About a month ago I had a vision of myself as a Borg* stumbling around the set of Mad Max trying to figure out what to do with myself. In that vision, energetic cables emerged from my head and body looking for something familiar with which to connect. Finding nothing recognizable, those cables just vibrated a searching kind of energy. It wasn't a pretty picture, kind of pathetic actually, but it was a powerful vision for what I was going through: loss.
Loss is a universal experience. People die, experiences end, we move, we grow and change, relationships evolve, we get sick and heal, we can't find our favorite sweater, our pet runs away... loss is inevitable. Trying to avoid it is ridiculous.
My most recent experience of loss has me feeling like a Borg disconnected from the Queen - confused because I'm looking to connect with something that isn't there. In every episode with the Borg, the same theme is revisited: the Queen tries to convince someone (oh, like, Jean-Luc, Data, Seven of Nine) that being Borg is superior to being an individual. Humans suffer from feelings of isolation, from aging, from confusion and moral dilemmas. Give yourself up to me, the Queen advises, and you will never suffer again.
It's tempting. I don't subscribe to any dogma or practice that has me give my discernment over to anyone or anything else. That said, it's interesting to see the ways in which I do "Borg-ify". I unconsciously rely on external sources of connection, energy and power: relationships, certain rituals, foods, activities, habits. There's nothing wrong with this. Positive relationships, healthy food, and physical experiences can all provide amazing support for the human experience. Here's the thing, if those external sources are not connected to an internal source, in the end it's a house built on sand.
I'm letting my vision of being Borg, and noticing how I Borg-ify, to remind me to consciously plug into practices that strengthen my connection to Energy, Joy, Love, Power and Interconnection that are infinitely available.
*If you don't know who the Borg are, then rent Star Trek: First Contact. Or, look them up online. They are a cybernetic race who exist as a hive. Each Borg does, thinks and feels according to the direction of the Queen. The Borg have a series of wires that must regularly plug into a cybernetic hive so that each Borg can be sustained and directed by the Queen
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