Winter Beckons - What Could You Let Go Of?

November 2024

We are approaching the darkest, coldest time of the year. As the temperature drops and the days draw in, we are reminded over and over again that it is ok to retreat and rest from all that felt effortless in the warmer days and months. Even the leaves falling from the trees are showing us that letting go can feel and look magnificent.

Winter is a time of hibernation for much of the natural world and in times gone by, the much-reduced daylight would have been a signal to humanity to slow down, seek sanctuary and begin turning our gaze inwards. The long evenings and nights give us abundant time to reflect on all that the year has brought, what has been welcome and what we could, maybe, consider releasing.

There was a dense fog that descended, where I live, one evening this week, lingered for days on end and hinted to me that perhaps I don’t always need to be able to see clearly into the distance in order to stay on my true path. What I did need to do however, when the fog was at its thickest, was slow my course and breathe into my inner knowing that there is a time for everything. Sometimes what we need most is to stand still, seek comfort and shelter while we contemplate which parts of ourselves, we must hold tightly onto and which parts we may gently loosen our grip on.

The truth is that nature is in a constant state of flux. It has its four seasons and the in-between phase separating each one, the next season only ever being made possible by the passing of the one before it. Just like nature, we humans are in a continual process of becoming. At times, we bloom and flourish with creativity and action and it can feel as if we need to hold onto that flow to survive. But the reality is that we can only ever go with what flows, and as we see with the currents and tides of bodies of water, all that flows will eventually slow in pace, only to be met in time again, with that which is ready for accelerated energy once more.

The more we identify with nature, the more we will see that it is only natural for us to go through spells of diminished energy where we conserve our resources and settle into the parts of ourselves that had been silenced while the sun shone and the days were long. We may be pleasantly surprised with what we find.

What is Happening in Palestine and Lebanon is Not OK

October 2024

October 7^th has come and gone and what a year of death and destruction it has been for the people of Gaza. This follows on from the horrific attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians, in which 1,200 people were murdered and 250 more were taken hostage, some of whom died, some of whom were released and some still being held. In the 365 days since, more than 42,000 Gazans have been killed, over 97,000 have been wounded and these are the most conservative of conservative estimates. The enclave is in a chokehold, being starved of food, water, energy and all other resources necessary for human survival. The horror of October 7^th 2023 for the people of Israel cannot be underestimated – young people slaughtered at a music festival, babies torn from their parents, people shot down in their homes as they thought about what they might have for breakfast. I seek not to downplay any of this appalling massacre of innocent Israelis. What we must do however, is (a)understand the context in which the events of October 7^th came to pass and (b) call out what has been done to the people of Palestine since that day for what it is – collective punishment, genocide and enforced famine.

The conflict surrounding Palestinian territory, and who is entitled to it, has been ongoing for over a century, but intensified in 1948 which was the year that the state of Israel was formed.  This was a day of great joy for Jewish people who had emigrated to the region both in generations past and after the liberation of Jews following on from World War II. It was a day of catastrophe for Palestinians (called Nakba in Arabic), however. For Palestinian Arabs it meant that their homeland was taken from them by force, making refugees of ¾ of a million people in one fell swoop. Ever since then (and the bloodshed has been devastating) the land that was designated as being part of Palestine has been in dispute – since 1967 the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been occupied by Israel. It is modern day colonization and it has led to generations of Palestinians being stripped of their human rights. The United Nations still does not recognise Palestinian statehood, though over 140 countries have now declared their recognition of Palestine – why is this? The United States continue to veto UN votes in favour of recognising the country, because of their close alliance with Israel. In fact, it is many of the global superpowers who are still denying Palestinians a crucial part of their identity – Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan to name a few.

