the year of clarity

2020 - the year of 20/20 vision, the year of clarity... and, so far, I don't like what I'm seeing.

At the beginning of this year, and still continuing today, we have been experiencing a world pandemic, when nature, herself, said "enough" to the human race and rightly demanded we change our ways, change our lifestyle, adopt a sense of respect towards those we share this planet with.

For the past number of weeks, now, in the country I currently call home, I have watched and I have observed as this country, little by little, comes out of lockdown. And I have wept.

We were given the most beautiful opportunity by Mother Earth to grow, to develop and to evolve as a species, to answer her cry for respect and honour for both her natural self and the animals we share this planet with... and we blew it. As always, we simply didn't listen and we failed to take action, passing the buck to anyone but ourselves.

As I observe my country come out of lockdown, I see people returning to their 'old' ways and 'old' behaviours. After a few short weeks, the few lessons and changes we took onboard as a result of Covid-19 entering our world, have escaped through an open window.

The arrogance and ignorance of the human race has returned in full, with the belief that a virus should and will listen to our governments scrambling to save the economy by loosening restrictions, to our desires to meet up with friends we haven't seen for a mere few weeks, to our basic cravings for tidy hair, presentable nails, and fast food. Do we really, truly believe that a virus will listen to us? Do we really, truly, stupidly think we're so powerful and so important that we can demand respect from a virus, from Mother Nature?

To be honest, we didn't really stand a chance. There was no way we, as a collective human race, were ever going to listen to the cries of Mother Earth. We are who we are and no-one and no-thing can and will change us. Because we live lives of zero responsibility, expecting everyone around us to change before we change ourselves, pointing the finger of blame at governments and large corporations so we can pretend that everything that's happening around us can't be changed or influenced by us, a mere individual with no voice, no influence... no vote, no money.

If we can't even respect one another, how could we be expected to see the bigger picture and show respect to Mother Nature and fellow non-human species?

A few days ago a 6 year old girl lost her father to the violence of another man. That father was George Floyd.

Fifty-two years ago a 5 year old girl lost her father to the violence of another man. That father was Martin Luther King, Jr.

How far have we, as a human race, come in 52 years?

Can you see just how impossible it was and would be for the human race to change its way when Mother Nature comes begging, when we can't even change our ways towards each other?

It's not until we open our eyes to see that we are all one, that we are all one energy; that what one person does to another, we do to that other... only then can we consider ourselves an evolved species.

We are in this together. We are not individuals, we are a collective. Not a collective of humans, but a collective of species, human and non-human, physical and energetic.

When Covid-19 entered our world, I made my voice known. I spoke openly and candidly about what I felt Mother Nature was asking of us, begging from us. Did you listen? Did you change any of your habits? Did you change your lifestyle in anyway to be more in tune with nature and the animal kingdom?

If you did, I applaud you for you did something when no-one was watching. You changed a habit or your lifestyle when very few could witness or remark about it, because we were all in lockdown. And, yet, by doing so you made a difference. You didn't change the world, but you made a marked difference. How we behave when no-one is watching speaks volumes about the person, the soul we truly are.

And what about what's happening in our world at the moment? What about the cries that black lives matter? Should I air my voice now? Should I speak openly and candidly again, just like I did about Covid-19?

When I spoke about Covid-19, I spoke because I immediately saw it as an opportunity, something positive being handed on the plate to the human race. And I knew my voice needed to be heard. I knew I shouldn't sit in silence. But where's the positive in a human killing a fellow-human over their appearance?

Again, I feel, that it's about the bigger picture.

Does an intelligent species target people because of their appearance?

Does an evolved species condemn people because of their beliefs?

Does an enlightened species segregate people because of their perceived place in society or the world?

If we are to step forward into a better tomorrow we need to step back. We need to step back to see the bigger picture. And in that picture we are all one and the same.

How we treat another, we treat ourselves.

How we harm another, we harm ourselves.

How we help another, we help ourselves.

How we support another, we support ourselves.

How we love another, we love ourselves.

For me, the recent events, as devastating and destructive as they have been, are much more than something that can be labeled as racist, something that falls under the banner of black lives matter. It runs much deeper than even that. It's an inability to see fellow-humans as one with us, one of us, one as us.

And whilst I am struggling to find the positive in taking a life, a human life or, indeed, any life, it's the positives that I seek to find. It's the bigger picture that I look to see. For out of darkness must shine light. For without darkness there can never be light.

By 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr, had started to open the eyes of the human race and left a legacy that, in 2020, George Floyd shall, I hope and trust, posthumously, carry forward. Whilst on the surface it's a legacy of equality and respect for people of colour, dig a little deeper and it's a legacy of equality and respect for all beings, human and non-human.

We cannot continue 2020 without change. We cannot walk away from this year without making a difference. So far we've been presented with two opportunities to unite, to grow and to evolve as a species. Let's not look back in 52 years' time and weep that we have not learned, that we have not grown, that we have not evolved.

Viv xx