What is privilege after all? Is it something you own or does it in fact own you?
Actually the privilege you have exists only by comparison to someone else. It is not otherwise a thing in itself.
Yet we have somehow come to consider it an important and valuable aspect of who we are.
You may not brag about it or consciously think you are better because of it.
But stop for a moment.
Consider all the people and places NOT on your wish list for trading what you think you have.
Perhaps you aspire in some way to "trade up" as it were - might be difficult to find someone interested in considering your offer.
So what to do with it? If you are curious, I would offer that you might learn to see through whatever way in which you find yourself privileged compared to others.
See through to where you can acknowledge and appreciate all the myriad ways in which you and these others are the same
Perhaps slowly, carefully, not all at once, allow some degree, of reveling in the extraordinary sameness you share with them.
This is called connection, and connection trumps privilege any day.
photo: linen bobbin lace figure by Luba Krejči 1966
gave me the space to realize we are currently at war or very nearly there
Yet we continue to assume, to blame, to ignore. Hard to imagine in a time when so much information is available we choose (it really is a choice) to assume, to blame, to ignore.
Friends and colleagues who are busy with their lives, Hard working people who are scraping by, Young people disillusioned or disaffected (as we all were at some point) realizing fairytale endings rarely happen and our history doesn't always make us proud.
All who feel to some degree it's someone else's job to clean up the mess.
I find myself searching for a sign to tell me that everything is going to come out all right
And then I remember how young a species we really are, I imagine we are still fumbling in our youth, not sure of our path ahead and what skills we will need or what successes actually look like.
Which is why the sea changing from calm to turbulent has led me to this place of reflection
Anticipating that I am at risk if I attempt to go into the sea by myself, I need the help of others to make my way through breaking waves amidst coral rocks
I cannot assume the return of calm, I cannot blame the sea for being true to its nature, I cannot ignore the crashing water and jagged rocks.
I cannot bring about a sea change. But with more people around me maybe together we can weather the change and keep ourselves from going under.
Change is, after all, the nature of things. Sea changes are just bigger and require more of us to meet the challenge.
Like a wave that you don't see coming
or one that you expect to be less powerful
than it turns out to be,
A force that sends you rolling upside down
or pushed to your knees
leaves you wondering which way is up and
how to get yourself back to solid ground.
This is how I feel being pummeled
by wave after wave of media headlines and reporting
that seems to augur an impending, inescapable doom.
There is a wave of extremism seeking to
punish women, people of color, immigrants,
registered voters and so many others of us
who hold tight to a life in a democracy and
who value the rule of law.
It is a denial of our shared humanity.
It is also, in fact, cruel and inhuman treatment
of the people with whom we share this planet.
It is a source of Great Sadness and...
It is also a Call to Action.
To remember that we have agency even when
we feel overwhelmed,
To remember that it is a minority in this country
that wish to control us in this way,
and we are MANY who stand against this wave.
We must be lifeguards for one another.
Working together we can do this.
This day is a day
where the color of the sky
and the bay are the same
It's a soft gray
where the edge of the sky blends
with the horizon line of the bay
It feels a bit upside down
As if I too could blend right in
and lose myself in
the softness of this gray landscape
Would that be so bad?
To be held by the bay and the sky
in a liminal space?
Would that be so different really
from the space I occupy
right now?
I've begun to appreciate
how my writing and my spoken word
both offer mirrors
I've had glimpses
of this working, noticing
how intention finds a way to express itself
You may have had someone suggest that you
Trust the Process,
but suppose that trusting
is itself the process?
I can have in my mind an idea of what
I want to say or write and the more
I think about it,
the more opaque it remains
If instead I allow my attention
to drop down into my body,
I can simply be present
to the intention I hold
It is, however, a process that only works
when I trust that my intention is clear
Speaking and writing from
a place of intention reveals
the most meaningful representation
of who we are
Trusting my intention can bring forth
words that mirror what's true for me
I suspect it may reveal what's true for you as well.
It's a wonder sometimes
how questions position themselves
in my mind,
seeming to emerge
from the depths of me
Am I seeking something
truer than the breath I draw
or the smell of a flower?
More real than the purring
of a cat beneath my hand?
