Reading the River of Uncertainty

Does life feel uncertain these days? Are you finding yourself surveying the scene for damage - real, imagined, and feared? 🥹

Cultivating uncertainty was one of many techniques used by my ex-teacher. We were expected to write confessional missives in a particular style and then one day, we were told that format was childish and it was time to grow up! “Where’s your spine?” he asked, condemnation spitting. 💦  For years, I waited, desperately hoping that I’d be chosen to be a teacher’s assistant. Eighteen years of dedication and it never happened. But in my sessions, he’d say: Gerette, when you get through this piece of work, you will make a great teacher. So I believed and I waited, uncertainty in my belly. 🩸

Back then, I was unaware that controlling leaders garner power by destabilizing everything they can - while also carefully tugging the strings of hope and devotion that had already been stitched into place. This is how they cinch loyal dependents. 

When the pandemic started, I grew weary of hearing the word ‘unprecedented’. I feel the same these days. But it's true: what’s taking place in the government of the country I was born into is unprecedented. The uncertainty that we are experiencing at home, at work, in our families, with friends, and our support communities is not going away for a while. 

So. How will we cope? What is the antidote to the destabilizing forces that are beyond our control? 

Knowledge helps. WHY do cult leaders want to create chaos? Because they want us to feel CERTAIN. Certain that they hold the answers to all of  life’s problems. AND they want us to be certain in our opposition. Either way, they are in control. There is unfathomable power in polarizing narratives. Divide and conquer. 

Cult leaders also know that a natural human response to instability is to seek stable ground. We are wired for safety. And we will find it however, wherever we can, whether it’s real or not.

There’s a secret to paddling river rapids. 🛶 If you lose control, there’s a tendency to toss your paddle and grab onto the gunnels (the sides of the boat). Something solid feels good, reassuring in the hand. Until you flip. The way to navigate rapids is to either be faster than or slower than the current. We get into trouble when moving at the river’s pace. 

The barrage of worldly events is dizzying. It’s easy to get caught in the flood of anxiety, fear, and uncertainty.🩸Stepping out of the surge and slowing down is necessary self care. We can also read the river and know when to paddle hard, staying ahead of the current until we find the safe haven of eddies: still water within the roar of rapids.

As survivors of coercion, we know how to do this. We’ve already lived through it once (or many times). In what ways can we apply our survival skills to meet the present moment? Do we already know what patterns to look for and what obstacles to avoid? 

In my memoir, published in 2021, I wrote:

If enough of us are willing … to speak in a unified voice, I have the feeling that our collective clarity could break through the forces that hinder, and may instead support human evolution. Stepping toward each other, defying false narratives that divide us, we become more human, more beautiful. … It’s an option to isolate and stay quiet. It is also an option to step toward the future…

And read the river. 

Yes, I am an optimist. I’ve seen far too much beauty in this world to be otherwise. ✨ Being a survivor of coercion can be a super power - for our personal well being and the communities that matter the most to us. 🔥

With our paddle in hand we can choose to slow down, stay ahead of the current, or take a break. Sit on the bank, watching the river flow. Or better yet, all of the above and more. 

What strategies support your life? I'd love to hear. Because for me, writing to you and hearing from you keeps me out of the toxic flood. I hope it helps you too. 

If you want to step into the river of words that want to flow from your pen, there are two spots in THIS FRIDAY’S WRITING TO RECKON CLASS Grab a spot (not a gunnel) by clicking HERE. If it’s your first time, use the code CLASSPASS for a free class. 

Keep breathing, read the rapids ahead and know you are not alone. 

Gerette

PS At nineteen, I learned about reading rivers after I tossed my paddle, grabbed the gunnels, and wrecked a boat that didn’t belong to me. 😏 If you want to learn more about the power and beauty of river eddies this is a safe start. But if you’re like me, you’ll want to hop in a boat as soon as the ice melts. 

PPS There’s only 3 days left for the early bird discount for the Writing Symposium!