I wonder if the world experiences Openings. Why not?

On A Grander Scale

Openings are opportunities. They certainly could exist in the greater world. Our focus in this blog has mainly been on individual Openings. Let’s expand our focus to Openings in and for the world. They may exist on a variety of levels – for groups, communities, nations or the entire globe. The nature of Openings remain the same – insights, dramatic changes, expansion or contraction or new opportunities. They can be related to mind, body, emotions or spirit.

In this world we are on a collective journey. In our collective journey, we encounter Openings. Whether we recognize them or not is up to us. Just as we individually may block Openings that appear, we can block them collectively. How? By ignoring them, by thinking they are too big for us to handle, by being in a mindset that does not allow us to see them or by fearing them and wanting to preserve the status quo.

World Openings exist on a grander scale. Most likely, World Openings need to be seen collectively, maybe not by all but by some before we can decide whether to enter them. A visionary person may recognize a World Opening and get things going by encouraging others to see it. World Openings affect more than the individual and could bring significant change and benefits.

Bet We Can Name Some

What could a World Opening be? Really, anything that brings the world, or part of it forward into a new experience. It may come in the form of a proposed solution to a problem, a new insight that causes us to look at a problem differently, creative approaches to a problem embraced by a group, a crisis that demands new approaches and solutions or a shock to our systems that changes our perspectives.

World Openings can be benevolent, chaotic, quiet or harmful. They appear where there is a need for growth or change. We could find ourselves so immersed in something that is going on in the world that we do not see the Openings it presents. An Opening could initially be catastrophic or cause harm, making it challenging for us to see what is happening as an Opening.

The current war in the Middle East is tragic and we all want it to end. The opportunity for determining how it ends is a World Opening. Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine introduced another concept – the exploitation of national crises (disasters or upheavals) to establish controversial and questionable policies, while citizens are too distracted (emotionally and physically) to engage and develop an adequate response and resist effectively. The book advances the idea that several man-made events were undertaken with the intention of pushing through unpopular policies in their wake. This is not a benevolent Opening, but is an Opening, nonetheless.

What Is Our Role?

First, we can develop our ability to recognize World Openings. We can help change the way we approach world opportunities, challenges or crises. In the midst of a crisis or challenge, we may see an Opening and can then help others see it as well. We can advocate to make the most of the Opening, rather than shrink from it. We can see World Openings as opportunities to make the world a better place, rather than support the status quo or allow destructive behaviors to perpetuate.

We can try to make World Openings a common perspective and promote ways to approach problems as Openings. This shift in perspective could have significant positive impacts. Say we find ourselves reeling from a natural disaster. Along with tragedy, we can ask ourselves what Opening the situation offers. As we address the situation, we can ask how we want to do things differently to prevent this occurring again.

We can look back historically and identify world events that offered us Openings. Then, we can analyze how we responded (or reacted) to their Openings. Did we even see them? What opportunities did the Openings present? Did we enter them? Or did we stay in the emotion and chaos of the moment without considered action? What was the result of our entering or not entering these Openings?