Perhaps the answer can be found
tucked inside the pages of a book,
years after having been put there.
Is it as true now as it seemed then?
Is it a measure of trust that
gives us the strength to stand
and take the next step forward?
The answers are so much less important
than the questions, which are themselves
nothing more than
whatever you need them to be.
Everything is of a moment.
The more appreciated moments you have,
the less you need to question,
the less you need to be seeking answers,
the more the answers will reveal themselves.
Our minds at night
continue the path
we have walked during the day.
Our sense may be that
the mind sleeps as our body does,
refreshing and renewing itself.
Alas this isn't quite the way it works.
When first settling into rest
what follows may be Reflections on this Day,
often accompanied by an accounting
and judgments about what went well and what did not.
It's a review written by the mind
sometimes focused on particulars,
other times offering a more general take away.
How we move on to letting go the thoughts
to allow sleep the room it needs
depends much on our emotional attachment
to such evaluations.
Sleep comes and sleep goes.
At times awakening occurs several hours later
maybe for some physical sensation that interferes
or perhaps the ending of a dream.
Whatever causes the shift back to conscious sensing
the return to sleep may take a pause,
stirring the Midnight Voice to alertness
and then it's off and running.
This is the voice that targets
our most vulnerable parts,
telling us you can't or you're not
or how are you going to...
Perhaps it's the emergence
of some longing unfulfilled.
Whatever direction it takes
consumes the space that sleep requires.
We may be left struggling with unfulfilled
efforts where we pretend to be asleep.
Or at some point the Midnight Voice fades
to permit sleep to take its rightful place.
The mind continues it's night journey
awake or asleep, begging not to be controlled.
It resists our efforts to direct or censor.
When we return to wakefulness and
if we are not propelled immediately
into the day
When we are allowed to linger
in a liminal space,
we may be treated to an
Early Morning Retrospective.
This is the mind's slow walk
among the shadows and embers
of our past lives.
Unfolding itself scene by scene,
moving from one episode to the next,
we may choose to stop and hang out
with one or another.
Sometimes I wonder if this Early Morning Retrospective
happens only when you've reached a certain age,
having accumulated enough material to
shift the balance between time past
and anticipated future time.
Dear reader, can it be that I have now
revealed more about my age than I intended...
A phrase captures my attention
and before I can register
the intention behind it
My mind carries it off
to places I didn't
ask to go to
"Inclining the heart" is one such phrase.
I expect that my mind will make up a story
to embellish the phrase
and yet I am convinced that this
is not the mind's business.
Inclining the heart happens
when the whole body leans into,
pivoting to lend the weight of our core
to the task or issue at hand.
The mind just needs to quiet itself
and be present to what's happening.
Most important is that the heart
need only begin with a softening toward.
A full-court press is not required.
You needn't wait until all your
ducks are in alignment.
Turn toward and allow.
You can tell when this happens
because the chatter dissolves,
along with the judgments, the stories
and the what ifs.
They don't stay away forever.
And should they intrude and distract,
which they will,
claim your heart space as your center.
Take a deeper breath,
lean in
and see what happens.
We all have stories.
Some of them are true.
Many of them are real
but not necessarily true.
Taken together they make up
who we hold ourselves to be -
in the past, in anticipating the future,
and as we breathe in and out
in this present moment.
These stories don't exist independently from us.
We are the ones who keep
breathing life into them.
We are the ones who offer them power.
Oh these stories are such a burden.
Oh this story brings such guilt and shame.
Oh how to escape my past.
Oh why can't this be like it used to be.
Not all are dark and shadowed.
Some indeed are light and uplifting,
but have you ever noticed how
shadows often obscure the sun?
This question I would pose to you -
How might we meet these stories head on?
Do we invite them in to take a seat?
Do we let them hide in the closet
and come out whenever they choose?
Naming them is a way to
shift your perspective,
create some distance and
make some space around the story.
You can acknowledge a story
but set limits on when it can intrude
and when it needs to back off.
This is more than a delicate dance.
It can be a way to interrupt the pattern
of responding that keeps a story alive.
And if you don't quite understand
what I mean by "story" -
Well then, that's another story...
