There is something that is pulsating through the air. Every so often it feels like it passes right through my heart. I like refer to this as The Rage.
The Rage is strong and fierce and it takes me unawares.
I wonder if The Rage has found you too?
I wish it was socially acceptable to express the essence of The Rage like a child does when they are mad or sad and let you know in a colossal scream or shout.
This feels like an entirely appropriate response to where we find ourselves right now.
A friend of mine said when The Rage came upon her once, she was in a deserted woods and she bellowed into the void.
Quite right too, to voice such guttural outrage at this present moment. For there are too many right now for whom life is slowly becoming unbearable. There are too many for whom the only thing which is certain, is that tomorrow will be worse than today.
I am reminded of a song called ‘Speechless’ sung by Naomi Scott, that names the terror of the rising tide and societal norms, about who belongs where, and whose voices get to be heard. She stares this down, singing, ‘I won’t live unspoken…all I know is I won’t go speechless’.
So if you feel The Rage please speak it out. You too may need to find a deserted place and let out a guttural cry. Or maybe what is drawn out in you is shown in music, or in art, or in dance, or a community act, that which cannot be expressed in words.
Expose the sheer audacity of it all.
Show us any light we cannot see.
Give us courage for our next step.
Mary Oliver writes a poem called Lead, which speaks entirely to the tragedy of now.
She says,
‘I tell you this
to break your heart,
by which I mean only
that it break open and never close again
to the rest of the world.’
I wonder, when The Rage does visit, this may be why.
In which case, we may need each other more than ever.
A poem about The Rage…
The Rage burns
It may be able to turn
Something deep within
A stuck something
A presumed something
A complacent something.
The Rage is full
Of grief and anger
and wild hope
and desperate longing
The Rage is here
Is to be welcomed
Is just as valid and valuable
as sadness or joy or peace
The Rage belongs here
at this time
In the world
In our lives
In our hearts.
If it ever visits you
Do not be afraid of it.
It may be here to break open something
Which cannot go unspoken.
With thanks for Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay