturday, April 29. We'll have card readings and great conversation along with our carrot juice.
Farmacia is right on the Queen streetcar line in the beautiful Toronto beaches. Please do bring like-minded friends, and follow the rose petals to find us!
Respond to our Facebook event HERE.
FARMACIA HEALTH BAR
2096 Queen St E, Toronto, ON M4E 1E1
4 pm to 6 pm Eastern, Saturday, April 29.
much love, Adi