These are lyrics from a hit song by Crowded House, a New Zealand-Australian rock band, released in 1991. I recently relocated with my family from South Africa to Great Britain, arriving on 1 June 2024 to an exceptionally cold and wet summer. We kept reminding ourselves that we were not here for the weather but could not stop ourselves from commenting on it every day. It shows how affected we are by the environment, and why we need to take the weather with us! In my view there are two equally important environments we need to understand and manage – the external and internal ones. As a species we have come a long way in taming wild nature, even to the point of controlling the weather through various climate changing methods, intentionally or otherwise. But the environment we have not quite got to grips with is our own wild human nature, and the focus of this blog.
The tragic conflicts raging in Ukraine and Gaza, and the growing tensions between NATO in the West, and Russia and China in the East, indicate what little progress we have made in managing our inner climate. The risk of nuclear war is at an all-time high, posing the greatest threat ever faced. On a more individual level, the breakdown in human civility, and the lack of kindness and consideration to others, seen in random acts of violence and crime, whether through commission or omission, are a reminder that we are struggling internally. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism in the 18th century, a denomination of Christianity, was known to ask members of his society who would meet in small home groups, “How goes it with your soul?”. I wonder what your answer, or that of Putin, Biden, and Netanyahu might be?
Is it ‘braai vleis, rugby, sunny skies, and Chevrolet’ to coin an old South African advertising jingle, or subarctic conditions – blizzards, frozen wastelands, and a never-ending winter? Sadly, many people’s souls have been frozen in time because the external environment of culture largely determines human thinking, feeling, and behavior. It is as if the external geo/socio/political climate we grow up in slowly infiltrates the internal one, making us a nationhood of stereotypes. Here are a few I found online; Germans drink a lot of beer, Americans are loud, Italians are passionate, English people love talking about the weather (well there you go!), and the last one, Russians are scary. So, what is going on here? Are we merely products of the time and place we are born, mirroring back all that has befallen us, or do we have agency and control to determine who we really are and what kind of world we want to live in?
My view is that we do carry the weather in us based upon our internal landscape. It is therefore critically important to be aware of what is happening inside us. We are a highly sophisticated and complex species, and yet how much of our formal education helps us understand ourselves and how we function? Very little, I believe. It is a tragedy that our internal environment is so neglected and explains why we have had such little regard for our external environment, fighting wars and destroying each other and everything around us. But it is not too late to change course, by learning about the magnificence of being human. Thanks to evolution, which is the slow, painstaking process of natural selection passed through the genes, we can consciously align ourselves at a body, heart, head, and soul consciousness to facilitate our own spiritual evolution. I call it soul work, minding your own business, or practicing presence. No longer victims of circumstance, we become the masters of our own destiny, whole, wild and free. By learning to nurture our wild human nature, we guarantee that the weather within us is always tending towards peace, freedom, and joy, our most natural state. I encourage you to embark upon the journey within to find the sunshine of being alive, and be part of the light that never fades.