We are truly living in a time that challenges us to find moments of calm Sadly we find our focus is on issues that seem to grow big and weigh us down Our energy gravitates toward the divisions wrenching us apart Country vs country, state vs state, community against community, between family members around the kitchen table Fear and anger have taken up the space between people. Give yourself over to the energy of anger and fear and you give away your power to a point where you won't get it back Beyond not getting it back your power will be used against you by others with more power Remember that the ability to cast your vote and have it counted is a Right in this country A Right that we must hold with care or it will die at the hands of those who care nothing for your rights Why is this so hard to understand? **No photo here - you just need to VOTE!
Category Archives: Prose and Poetry
At the Expense of Your Vote
Filed under Prose and Poetry
Tous les Jours
Everyday the terrible news of gun deaths shatters us and once again we think this must be the moment that changes everything. Everyday more evidence emerges of the thriving systemic racism in our country and communities but we pretend it will end. Everyday the levers of power among corporations and politicians prevent us meeting the climate challenge and we pray science will save us. Everyday we must embrace the bigger picture of a greener more equitable world in whatever way we can. Everyday there are efforts to work toward these possibilities but they mostly escape our Twitter feed. Everyday we must take the next step even when we lose trust in the outcome. It's our hope for the future, depending of course on what we wish for the generations to come. Each of us must make that decision Everyday.
Filed under Prose and Poetry
Where’s the Map?
Often these days I find myself saying In our culture we are not prepared for aging and death. Ours is a culture that denies and denigrates growing old in so many ways. My lament, however, is about seeking a way to accept the aging process and inevitability of death. How do we go about living and dying at the same time? How do we navigate this end of life realm without direction? There are expectations of course. Most of them focus on an endless list of abilities lost. Where is the expectation that we gain wisdom and grace? How do we move past the invisibility of personhood that surrounds us? I've often offered to others that they trust the process, but this process requires a level of trust that exceeds what may have been needed before. Loving what is - this is the phrase that keeps nudging my mind Easing into what may come, Taking one step at a time. Slowing down and being more deliberate has its advantages. (aka the tortoise) Maybe less mourning the losses. More gratitude for the gifts. Expect transitions to last longer and let go your idea of what's to come. Spend more time appreciating the present. Maybe, just maybe, this has the beginnings of the map I've been seeking. Now let's see if I can keep from losing my way...
Filed under Prose and Poetry
Perfectly Clear
The weather notice on my phone is telling me "It's perfectly clear right now" So my mind responds - perfectly clear to whom? Not to me I'm afraid And exactly WHAT is it that's perfectly clear? When one is feeling overwhelmed with the political landscape, the climate crisis and the myriad daily issues percolating in front of me - it requires great effort to see what's clear Maybe what's clear is the background against which all of these issues are playing out Maybe it can be comforting to know that clarity can be seen behind the fast moving pieces I often find difficult to grasp Perhaps one can choose which to focus on Perhaps this background is the constant, a particular aspect of living one can trust and have faith in We do need some solid base from which to navigate, to take a stand, to rest in when we're overwhelmed and exhausted I suspect that it's from this perspective that clarity arises and gives us the energy we need to keep moving forward toward a day when it is perfectly clear.
Filed under Prose and Poetry
This Garden of Living and Dying
There is a quiet among the plants in my garden in early day of Summer Unlike the closed-in warmth-conserving heaviness of Winter, this quiet has a rhythm all its own In the Spring the energy of growth pushing up and out brings tentative shoots raising their sleepy heads But by the time of early Summer there has already been much birthing of newness and the slow fading away of aging blooms There is a settling into this sequence of the pulsing of new life in one spot followed by a curling into itself in another A time of both living and dying repeated over and over, a rhythm that continues into the chill of Autumn Would that we could ride these waves of living and dying with less angst and more like these flowers in my garden.
