March 16, 2003, Toronto.

Many people have emailed me, sharing how they feel so unsure, uncertain, not knowing, 'on hold'... wanting to know what to do, which choice to make.

Some of this seems directly connected to the 'war' between the United States and Iraq - people are waiting to find out what will happen before decisions are made about travel or investments and so on, but mostly I'm sensing around me a general uncomfortable feeling of inertia.

I'm told that what is Now is the only real thing - if the war is not on my doorstep then it is not real. On one level I agree about this 'fantasy' of the war. And then there *is* what is going on with us, with you, with me, with all of us, right now. What is happening?

My friend Alex has strong feelings of anger triggered by Bush, this is real. Whether or not the war is real.

This morning what came to me was that the war - that Bush -is a kind of manifestation of completely out-of-balance masculine energy. This is is not a new thought, of course.

I'm calling the energy 'masculine' just because this is the convention. It's not about men, but about a certain kind of energy. A pattern. Something we all have. And right now, for me, I feel as if this is *it*. The moment to make a choice for something different.

I also sense that men in general have an enormous part to play in all of this, simply because most men have more male energy than women. Women can stand by and support and be there, and watch where their own masculine is out of balance, but it feels to me that something specific is going on for men.

And, it's up to me/you to take a look at what I am/you are doing, to take a look at what is out of balance. What is not being said, what is not being dealt with, what is suppressed, what is not taken care of.

So, for me, that Alex has anger and resistance triggered by the Bush administration, this is wonderful - he puts it out here, feels it. Sees how it is a mirror of what he feels Bush is doing.

This is the alchemy - seeing how we all contribute, in each moment, to what *is*, and then making a choice not to continue with a pattern based in fear or defensiveness. This is how we can say 'no' to war.