All of this contributes to what has been allowed to take place in Gaza and the West Bank for decades. Not only has widespread persecution of Palestinians been allowed, it has been authorised and encouraged by Israeli governments, past and present. Illegal settlements in the West Bank have increased more than tenfold since war broke out on October 7^th. Before that date, the vast majority of the population of Gaza were classed by the UN as refugees (1.5 million of 2.2 million people). A year later almost the entirety of Gaza’s population have been displaced, most of them having had to flee to seek shelter from Israeli fire multiple times. There is no safe place in Gaza.

The desolation that the people of Gaza (and now a significant proportion of the Lebanese population too) have had inflicted on them has become a sick norm. For decades, Gaza has been one of the most dangerous places on Earth to live. There has been a 17 year blockade on the enclave, imposed by Israel since they withdrew their armed forces and civilian settlers in 2007. Since that year, who and what can enter and leave Gaza has been at the discretion of Israel and their neighbour, Egypt. The distribution of aid, since the most recent and ongoing outbreak of war, has been severely blighted by this imprisoning of Gazans. There is no respite for them. They have been herded into smaller and smaller parcels of decimated land in the last 12 months and even the supposed “safe zones” have been targeted by Israeli bombs and ground offensives.

Benjamin Netanyahu and the (far-right) Israeli government have stated the destruction of Hamas, and now Hezbollah in Lebanon too, as the goal of their war efforts. We cannot fight terror with terror. The longer these wars carry on, the more hopeless, desolate, revengeful and desperate the survivors will be and that is a terrifying prospect. The word extermination was used by Nazis in naming what they sought to do to Jews in the death camps of Germany and Poland. Annihilation is the term that I have heard used more and more in describing what is being done to Palestinian men, women and children over the past year. Jewish people have been a persecuted group for centuries past and much collective trauma must remain within anyone who identifies as Jewish. Of course they wanted a homeland, a place they could feel safe from persecution. And that is what Palestinians need now. A ceasefire is only the starting point for the healing that must be allowed to happen, as part of a 2-state solution.

As an Irish person, this is familiar to me. 800 years of British colonial rule is something that we are still healing from and will continue to for many generations to come. My grandmother was born in 1916, the year of the Irish rebel uprising against British rule. I don’t know how those events were described at the time in which they happened but my guess is that they were described then very differently to how they are described now. Similarly, we cannot know how the current events in the Middle East will be seen in years to come. Yet my gut feeling is that what is happening in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon is wrong; I believe many other people have that innate knowing too. I can no longer stand by and watch the collective punishment that is being meted out to innocent people and not call it out for what it is.

Let us stand on the right side of history and not shy away from what makes us uncomfortable. Thanks to modern technology, we are aware in real time of the reality on the ground in the parts of the Middle East which are under siege. The easy thing to do is to look away and pretend we don’t know what is going on, and that is maybe because we feel powerless to do anything. The most common way that we give away our power is by thinking that we do not have any in the first place. We all have soft power, which when added to a community of people, who believe in a like cause, is most often what instigates change either on a small or global scale. There are lots of actions we can take to call attention to what we believe in. We can choose to educate ourselves a little more each day on the injustices of the world. We can post anything that bothers us or activates us on social media so that others see it and start to build their awareness too. We can talk to our friends, families, colleagues and connections about anything that is going on that we do or do not agree with. We can donate anything at all or as much as we can afford to spare on the causes that we feel matter most.

People power is the greatest power of all. Yes, we have the capacity for great destruction and we also have the capacity for great reconstruction. We are all global citizens and sometimes we need a reminder of our humanity to see that there is always more that we have in common than what separates us. We all have a beating heart, a need to breathe oxygen, to eat food and to drink water in order to stay alive. We all want a place to lay down and rest that is safe at the end of each day. We all need love, hope and the support of others in order to thrive. The people of the Middle East needs all of these in abundance now in order to come through some of their darkest days. Let us provide love, hope and support to some of the people who need it most, in whatever ways we can. I dread to imagine what will happen next if we don’t do what we can now. 

Some links for further information:

The Busy Bug That Infects Us All