It is the longest-held conditioned belief and passionately perpetuated ideology in humanity: separatism. It may have served us well when we existed in pure survival mode, but having evolved to the current times as a species, it is now destroying us.

Along with survival needs and instincts, this concept was engrained through many religions, most teaching that we are separate from God, born as sinners or less than, and only through the seeking of an intermediary or devout practice can we be worthy and forgiven.

Even as a child, I knew I didn’t need a middleman. I knew I was one with my Source and made of that which created me. I remember clearly a conversation with my childhood friend, Judy, on the sidewalks of Milwaukee, Wisconsin when we first shockingly realized we would eventually die. We were around ten years old and when she told me what her religion described as purgatory, I remember the fear we felt. After some silence, I recall saying “I think what happens is what we believe will happen”. It was my way of being open to everyone having varying beliefs.

On another front, many have been taught that we are separate from the very planet that gives us what we need to exist and have the right to falsely claim dominion over Her. Rather than respect and care for Mother Earth as she cares for us, we recklessly and greedily take of her gifts and create life-threatening imbalance. Given the extraordinary experience of access to Native American elders and teachers of their practices, I was taught what having respect truly means. I learned to only pick what I needed and to allow the younger plants the chance to flourish. I learned more about our interconnectedness with all forms of life and to respect our differences rather than judge or fear them.

After going with a friend to hike in Topanga Canyon one day, and realizing our lingering to view the sunset meant we would be walking down the canyon in the dark, I fearfully followed her lead without question. I soon felt compelled to do it again, as if Mother Earth was calling me, but I went alone, starting at sunset or later. I used to call myself “Runs in Fear” because in the beginning, that’s what I did. But after a decade of hiking on my own this way, facing everything from tarantulas to mountain lions to lost pigs (and people), I learned the baseless nature of my fears and expectancies that something different from me that I didn’t understand, would harm or kill me.

Through the Native American teachings I was given, I put an offering down at the start of the trail, asking Mother Earth for permission to enter there, that I would be of no harm to any life and no harm would come to me. Halfway up the mountain, I stopped to drum and sing my prayers, then silently watch, reflect, and listen. And at the end of the trail I placed another offering, one of gratitude. From those displays of respect and awareness of my connection to everything, I received profound and immeasurable gifts, including trust. I developed the ability to perceive subtle communications that kept me safe and connected with the life around me. It created a foundation block that helped me extend the same practice of respect and awareness to people, in all our differences.

We are in a paradigm shift of consciousness on this planet, and what is dying is reaching from the bowels of its origin to grasp tightly and fight relentlessly for its life. Within the extremes playing out, death is prevalent in all its forms, inner and outer, and I don’t know anyone who hasn’t experienced a close encounter. History is opening its chapters as wars rage, and we re-read our stories of separatism that have perpetuated hatred for eons of time.

So, what are we to do and how can we manage? On the personal front, we can go further every day to embody the consciousness of our oneness. We can stop comparing, forgive, reach out beyond the models we were taught and demonstrate respectful, kind, and loving connection with others everywhere we are. We can stand up for those who are abused, create joyful experiences of our oneness, dismantle our judgments and refuse their interference in our perceptions and interactions.

In the presence of my father’s judgment that lead to him disowning me, I once asked, “What about loving your children unconditionally?” His sarcastic reply was “Well. that’s idealistic isn’t it?”. I know the pain of feeling separate. Most of us do. Nothing good comes of it and, though I grew strong through adversity, it denied me much and has taken a lifetime to overcome. Look at the suffering it’s creating globally.

Life has forcefully changed and we are meant to change with it. It’s not about going back or trying to get back to who we were pre-covid. We need to be who we are as we were created to be: one with Source, co-creators, infinite potential connected to infinite resource, given an infinite capacity to love. And we must create beyond the old paradigms of greed, separation, and patriarchal domination.

I know it’s overwhelming and exhausting. I re-set every day. We are all going through grief of some sort, fear, loss, and pain, and it can easily dim our hope and resolve, let alone confuse us. Ask within. Ask your heart and soul how to evolve and transform, ask your Source (however you believe) for the guidance and help you need. Ask Mother Earth. Listen and follow your intuition, cultivate your intentions, and grow your empathy, kindness, and compassion.

Be willing to forgive the whole world so you can embody your true essence and power to re-create and co-create. Be willing to transform and you will be an agent of change in any moment on any day. It’s the illusions falling away that are generating the fear and wreaking havoc, but illusions are not sustainable. As we evolve through this collapse and beyond this destruction, we’re either feeding it or helping to re-create from our oneness. That’s the choice we’re all facing now and, despite the appearances, the possibilities are endless.