Yes

I love, love, LOVE this.

What if, in addition to the streets, 

we took our rallies for peace

into the woods, and the rivers, 

and all the natural places we love?

"Go together, go alone.

Say no to the Lords of War,which is money. . ."

Isn't this the truth?

Everyone can participate. 

Solo rallies in the woods, at the river,

in the garden. Take a selfie saying yes.

"Say no by saying yes to the air,

 to the earth, to the trees yes to ...the rivers, 

to the birds and the animals 

and every living thing."

Say no by saying yes.  

Wendell Berry, your words fill me with hope and peace 

and an idea for how to recalibrate our world. Thank you with 

a heart-filled YES.

Namaste

 

What If We All Met

"And here, unseen, is the bridge of the moment that links me

to all that was and all that is, all that is real and all that is dream.

The bridge, as long as forever. The bridge as solid as rain.

The long, beautiful bridge vast enough to hold every word,

every story, every version of what might be."

I've had panic attacks on long, high bridges. . .

so much so I couldn't speak.  My stomach

and my throat seized up and all I could do was

gasp and laugh an uncontrollable laugh;

the kind that comes just before sobbing.

So when I first read a poem about meeting on a bridge,

as a metaphor for "behaving beautifully" it felt somewhat odd to me. 

I immediately linked it to the rainbow bridge and pets.

Rosemerry's poem does a magnificent job of 

rearranging the metaphor in a way that pleases me. 

"It is the bridge toward understanding.

And here is you. And here is me."

I would add, here is you and here is me 

and over there is them.  

The need for this "bridge toward understanding"

feels exceedingly urgent, which unexpectedly

 circles back to my panic attack.

May we find the way to meet them on this bridge

and begin to heal the divide in our country.

May the energy of understanding make tidal waves

across the globe and recalibrate the current atmosphere.

We are in this together and we can do this.

 Thank you for being here.

Namaste

PS: This brought to mind this image by brother-in-law drew in 2020.  

Note the fragility of this bridge.  Now think of the fragile look of a spider web.

"spider silk being stronger than steel on a pound-for-pound basis, 

exhibiting remarkable tensile strength and elasticity."

We are as strong and flexible as a spider web!

 

Opposition

.

"That a narrow vision of control, creating opposition where it doesn't need to exist, 

is a human-centered fixation like post-baptism bibles...

plucked from street corners from the meaty hands of zealots*."

It seems from her poem that Renee Good wrestled with the "opposition" 

between science and faith as so many of us do…(or don’t)

especially when raised in an atmosphere of strong dogma

where you're steeped in it before you reach an age of reason.

I'm waiting in gingerly optimistic hope that one day, narrow minded

people who insist on everyone seeing things their way, will be relegated

to places where their perspective can not harm others. 

". . .as I continue to wonder what can and cannot be easily

seen on Earth as it is in the heavens."

What do you find when you contemplate what 

can and cannot be seen on Earth as it is in the heavens?

I love how she puts this last sentence.

By making heavens plural and preceeding it with a simple "the";

the meaning shifts from something 

conveyed in the King James version of the Lord's prayer,

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven;

closer to one English translation of the line from Aramaic...

"As we find your love in ours, let heaven and nature form a new creation.” **

How ironic is it that her poem addresses one of the things I believe 

lies in the center of the division in our country?

Is it the result of believers steeped in dogma being manipulated by

wickedly clever people of dubious, self serving intention?

Nonetheless, we see through the subterfuge 

and are doing what it takes to make it seen here on Earth.

Namaste

*https://poets.org/2020-on-learning-to-dissect-fetal-pigs

**Douglas-Klotz, Neil. Prayers of the Cosmos: Reflections on the Original Meaning of Jesus' Words 

Building The World

"I haven’t given up on humans yet.

Though here in America where 

masked agents pull women and men from their homes--

people who build our communities, our country--we 

are so far from the goodness I imagine."

How can goodness be missing? 

Talk about beyond the question.

How can we chew (like a termite)* 

to undermine and collapse this structure of cruelty?

