Yes, this one is older, but it is still relevant.

Message from White Eagle, Hopi indigenous on 03/16/2020:

“This moment humanity is going through can now be seen as a portal and as a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the portal is up to you. If you consume the news 24 hours a day, with little energy, nervous all the time, with pessimism, you will fall into the hole. If you take this opportunity to look at yourself, rethink life and death, take care of yourself and others, you will cross the portal. Do not lose the spiritual dimension of this crisis, have the aspect of the eagle, which from above, sees the whole, sees more widely. You were prepared to go through this crisis. Take your toolbox and use all the tools at your disposal. Learn about resistance with indigenous and African peoples: we have always been and continue to be exterminated. But we still haven’t stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire and having fun. You don’t help at all by being sad and without energy. It helps if good things emanate from the Universe now. It is through joy that one resists. Also, when the storm passes, you will be very important in the reconstruction of this new world. You need to be well and strong. And, for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy and bright vibration. This is a resistance strategy. In shamanism, there is a rite of passage called the quest for vision. You spend a few days alone in the forest, without water, without food, without protection. When you go through this portal, you get a new vision of the world, because you have faced your fears, your difficulties … This is what is asked of you. What world do you want to build for yourself? For now, this is what you can do: serenity in the storm. Calm down and pray. Everyday. Establish a routine to meet the sacred every day. Good things emanate, what you emanate now is the most important thing. And sing, dance, resist through art, joy, faith and love.”

A meditation by one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s spiritual mentors, Howard Thurman:

“Life Goes On” 

During these turbulent times we must remind ourselves repeatedly that life goes on.

This we are apt to forget.

The wisdom of life transcends our wisdoms;

the purpose of life outlasts our purposes;

the process of life cushions our processes.

The mass attack of disillusion and despair,

distilled out of the collapse of hope,

has so invaded our thoughts that what we know to be true and valid seems unreal and ephemeral.

There seems to be little energy left for aught but futility.

This is the great deception.

By it whole peoples have gone down to oblivion

without the will to affirm the great and permanent strength of the clean and the commonplace.

Let us not be deceived.

It is just as important as ever to attend to the little graces

by which the dignity of our lives is maintained and sustained.

Birds still sing;

the stars continue to cast their gentle gleam over the desolation of the battlefields,

and the heart is still inspired by the kind word and the gracious deed.

There is no need to fear evil.

There is every need to understand what it does,

how it operates in the world,

what it draws upon to sustain itself.

We must not shrink from the knowledge of the evilness of evil.

Over and over we must know that the real target of evil is not destruction of the body,

the reduction to rubble of cities;

the real target of evil is to corrupt the spirit of man

and to give his soul the contagion of inner disintegration.

When this happens,

there is nothing left,

the very citadel of man is captured and laid waste.

Therefore the evil in the world around us must not be allowed to move from without to within.

This would be to be overcome by evil.

To drink in the beauty that is within reach,

to clothe one’s life with simple deeds of kindness,

to keep alive a sensitiveness to the movement of the spirit of God

in the quietness of the human heart and in the workings of the human mind—

this is as always the ultimate answer to the great deception.

-Excerpted from Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman, published by Beacon Press, 1953.

“Oh do you have time

to linger

for just a little while

out of your busy

and very important day

for the goldfinches

that have gathered

in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,

to see who can sing

the highest note,

or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,

or the most tender?

Their strong, blunt beaks

drink the air

as they strive

melodiously

not for your sake

and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning

but for sheer delight and gratitude –

believe us, they say,

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

I beg of you,

do not walk by

without pausing

to attend to this

rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.

It could mean everything.

It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:

You must change your life.”

-Mary Oliver, “Invitation,” A Thousand Mornings (New York: Penguin Books, 2013).

“Last night I dreamed

ten thousand grandmothers

from the twelve hundred corners of the Earth

walked out into the gap,

one breath deep

between the bullet and the flesh,

between the bomb and the family.

They told me

We cannot wait for governments.

There are no peacekeepers boarding planes.

There are no leaders who dare to say

every life is precious,

so it will have to be us.

They said

We will cup our hands around each heart.

We will sing the earth’s song, the song of water,

a song so beautiful that vengeance

will turn to weeping,

the mourners will embrace,

and grief replace

every impulse toward harm.

Ten thousand is not enough, they said,

so we have sent this dream,

like a flock of doves

into the sleep of the world.

Wake up. Put on your shoes.

You who are reading this,

I am bringing bandages

and a bag of scented guavas from my trees.

I think I remember the tune.

Meet me at the corner.

Let’s go.”

~ Aurora Levins Morales

“It’s when the earth shakes

And foundations crumble

That our light is called

To rise up.

It’s when everything falls away

And shakes us to the core

And awakens all

Of our hidden ghosts

That we dig deeper to find

Once inaccessible strength.

It’s in times when division is fierce

That we must reach for each other

And hold each other much

Much tighter.

Do not fall away now.

This is the time to rise.

Your light is being summoned.

Your integrity is being tested

That it may stand more tall.

Rise, and find the strength in your heart.

Rise, and find the strength in each other

Burn through your devastation,

Make it your fuel.

Bring forth your light.

Now is not the time

To be afraid of the dark.”

— Chelan Harkin

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” ~Howard Zinn