Keeping the High Watch - by Rebecca Jarmas

At our most recent New Earth Visioning Project meeting, I was struck by the idea of New Earthers as “keepers of the high watch.” During this time of incredible planetary chaos, “someone” must step forward and volunteer to be the calm buoy in the storm. Transitions are hard. Surely there must be a way to prepare to be this buoy.

Then it struck me. I am in the middle of a huge personal transition. My husband and I recently moved thousands of miles away from a home we lived in for a third of our lives. We raised our children in this home. Half our married life was spent there. There was heartache and grief. Worry, anxiety, and sometimes despair.

And fear. Isn’t that mirrored in the world around us? As the COVID pandemic relentlessly marches through the population, as racism continues to pervade society, as poverty and hunger persist even in the wealthiest economies, as people war one against the other, as governments forget they are formed in service of the people, as climate degradation threatens to make our planet uninhabitable, and on we can go, aren’t these same emotions aroused?

But in my home of 23 years there was laughter and playfulness. There was joy and enjoyment of one another’s company and unique gifts. There was sharing and caring for one another. There was time spent appreciating Nature. There was unconditional love. And hope. There was always hope and the knowledge that the darkness would pass, leaving gifts we could not then comprehend.

The world is so big – how can I possibly keep the watch? I think it is by paying close attention to what I am learning in my own personal transitions. Since our move 3 months ago, I have learned 3 things:

Transitions are survivable. We choose how we survive them in each tiny decision we make. In our openness towards other people. In our willingness to step out of our comfort zone and try something new. In our enthusiasm to make our new environment into our new home. In our joy at discovering all our new town has to offer and to participate. In our choice to shine our light when our conditioning tells us to hide it.
It takes courage to let go of the old ways. Nostalgia and comfort with the known are powerful magnets. Inertia is the force that keeps us stuck in the patterns that inhibit transformation. These forces make transitions painful spiritually and emotionally as they feed the cycle of inertia and resistance. Oddly, I found this happens even when the transition is to a better place.
We can never fully evolve to the persons we are to become if we continue to carry baggage from the past. Physical and emotional baggage past their expiration date rots and weighs us down. Brick cell phones, clothes that are worn through or ill-fitting – out they must go. The space they take to store and the energetic space they take to manage is clutter in the New Earth. Similarly, with emotional baggage. This continues to exist because we continue to think about it. Now is the time to review any tumultuous or life-changing events from the past. Take them out and look at them in the light of day. Imagine if you want to carefully wrap them in paper and place them in a box to move with you. Or have these, too, become worn- out and ill-fitting?

By relating in to one another’s experiences instead of counting ourselves out as terminally unique, we can find shared solutions. Perhaps I cannot do anything about the chaos.

Perhaps I am a buoy.

–Rebecca Jarmas