No More Apologies

"Bleeding heart" is a dated phrase.

I believe the current one standing in its place is "woke"?

There is much evidence of humanity going on in the real world...

the genuine one happening with no staging involved and no audience considered.

The world we see on screen is a mixed bag with much of its innocence lost.

I love when technology is used to 

 celebrate and commemorate goodness, decency and each other;

when its used to share the plight and delight of other creatures on this planet;

when its used to educate, not manipulate; 

to show truth instead of spreading falsehoods;

to entertain and expand us rather than drain us of awareness and connection.

It's a powerful example of the way goodness and decency

get woven in with cruelty and corruption 

sometimes so tightly one has trouble distinguishing the difference.

"Danger of losing our humanity must be met with more humanity."

We are in the thick of it now.

Our humanity is showing and growing.

There are too many of us to be ignored.

We are woke and our hearts are bleeding.

We will prevail!

Namaste'

 

If We Laugh And Sing

I trust you are laughing and singing.

Noticing any tiny delight along the dark path.

And noticing the amazing creatures...

human and more than human

who are with us on this journey...

displaying dignity and decency 

from their corner of this vast world.

We are in this together and we matter.

Namaste'

Perhaps The Healthiest Belief Of All

"Fixed beliefs are the enemy of all human belief,

personal and public."

The key word here is "fixed".

I hold on to my belief in dignity, decency, true justice, equity, fairness, liberty for all, etc.

However, this prompts me to be open to expansion and perspective.

To make each belief present an opportunity

 "to come to an understanding, a beautiful question."

Instead of using these beliefs as a red line in the sand, they become

open doorways to more spacious meaning and windows to what I don't yet know;

inquiries to what I may never know.  Rather than shutting the door,

I sit on the threshold wondering and pondering.

I appreciate David Whyte for adding texture, light and air 

to words grown listless from overuse, 

shrunken into inflexible definitions,

and  rigid with automatic assumptions.

Namaste'

 

Self Talk

Man oh man, she describes my closed down, fear ridden body so well.

Every command to be open and trusting intensifies the withdrawal...

"like a heart that has learned it is not safe to love."

Bingo, says my curled up heart.

It takes the quiet grace of softening...as the poet describes

so beautifully. The acknowledgement of the survival instinct

causing my heart to close up and coil around itself in defense...

accepting the reality of the circumstances

and offering rest and renewal as I gather my inner forces

to "remember the possibility of opening".  

Namaste'

 

Take Care Of Your Animal Body

This quote is bringing some welcome calm into my world.

It helps to loosen the grip of shock and alarm.

Reminds me there are choices to be made in every single moment.

"if [I]/you can't have hope, have spite!

Spite them with [my]/your joy!

Notice where we find our joy.

No matter how small or unhelpful it might seem,

(because we all have our relentless critic nearby)

embrace it with gusto and dedication.

 "with good works and refusal."

May I humbly suggest you decide for yourself

what your good works are?

(Having been taught that "good works"

means giving precedence to caring for others

without due consideration to one's own well being;

 this point must be made.

I realize this is outdated thinking yet

 the tentacles are strong; and I must acknowledge it.)

What if I shift my calls to ones of encouragement?

What if I contact those courageous souls 

speaking up for goodness and express my gratitude?

What if I do what I can to lighten the atmosphere?

What if I resist becoming morose and shut down?

We are finding our way...

together...

Namaste'

 

Trying to Understand

 

This is easier to read at this link.  I know the author appreciates your visit.

https://writeyourselffree.substack.com/i/157648167/trying-to-understand

On Inauguration Day 2025

This poem gets more poignant as 2025 evolves.  

As things have 

"clearly been broken, even shattered."

Which means we are now in the process of becoming

"thoughtfully remade."

This is our time to 

"make beauty out of what looks, 

for a time,

like despair."

This is our mission...

together.

We are thoughtfully remaking our world.

Namaste'

 

My Favorite Thing

What are you noticing these days?

I ran across the following yesterday from Sonya Renee Taylor.

It lands hard. So brace yourself to read on or stop here. 

"As this administration’s myriad violences unfold daily, 

I continue to hear “hot takes” from pundits

 that blame 

everything from “wokeism”

 to poor messaging as the cause for Democratic defeat.

 Each take exhausts me.
Today, as I parted ways with one of my dearest life loves, 

I shared a single admonition: 

“No Matter What, Tell Yourself the Truth.”
Put simply, we cannot fix what we will not face. 

This administration is not an outlier of the U.S. political system.

 It is the root rot having risen to the surface.

