I Don't Want To

Let this be a litany of sanity and survival.

Let us take what's hard and soften it with our rebellion

against injustice, cruelty, despair.

We are not "getting through" this. 

"This" takes various forms...personal, private and public.

We will love, grieve, laugh, scream, learn, open and grow.

We can do hard things with gentle energy, kind words, tender gestures.

Silence, kindness and respect for ourselves and others can be powerful tools. 

Forgiveness (for self and others) and refusal to reduce to hatred 

are worthy feats of mighty strength. 

We are in this together.

We are each doing our bit.

This matters.

We matter.

Namaste 

 

Behave Beautifully

I want to say something profound about this but words escape me.

Moudi brings the message beautifully.

"No one said it would be easy--the heartbreak, the loss, this impossible pain."

The trick and its not a trick, it's grace, is to carry the loss, heartbreak and pain

knitted so tightly together,with the majesty, wonder and magnificence with equal measure.

"Why all the fussing over who gets what and where and how much of it?

An exquisitely excellent question.  I take his point, and its a worthy one, however, 

what comes to mind is justice, equality and compassion.

Is there a bridge?  I guess metaphorically there is...or a river named Styx.

Ram Dass said, "we're all just walking each other home."

Some of us are limping, some of us forget where we're going;

some of us get lost in the weeds, some of us don't know how to behave,

still, I love this thought and how tender it feels to my heart.

I'm like the idea of a long, "long beautiful bridge" over

a mighty, peaceful, healthy river.

Namaste

 

Breathe Yourself New

This feels like hearty medicine after recent happenings.

"tip it all upside down to shake out what is

 stale and small and suffocatingly too sure."

Now there's a meditation to consider:

where are things suffocatingly too sure in my world?

Can I "let go of doubt's smothering hand and stop

hunting for worthiness"?

Attend to creating an atmosphere of humble significance?

And my favorite line...

"Like love sprouting roots from the bottom of bare feet."

Each foot fall would plant seeds of goodness...

another medicine to contemplate while walking...

I'm certain roots can grow through the soles of hiking shoes. 

"Lean close in to your own glorious glow and breathe yourself new."

I say, breathe yourself into your own particular magnificence.

Namaste

 

Maybe The Underdogs

"If the underdogs are strong and eventually they will 

inherit this earth we are trying so desperately to love, 

we are in good hands, I think."

We are the underdogs and we are strong...

we are in good hands with each other.

We know what goodness is and we will not accept anything less.

Every creature, every organism, every entity on this earth deserves respect.

"The gentle-strong will turn things upside down,

 and reshape progress, and decolonize, and center community,

and create beauty, and sustain repair."

I'm changing the tense to present.

We are turning things upside down,

reshaping progress, decolonizing,

 centering community, creating beauty and sustaining repair.  

And might I add, doing so under extremely complicated circumstances.

"The underdog will show us the way toward peace,

and in a reality that prides itself on the toxic and destructive.

that sounds like the dream we've all been waiting for."

If you haven't seen the story on the Peace Walk, please give it a look.

Search for Walk For Peace and you'll find it.

Goodness is thriving beneath the surface 

and sometimes, although not often enough,

it floats to the surface and show up through the noise.

We underdogs are praying, marching,  playing, writing,

 parenting, growing things, tending our home ground, 

speaking out, paying attention, taking care of ourselves 

and each other, doing our best at whatever comes our way

and believing, we're believing in goodness.

Namaste

 

I've Heard It Whispered

"and what and who in the slow and patient world doesn't know it already?"

It's happening all the time whether we're seeing it or not.

Things are changing constantly, without apology.

My pause happens at "slow and patient".

This I am not.  

How I wish I were.

When I notice myself rushing along

feeling pushed in different directions,

trying to be somewhere at a particular time

with obstacles in the way,

my breath shallow, my belly in knots, my heart anxious,

I reach fervently for this slow and patient one inside.

She remains a ghost, only barely detectable..,

"to be truly happy in your life you must daily

grieve the fact that nothing lasts,

then celebrate in gratitude that you are here,

and so meet everything you meet arrested by wonder."

Honestly, the fact that nothing lasts

gives me a distinct amount of relief 

where certain matters are concerned.

However, it is quickly submerged by

all that is excruciating to lose.

And the celebration begins,

and the gratitude hums on and on,

whether it be in mourning or rejoicing.

I believe 2026 has begun overwhelming us with goodness.

Namaste

 

2026 Will Be

"Instead of giant online empires, people will slowly build: 

studios, salons, sacred rooms, nature-coded spaces  and creative houses."

Doesn’t this seem fitting for our time?

Did it start with the pandemic, when we were shown

how quickly man-made structures can fail  

and how reliably the living world provides?

Has it been going on deep below the surface all along, in silent majesty?

Is it rooting its way into our lives, growing an unseen mycelial network,

sending out tendrils of much-needed medicine, quietly healing, one by one.

Isn’t this an amazing thought… to imagine into being?

"what really matters is the feeling. 

. . .A place to create.  A place to be held. 

A place to belong.

We’re in this together. 

We are making it happen.

Happy New Year.

Namaste

 

White Owl Flies

"maybe death isn't darkness, after all, but so much light

wrapping itself around us--"

Such a tender thought...may be it so.

Or may it be an indigenous grandmother, dressed all in white

with a cape to wrap around your shoulders showing the way.

"let ourselves be carried, 

as through the translucence of mica,

to the river this is with the least dapple or shadow..."

It makes me happy to think of the river as a resting place for infinity.

I'm also good with becoming soil for growing and nourishing 

beautiful and bountiful organisms.

Namaste