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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Rememberings of this year past
carry some weight
and make it difficult
to leap into the new year
Does it help that we assign
these demarcations
dividing our lives
into segments?
Does it ease our path going forward
or is it simply about
giving ourselves another chance
to make things right?
Do we get to wipe the slate clean
and write a new story
Or are there other ways
to bring the Past into the Present?
I’d like to think the Past
provides some ground work -
In an almost literal way
Living necessitates that we
process what’s past so that
it becomes fertile soil
for regeneration
Life isn’t the linear path we expected
It does, thankfully,
offer us a richness of opportunities
to work the soil
while we play in the dirt.
In the time before Time
when Earth was raw
and Life was beginning…
Can you imagine that far back?
It might be good for your perspective
to try
It might help reduce
the angst that you feel
in your body
You know what I’m talking about.
A science teacher once told me
that if you stand with you arms
outstretched
And consider the timeline
of earth’s formation this way -
Say the birth of our planet happens
at the tip
of the middle finger
of your left hand
and all the eons of growing and
developing occur along the timeline
of your outstretched arms;
then the life of humans on Earth
from the dawn of us until now,
on that same timeline,
would occupy just the tip
of the fingernail
of the middle finger
of your right hand.
All that history has preceded us,
and Earth will survive with or without us.
There are no guarantees.
But we have evolved in the way that
Earth’s energy has
of moving life forward
We are an extension of
and dependent on
this world around us
That’s it. That’s all there is.
And you can absorb that in a way
that makes you feel small
and insignificant,
Or you can revel in the
beauty of it -
being connected to and
dependent on such an awesome planet.
The choice is up to you.
How I hold myself
is never simply a matter
of body and bones and muscle
It is also subject to
what’s happening in my mind and
what I’m feeling in my heart
How am I being present to myself?
Am I grounded and centered
or caught up in some mind story?
Am I feeling the heat of emotion
pulling at my heart?
Do I feel my feet on the ground?
Am I focused on difficulties
and challenges that
lead me to “I can’t?”
Or can I simply be present to what is
and trust that I am really at home
in this body
And then settle into myself in a way
that expresses the knowing
that posture arises out of presence.
Because the possibility of being
truly present is
what we have each moment
of every day and
every tomorrow as well.