 It is the unmasked expression of what had always been.
Think about all the things you love most about what the U.S. offers,

 the greatest comforts, the conveniences, the greatest places of ease...
Now tell yourself the truth.
Someone had to die for that benefit. Someone was bombed for that ease. 

Someone’s exploitation made that convenience possible.
The ingredients of the American experiment can not be unbaked, loves. 

We must grieve this sickeningly sweet dream and all the ways we ingested and invested in it, 

even as it killed us.
We must tell ourselves the truth and then...
Grieve.
Grieve what you/[we] will have to give up, let go of, accept.

 Grieve your/[our] complicity and collusion with this deadly project. Grieve Meta and X. 

Grieve Target and Amazon. Grieve Uber and Doordash, and Netflix 

and endless opportunities for escape and distraction. Grieve waste and consumption.
Grieve what has always been in the cake and your/[our] choice to continue dining.
Tell yourself the absolute truth. So you/[we] can grieve the lie. It is the NECESSARY step.
There are next steps, but this is the first.
Grieve so you, we, can let go. There is no other way. 

A new life will cost you your old one."

sonyareneetaylor

 

I know how diligently you work 

at doing what's right for our planet and each other.

It's painful to accept where we are at this moment.

We grieve and we grow...

Telling ourselves the truth also means

that we do not know how all of this will play out.

The possiblity remains that we will right this ship

as a result of this upheaval and live in a more just society.

We will emerge stronger, lighter, better.

Sending love and appreciation always.

We're in this together.

Namaste'

What Comes Next

"Because anger makes a body clench.

Because fear invokes cowering, shrinking, shock.

I know the impulse to run, to turn fist, to hurt back."

How accurately she describes 

how anger and fear feel...

It's distressing how familiar I am

with the description. 

It resides inside my bones, my muscles, my tissue, my skin.

That's why I reach for "relentless love"...only

I'm going to call it relentless appreciation in order to

give the word love a break...it works so hard to set us straight.

"it doesn’t erase anger and fear,

rather seeds itself somehow inside it,"

This image alone conjures something

hopeful, fierce and strong inside.

A tiny seed sending out shoots of life...

putting down roots for growing,

developing into an organism

stunning the world with its audacity.

Namaste'

 

Reasons To Live Through The Apocalypse

In other words...

look for every single thing...look carefully...

look constantly...look optimistically...

be ever vigilant for the miraculous mundane,

the overlooked ordinary, 

the "easy to take for granted"...the "easy to miss altogether"...

Use this list as your "to do" list to mark off

(but not erase) each day...

 add some items of your own,

share them with others.

This is how we'll stay sane...this is how we'll get through this.

Namaste'

 

The Whole Structure Leans

 Isn't this "dangerously" beautiful?

We could use some mighty miraculous, couldn't we?

The forces against goodness seem strong.

Yet, there are dominions

of us who are fiercely saying NO!

We will contiue to do

whatever we can in defense of

decency, dignity, truth and fairness.

We're in this together.

Onward.

Namaste'

What I Didn't Know

"I can be clenched like a hedgehog or

poised as a snake and still be open to finding love 

at the center of what scares me."

I had to sit with this...finding love at the center of what scares me?

Wow...whoa...for real?  I'm asking myself how this is possible.

It only takes a moment to realize yes, yes I see it is possible...

at the center of what scares me

are cherished people, cherished creatures, cherished landscapes,

cherished values...put at risk...endangered.

There is my love.

Here in the center of what scares me...

This is my "chance to offer love to the world

anyway I know how--with a gift, with my time,

with words, with touch, or with a simple act of kindness."

It's easy to think small gestures like these don't matter...

that they aren't enough...they'll never vanquish 

intolerance and cruelty.  That is exactly where

a shift in thinking is critical.  

This is where...

"planting seeds of love in whatever soil I find"

lights up and shows the way.

This is where I make a vow to myself.

"Amend the ground.  And bring light. Bring water."

Bringing food would be helpful as well, right?

Namaste'

 

 

You Cannot Escape Beauty

After an enchanting tea with friends, 

we stepped outside and were treated to another feast.

Everywhere we looked there was beauty 

even when the land was dressed in its winter brown wardrobe.

Greens under the tarp in the garden,

hellebore blossoms, a handsome cat...

an American Hornbeam/Ironwood/Blue Birch tree,

 multi trunked, strong muscled and rugged with age,

glorious in its shape and character.

Not to mention being in the company of

beautiful humans.

This is one view of the sky

which doesn't come close to capturing

the vast and mercurical colors, form 

and light drifting quickly across the mountains

dazzling us as it passed. 

Each moment more gorgeous than the last.

