Polar Shifts 04/10/2011
 
I like to write about what's happening in the world.  Anyone that's paying even a modicum of attention realizes that there has been quite a few natural and not-so-natural disasters recently.  Most distressing has been the events of the earthquake(s) and subsequent tsunami in Japan. Its bad enough that thousands of people have gone missing as a result, but the effects of the nuclear power plant meltdowns has a lot of us really distraught.  Of course we all (I hope) try to do what we can to offer some relief in times of great suffering like these.  This is also a time when kids will come to parents for words of comfort and security assuring them that they are safe.  I tell my kids what I feel is the best response for each scenario, but sometimes I'm stumped.  Although I personally maintain that for every problem there is a solution, its not always easy to allay the fears of younger family members. Sometimes just letting them they're loved is all that's needed. 
One of my older kids is relentlessly interested in the prophecies around 2012. She has read the books, watched the youtube discussions, and seen the films. She is convinced that we will wake up on the morning of next year's winter solstice to a world that has turned on its head, literally.  It is in fact true that our planet is in a state of change, be it through the climate or the shifting tectonic plates, but how do you tell your teenager that a shifting of the earth's poles is normal and happens every umpteen thousand years?  Its much easier to explain bipolar disorder than the earth's shifting alignment. 
I am not going to go on about whether the prophecies of 2012 are "true" or not, that's something for a different debate in a different arena, but I am going to say that we as the grown-ups need to at least be a little knowledgeable about what's happening to our planet and what MAY or MAY NOT occur.
Whether you believe that the morning of December 21st of next year will be wildly different than that of the same day a decade before is up to you.  Different religious beliefs and hold different views of these things, but it makes sense to me to focus on the one thing that those in the "2012-will-be-the-dawning-of-the-age-of-Aquarius" tribe insist is vital, and that is LOVE.  After all the videos and lectures and books and whatnot that I have (not-so-enthusiastically) explored, those that seem the most "together" are the ones that are proclaiming that love truly is all we need.  And that makes sense to me.  Love. One of my favorite four-letter words. 
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People who have cut themselves off from passion have switched their allegiance to something else almost as strong. Because the flow of life won’t be stopped, a counterforce must be called in to oppose it–the counterforce of fear. Fear of life is extremely common whenever someone complains of ennui.

Fear at any level of the psyche makes it much more difficult to trust that passion is safe. If my wife criticizes me, a warning voice that I hardly notice will sap my desire for her. If my husband dislikes the way I keep house, I will feel inhibition about fully expressing my sexual needs. Thus existential issues are activated by everyday obstacles.

In relationships where two people have allowed the underground war between fear and desire to go on too long, suppressing passion becomes an actual life goal. In fear’s warped value system, getting “too close” seems like a problem instead of the solution. As nature created us it is normal to seek pleasure; a fearful person avoids pain instead.

The reason that falling in love is so passionate is simple: desire is no longer a choice. Romance bursts the dam of inhibition. Its erotic power proves too much for fear and repression to hold back. At the deepest level people never fall in love accidentally. They simply grow tired of living without passion, and having made this unconscious decision they open up once more and allow themselves to receive love.

Without waiting to fall in love, you can rekindle passion by imitating this process. When the passion is gone from a relationship, both partners must be honest in stating that they have desires. The critical step is to eliminate your partner entirely as the cause of the problem and take responsibility for your own feelings.

Adapted from The Path to Love, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 1997).

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