We Are Cast Away
(Movie spoiler alert)
As I turned on the TV, a lush island appeared on the screen, followed by a weather-beaten Tom Hanks in his role as Chuck Noland, stranded FedEx employee, and his volleyball friend, Wilson. Chuck’s intense expression captured me, and I watched as he navigated a wooden raft across a series of waves that would put them into the open ocean, far away from the island where he was stranded. His was a facial expression that is all too familiar in 2020.
The scene continued and a makeshift sail pulled them past the most difficult wave of all and the problem he struggled to solve for four years. Once beyond the barrier, the island got smaller and smaller in the distance until there was nothing familiar on any horizon. Over the next days Chuck lost everything; his friend Wilson, his sail, his remaining food and water until he is seen on the stripped-down raft, with nothing except a single FedEx package adorned with hand drawn angel wings. That package was the only FedEx package he did not open on the island, believing against all odds that he would someday deliver it to the recipient.
If you have seen the movie, you know Chuck is rescued and learns everything he held dear in his old life is gone too. You know it ends in the plains of Texas with endless space, at a crossroads with the possibility of going in any direction. A woman in a truck pulls up and outlines where each road might take him and as she pulls away, he notices the angel wings on the back of her truck that match those on his FedEx package. I would like to think that at that point, he knew to keep following the wings.
These days I feel a bit like Chuck as I watch what is familiar to me disappear as I drift into an open and unknown sea. Bit by bit, we are all being asked to reevaluate everything about how we work, teach our children, conduct relationships, relate to the earth, and connect with one another. We have handed down a script for centuries and tweaked it over time, but now we are being asked for a bigger change, one that will profoundly impact everyone and take us far away from a familiar shoreline.
Like Chuck’s island, our “world island” is struggling to provide for us. Despite a high-level of affluence for some, there are many more that struggle and no matter your level of financial abundance, stress impacts us all. Crowded cities, job loss, uncertain housing, inequality, and food insecurity, do not just impact those experiencing it directly but everyone else too. Climate change will touch everyone. We are one energy and thus what impacts one, impacts the others.
In the world of manifesting through the Law of Attraction, we express a desire, even when we are not aware of it. When we energetically align with that desire, it comes to us. It works on an individual level and a group level.
As our island and the people on it struggle, a universal cry goes out for peace, well-being and stability for everyone. It may look different in each individual mind, but the underlying emotion is often the same. “I feel…bad, afraid, uncertain, powerless”…you fill in the blank. Most people are not even aware they are asking for it, but every time you struggle or see someone strugglng, your heart and mind seek a solution to end the suffering. Just like when Chuck set out on his raft, he had no idea how he would be rescued or if he would. He knew he needed to make a change and put the desire out there. When he did, the sail drifted up on the shore and he knew how to get past the wave blocking his way.
Here we are now, the familiar falling away, no idea what the future looks like. We have to “leave the island” in order create a new future. Quick fixes are easier, but in the end, we are still on the same island. It is time to question our assumptions, our values, and begin to take responsibility for our individual contributions to how we got here and how we move forward.
We have manifested the opportunity for change, let us now manifest the change itself.
What more can we learn from Chuck Noland:
Leave your mental island
Know what you truly need to survive (sail, water, package, Wilson, oars)
Seek your purpose (What is your package?)
Take responsibility
Find the signs that guide (Where are your angel wings?)
Secure a buddy or several buddies, and keep them close
Be creative
On the raft, Chuck had to let go of everything, including Wilson, but he did not give up.
What do we have to let go of?
We have a tremendous opportunity at this moment in time. Let us not despair or give up.