Estivating & The Upside Down
We were in the desert last week in one of the biggest thunderstorms I’ve ever seen. Roads were washed out all over. Spectacular lightning.
We came home to the hottest, driest weather ever recorded in Durham, NC. 106 degrees at the airport.
It feels like we’ve slipped sideways into a strange parallel universe.
Selling Us Out of House and Home
Yesterday, the White House was used as a locker room for a UFC fight. The sacred monuments of this country are being desecrated. Our government is bought by corporations and buddies of the president and shamelessly branded (in more ways than one). Our public land, education, and health systems are run by people who openly despise public land, education, and health systems, so they undermine them, shut them down, and sell off our assets. If you are paying attention to balanced news sources* you know these things already.
The Upside Down
It’s like an unholy mash up between the Upside Down of Stranger Things and the movie Idiocracy (which was supposed to be a parody not a plan).
What does this have to do with estivating? I’m getting to that, I promise.
I’m mentioning these things together because living in our current version of the Upside Down is disorientating and exhausting. Being gaslit and lied to wears us down. Grieving so many losses can lead us to shut down, burn out, and give up. Let’s not do those things.
Positive/Negative or Balanced/Imbalanced?
Despite what appears to be “negative” turns of late I try to have perspective and recognize my own limitations. How might all of these events push us towards something unpredictably beneficial? As we are clearly in a time of dramatic change, I hold space for, and work toward, change that is in the aggregate “positive.” Maybe something as dramatic as we are experiencing now, but where the parallel universe we slip into feels just and kind, where people are generous and value nature (and you know, little things like maybe not soo racist/sexist/homophobic?) That would be something to celebrate! Using nature as a model, positive/negative may not be the right descriptive combination. Perhaps balanced/imbalanced may be more accurate. How can we work for more balanced systems and ways of being; in ourselves, our homes, our government, our land, our earth? (Without denying or bypassing the damaging and painful things we are witnessing.)
Estivating
Estivating is like hibernating but when it’s hot. Here is an article about it and how it might pertain to you. In the extraordinary heat many of us are experiencing, perhaps the steps we need to take to stay safe (reduced activity, slower speeds, etc.) align with introspection about next steps to bring balance to our systems. In winter, when the year is turning, we often pause and reflect on the time that’s coming. Midsummer, for those lucky enough, is often time when we take a break and play.
A useful form of estivation this year is likely a combination of those deliberate seasonal pauses, especially given the background of our surreal upside-down situation. Even in times that don’t feel inherently joyful, when things seem out of balance, or crumbling, when we are afraid or grieving, it’s good to have spaces for playfulness and gratitude and enjoyment. In the heat of this summer (northern hemisphere folks) how can we be agents of change for equilibrium and balance in our upside-down world?
Wishing you a peaceful heart, and all of us a peaceful planet.
Mara
News Sources
The Ground News app is good. It gives a wide range of sources and lets you know if there is a left or right bias.
Heather Cox Richardson is a historian and links current events to their historical context in meaningful and understandable ways. Her daily free Substack, Letters from an American, is a gem.
