I am not sure why I am writing this. Maybe it’s just an opportunity to use this blog as a journal again, and to write something a bit more personal.
THE US
I am from Norway and lived in the US from the mid-1990s to the end of the 2000s, and spent some time in the US again in the mid-2010s. I was there when Trump was elected president the first time, and only returned briefly once since then, in 2019.
Although I love the nature in the US, especially west of the Rockies, and although I love many subcultures and have many friends there, I am grateful for that door closing. The increasing polarization, and the new Trump presidency, Project 2025, and implementing always more from the fascist playbook, makes it a place I am happy to watch at a distance – although we are all impacted by it around the world.
It’s also interesting to notice how we, many of us, have shifted our baseline over the recent years. During the first Trump presidency, many of us compared him with usual democratic norms – which he consistently violated. Now, I and many others use fascism as a touchstone. We compare his words, actions, and policies with fascism since that’s a closer and more appropriate comparison.
Would something happen to me if I was there now? Likely not, but it’s impossible to know, and that’s the point. That’s the point of these erratically enforced policies of cruelty and intimidation. They are bullying tactics designed to make people afraid to speak up or oppose what’s happening.
Also, there is no doubt that he wants to implement more from fascism, including going after any and all political opponents and perceived enemies. If this continues, I would – at some points, as would anyone with half a brain – fall into the category of those he is going after.
ECOLOGICAL OVERSHOOT
It is weird to watch the world, and participate in this life, with all that’s happening…. The visible loss of ecosystems, insects, birds, fish, and much more. People going about their lives as if nothing is happening. People voting for the same old policies. The public discourse focused on so many peripheral issues when we are in a massive ecological collapse.
We are in massive global ecological overshoot and very few seem to take it seriously enough to change their lives, their votes, and how they are in the world. We see the rise of what hastens the downfall like conspiracy theories, polarization, extreme right wing policies, and more.
I experience a lot of grief for the world… for myself experiencing this loss.
And life is still very beautiful: the sun, wind, clouds, rain, the trees, birds, beautiful music, delicious meals, going for a walk, friends, family, the ones who care deeply about life, the ones creating and living alternatives.
NORWAY VS THE ANDES
I am in Norway right now, which is an oasis in the world. It’s well organized, people are generally taken care of. I am where I grew up, and dramatic loss of insects, birds, and wildlife here is something I notice daily. There are more people, houses, cars, and manicured lawns, and less of everything else.
At some point, when it’s time, I’ll be back on Finca Milagros, our little oasis in the Andes and the regeneration project, the food forest, the wildlife, good helpers, the community, the challenges and the dreams.
Others there are working on similar regeneration and agroforestry projects so will it be a kind of Noah’s ark during the collapse? Who knows. We’ll just continue there and enjoy it and the connections, and see how it all unfolds.
HOW IT WILL UNFOLD
I really don’t know how it will all unfold – in my own life or in the world.
How fast will the collapse happen? Where is it best to live? How will different countries and places respond? (Likely in very diverse and increasingly divergent ways.)
We’ll just have to do what we all have to do – plan as best we can, follow our inner knowing, and respond to life as it happens.
PROCESSING THE COLLAPSE
My wife and I both have a sense of end times now. It may be because a lot is ending in mine and our lives – my parents, my childhood home, and so on. It may also be a way for our psyches to process the collapse we collectively are in.
At the same time, we find a lot of enjoyment in our daily life, in the little things we that are easily enjoyable and even (at least, that’s the orientation) in what’s more challenging.
We are also engaged in meaningful projects. In our own healing process and noticing and living from our nature noticing itself, and also in the regeneration and food forest project in the Andes.
At any time, and especially in our times, I can’t think of much more meaningful.
THEY ARE ALL VISITORS
These are all visitors – in the world and in me.
This beautiful and amazing Earth which we are part of. Humanity and our civilization. Our civilization’s delusions of separation and infinite consumption on a finite planet. The collapse. Norway. Barichara. Grief. Joy. Pleasure. Challenges. Dreams. This human self and anything connected with it… thoughts, sensations, hopes, fears, a sense of doer and observer, and anything else.
They are all visitors. They are visitors in existence, and they are visitors in the awake space I am in a more real sense. Even more fundamentally, I find myself as capacity for it all.
They all come (in order) to pass. They were never meant to stay.