Eye of the Storm

The author Terry Lepage, a Pastor and hospice chaplain, asks:

How can we facing climate and social chaos with calm and courage ?

You can order the book in pdf [$5 US] of hard copy [$18 US] from the author directly or book distributors like Amazon. I prefer to buy direct from the author so she gets more of the total price.

https://opendoorcommunication.org/eye/get-the-book

“Fear is contagious, calm is contagious, and courage is contagious.
Those of us who have some idea of what is unfolding can prepare
ourselves mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to be (as we are able)
centers of calm, compassion, and courage. We can be ready to coach
others to hold onto their values in hard times. Because we will have
pre-processed some of the loss that others will deny for a while longer,
we will be able to support them when they finally face what comes.”

I met Terry via the Deep Adaption Forum and given that I am a 3rd order Franciscan who tries to follow in the footsteps of St. Francis, the Patron Saint of the Environment, and she is a retired pastor, we eventually ended up talking about what we are each up to as we keep our sanity and spirits up in the face of unrelenting bad news. Well, it turns out Terry just finished writing a book so of course I bought it. And you know what, it pretty darn good!

Here is what you will find if you google her book:

“The tools in this book can help you to find calm, purpose, and even joy in hard times. Climate chaos is accelerating, democracy is in peril, species and ecosystems are disappearing, and economic inequality is soaring. These are interconnected parts of a complex and devastating predicament. But you need not respond with denial or despair. You can be the eye of the storm, calm and centered, living your values despite an uncertain future, and helping others to do the same.”

I was drawn right away the part in Chapter 3 entitled Our Addiction. Why? Because I have had several encounters with addicts recently and what she said about how our society seems to be acting no different than any drug or gambling addict struck home. Besides, she speaks from experience as an Anglican priest so what she says carries some weight with me because she “gets it” right in her bones. Here is a sample of what she says:

“Our industrial society is addicted to fossil fuels and unnecessary consumption. We are furious at our drug pushers – the oil companies and their investors, for destroying us. But how would we live without the liquid fire they provide that powers everything we do? Some of us have realized what should be obvious by now: it’s killing us quickly, not slowly. But if we went cold turkey and stopped using fossil fuels we would starve and freeze in the dark. We make bargains with ourselves and promises of cutting back. This is a familiar strategy among addicts who want to be functional AND still use their drug of choice. The essence of addictions is this: you need more and more to get the same effect. We call that effect “economic growth”. Addicts, like us, do things that make no sense.”

I think you get a flavour of what she is exploring.

She includes a lot of poems to communicate with us in that wondourful non-rational way that poems do, for example:

…And then one day,
– and I still don’t know how it happened –
the sea came.
Without warning.
Without welcome, even
Not sudden and swift, but a shifting across the sand like wine,
less like the flow of water than the flow of blood.
Slow, but coming.
Slow, but flowing like an open wound.
And I thought of flight and I thought of drowning and I thought of
death.
And while I thought the sea crept higher, till it reached my door.
And I knew, then, there was neither flight, nor death, nor drowning.

at when the sea comes calling, you stop being neighbors,
Well acquainted, friendly-at-a-distance neighbors,
And you give your house for a coral castle,
And you learn to breathe underwater.
– Carol Bialock

We live in a unique moment in history: the nexus point of the old world passing away while a new world is being born. What we do and think and feel and how we treat each other REALLY matters because at a nexus point all is chaos and all is new birth. So we can, if we so choose, to see this time  as both an ending and a beginning, you will have a much better chance of surviving  psychologically, spiritually and physically and having a chance to communicate and help those in your community and family who are either unable to accept the unfolding collapse or fall into doom and despair. Either way, Terry’s book is invaluable in helping you gain the inner calm and strength you are going to need in the years ahead.

You can order the book in pdf [$5 US] of hard copy [$18 US] from the author directly or book distributors like Amazon. I prefer to buy direct from the author so she gets more of the total price.

https://opendoorcommunication.org/eye/get-the-book

Table of Contents

1. Facing the storm ………………………………………………… 7
2. Stories shape us…………………………………………………. 27
3. Stories for courage in dark times………………………….. 57
4. Practical emotional support ………………………………… 79
5. Befriending grief……………………………………………… 107
6. Belonging and reverence…………………………………… 129
7. Resigning from the rat race……………………………….. 149
8. Connection and compassion……………………………… 165
9. Letting go ………………………………………………………. 189
10. No more flying solo…………………………………………. 217
11. Young people and those who care about them……… 235
12. Planting seeds…………………………………………………. 253
13. In the meantime……………………………………………… 269
14. Endings are beginnings…………………………………….. 285