"You cannot escape beauty and you

cannot stop being attracted to it..."

Namaste'

 

Things Might Get Very Bad

Let's keep focusing on the stars

when things get overwhelming.

We are righting this ship, correcting our course...

we may be floundering, it's true,

but we are bailing liguid out of our craft

and keeping ourselves afloat...together...strongly...

each one of us in our own particular way.

Don't give up. 

Don't look away.

Stay calm and thwart the onslaught.

Namaste'

 

Without A Care

 "Would that I could learn how not to hold on.

Would that I learn to be flotsam and jetsam."

I confess, I do hold on...I hold on to what I believe in.

Perhaps I should say what I want to believe in?

I guess we all do, don't we?  

Being born a human, it seems this is destiny.

A tree has capabilities we don't possess.

Our ability to think thoughts and act on them 

gives us capabilites different than the tree's, right?

So as alluring as it seems, to let go like the petals...

discernment is called for...

it's a balancing act.

May I continue to hold on to dignity,

truth, justice, fairness, equity and decency.

And may I let go of my attachment

to how I want things to play out 

in accordance with my wishes.

May I hold onto what I value...

love above all else;

even as I become flotsam and jetsam.

Namaste'

Inner Acreage

 

I love the imagery she conjures in this piece.

I love the idea of shifting from my rutted mind

to one that explores unknown rooms and roams inner fields

as close as my next breath and the intention to visit.

"Sometimes I forget the inner world is there.

I start believing only in the outer world.  

How exhausting life is then. But

when I remember to live through the gate of intention,

when I still, its as if I am being breathed, being lived.

I'm out of the way.

Then everything is the way."

It may sound odd or radical or even whacky

but there is power and wisdom in this approach.

My goal is to design my inner world exactly

how I'd like my outer world to look and feel like.

To believe in what is not yet visible.

Keeping a grounded foot in each reality.

It matters.

Namaste'

Finding Van Gogh

 

We Can Sing

"It isn't safe, this life.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

But if you are able,

as you listen to the screaming,

sing."

I'm not much of a singer,

however, I'd like to be.

I love the thought of singing through the madness...

raucously,

brazenly,

maybe off key...

I suggest I/we find our songs and sing them loudly...

together.

Namaste'

 

Anxiety

This came through earlier this week and immediately caught my attention.

I'm sharing the two paragraphs that struck the strongest chord.

"Anxiety is the disembodied state I feel when I pretend

to put things right by worrying about them 

instead of truly conversing with them."

I conducted an experiment the next time

I found myself anxious and realized

it helps...if this happens...

I'll do this.  If that occurs...

this is how I'll respond.

Or in many cases, the conversation goes like this...

"what if we imagine the best possible outcome

instead of the worst? Or even a slightly better one

than the one you're anxious about right now?" 

What if instead of worrying about this going bad,

you envision it opening up possibilities... 

for growing stronger;

for changing what hurts to what helps;

for opening unseen pathways,

for any number of worthwhile outcomes?

These conversations are helpful in redirecting worn out neural pathways.

And to read that the antidote to anxiety is rest?

Holy Hallelujah!!  

I'm very much looing forward to 

 testing out this theory!!  

Thank you, David Whyte.

Namaste'

Happiness

This is how we stay sane.

We don't turn our backs on reality.

We look at it with wide open, astounded eyes.

We let ourselves feel what we feel

in fierce (and sometimes grim) acceptance.

We do what we can do in each moment.

We release our debris to the compost bin.

We focus on "the beauty in the little things."

We wrap ourselves up with

"the power in the everyday".

Namaste'

 

Hope Sits In The Trenches

Can you feel it?

How the soldiers felt in the trenches in the winter of 1780-81?

How everything seemed lost and victory unattainable?

They had no way of knowing the outcome...

they were in the throes of their reality...like we are now.  

It was the same for the other battles our country has endured.

Those alive at the time had no way of knowing 

how things would turn out. 

I suspect they thought all was lost frequently.

I want to channel the spirit of those who came before,

those who lived it and those who died for it.

At this time when nothing feels certain or secure

I will hold unto hope ...

"its eyes still gleaming with the light of  [74.7+] million lamps."

because...

"a better world is worth fighting for."

Namaste'

 

A Good Idea

Here are the good ideas showing up for me:

Freedom

Decency

Fairness

Dignity 

and real Justice

for all living beings.

And let's not forget:

Democracy!

Namaste'

 

Praise The Broken Promise of America

It's the weekend and I'm in Florida visiting my grands,

yet, when I read this, I knew I wanted to share it.

Namaste'