Filed under Prose and Poetry
Another Day of Murder
Nineteen children this time dead We are not at war We’re just having a normal day sending our kids to school Something is terribly wrong when nineteen children don’t come home and are shot to pieces instead So what the fuck do you think that is? It’s not mental illness It’s not that we don’t love our children It’s about making money and preserving power What will it take for us to realize that we really can be a loving and compassionate people? How to turn from the direction we are heading? What medicine cures the sickness now afflicting our politics? How to make politicians realize it’s in their interest to do whatever works to prevent further mass murder of children? It sickens me even to ask these questions. The answers cannot be to sell or buy more guns We are not going to ask that teachers be armed because no one else is standing up to protect our children. Nor can it be just offering thoughts and prayers There were 78 incidents of gun violence in our schools this year The answers are really quite easy We know what works to limit gun violence but it means electing politicians who think that controlling gun violence is worth the effort. Difficult to imagine that this would be a challenge for them or that it would not be worth doing WHATEVER IT TAKES! But there it is.
Filed under Prose and Poetry
We Are Little People
After all the seeming of our trying In an effort to make ourselves big and more important, more powerful more of whatever is more than what we have or what we are now We are still little people who are mortal. Every effort to compare and judge, each time we throw ourselves into competition with another, whatever we think we've won We are still little people who are mortal. When we objectify others, when we engage in war on them, when we rape, torture or kill We become even smaller, less significant and still very mortal. Want to know what makes us bigger? Basically Compassion and Insight are the tools that work best Compassion because it enlarges our Heart-Mind to include all other beings Insight because it grows our perception and understanding of how to be in relation with ourselves, all other beings and the Earth And that I believe is how we may change from always showing up as little people And sets us each on the path to become a Bigger Person though we still be mortal.
Filed under Prose and Poetry
But the Children…
A Ukrainian child died tonight. An abrupt shattering of a young life We should all mourn this sweet soul But before tears fall for this one innocent Look again - There's another shot and killed, one who has starved to death, another raped and murdered. And more. Sadly many more. How many you ask. More than enough One is too many and none can be explained away. How to explain the Corrupt Power that causes this to happen? What kind of hate kills children? I want to ask the Russian soldiers - What do you get from killing children? What is your reward? Do you really believe these are child Nazis? Do you have children of your own? I was a child during the Cold War times We hid under our desks in school during drills preparing us for a nuclear attack. I recall thinking if I could just talk to Khrushchev I might make him understand such a war should never be A child's fantasy Now in this time of Hot War I see that Corrupt Power does not listen to children Corrupt Power does not listen to anyone Corrupt Power hears only the hollow echo of its own voice. A Ukrainian child died tonight.
Filed under Prose and Poetry
The Intensity of Resolve
I can feel the energy of the words as I write this title as well as the weight they carry It's the energy of life and living from a place of intention It's the way I wake up every morning It's what I lay aside every night It's having a purpose even when I'm not certain what that is It's the solid ground within where seeds are sprouting It's even the doubting middle of the night voice that must be hushed back to sleep It's what my heart knows to be true even when my mind says otherwise And I love that I get to be all these parts of me driven by the intensity of resolve in living this fearsome and amazing life. Don't you?
Filed under Prose and Poetry
Speaking in Flowers
Soon enough I will be speaking in flowers Temperatures are shifting and I've seen the stems of daffodils poking through Won't be long now But there is no war happening here I can sleep undisturbed by Death dropping from the sky I can walk the streets and not fear vehicles of war blocking my way I don't need to seek shelter underground And God help me I don't have to take up arms to defend my country Yet my friends in Ukraine must do just that They be brave in ways you can't imagine I know they are a strong and passionate people I think of the woman offering sunflower seeds to the Russian soldiers She urges them to put the seeds in their pockets At least Sunflowers will grow when they all lie down here Then they are the ones who will be speaking in flowers And what will they say? Sorry for invading your country Sorry for bringing war to your doorstep Sorry we were just doing our job Sorry that what you have left are these flowers.
Filed under Prose and Poetry