"It is in all of us, the bully, the one

who enjoys destruction, the one who

wants to feel powerful, strong."

The only destruction my "inner bully" wants

is of cruelty and injustice and domination.  

I'd be happy to destroy the brutal actions of white supremacy. 

"But it is also in us all to speak out for each other, 

to stand up for each other, to say no, this is not okay. "

We are doing this and we will keep on doing it.

We can't give up. Goodness matters.

"going out the next recess,  and the next, 

and the next, to build together again. 

Because we can."

Once again, I'm reminded that recess (rest)

is part of the equation.  

Yes, we must do everything we can

and we need recess to gather ourselves,

for ourself and for each other

so we can continue this arduous drive;

this striving for goodness.

Thank you for being here.

We can do this.

Namaste

* ps://substack.com/@jdrewlanham/note/c-185855577?r=59ose&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action.

Beyond The Question

"Can I weave a nest of silence, weave it of listening..."?

"One must first become small, nothing but a presence,

attentive as a nesting bird. Proffering no slightest wish

toward anything that might happen or be given.

What a fine way to describe meditation.

I'm thinking its possible to do this anywhere...

especially when you find yourself in waiting rooms, 

or crowded loud spaces with lots of action and noise.

"Only the warm, faithful waiting, contained in one's smallness.

I suspect she means smallness in relation to the universe,

rather than smallness as in unimportant.

We're important in our smallness.

We're important in our silence...

"beyond the question, before the answer."

My question is: will we overcome this current atmosphere?

I sit in silence before the answer

holding unto hope;

holding unto goodness.

Namaste

 

Touch The Earth

"To all who love her, who open to her

the doors of their veins, she gives 

of her strength, sustaining them with

her own measureless tremor of dark life."

I feel this ever more deeply in my goldening years.

My heart aches for want of proper care for her.

Yet, she continues to operate with exquisite offerings.

Steady and dependable with surprises abounding. 

Dark life is a fitting term as we still know so little

and much of her majesty is hidden.

"Rest your spirit in her solitary places."

Yes, for those who are fortunate to have access.

How many do not?  I'm thinking of those

in prisons, detention centers, and over-populated cities.

Can their solitary places be imagined,

or remembered in inner space?

For the gifts of life are the earth's 

and they are given to all. . .

Namaste

 

Unsung

"Do not discount your necessity.

One act of love makes a person.

One kind word builds a whole movement.

One small, yet persistent and dependable voice 

in our lives restructures the foundation of this shared world."

Everyone matters.

Small gestures of kindness and understanding

can shift things significantly.

Let us not underestimate our power to change 

the trajectory of the moment,

the hour, the day...our life.

My motto for today?

Keep it simple, keep it true, keep it real, keep it kind.

I'm glad you're here.

Namaste

 

After I Fell

This poem significantly alters the way I'm seeing my life.

Falling is an apt metaphor for how things feel these days.

I believe this canyon of grief is something we each experience

 in different depths and contours in our own particular way...

mostly alone and mostly unseen.

"In fact,  I am not certain I am done with my falliing.  

But I do know now falling if not something to be feared."

For someone with a severe fear of heights, I'm dubious;

but willing to hear her out given what she's been through.

"This is not about flying.  It's about falling. About meeting

the gravity and feeling its force and letting it carry me 

in ways I have never let myself be carried."

This is a line the moves me out of my tight confines

into the spaciousness of what I do not know;

what I can not know.  It opens a door to realms

beyond my understanding where somehow, impossibly

all of this translates into something 

tender and mighty and amazing.

"...the canyon of grief is just another name

for living the fullest life."

Why am I so prone to avoiding grief if this is true?

I suppose because its natural to draw back from pain,

to pull away from hurt, to detour around sharp and slippery rocks,

to find another route when the road is caved in.

It's understandable to avoid what feels like it will undo us.

Like falling into an abyss with no visible bottom.

"The reward of falling is to feel how grace falls with us

as if holding our hand, like a teacher, like a friend."

This is where everything gathers...

where we are reminded grace is with us...we are not alone. 

Goodness is present and we are here together;

no matter how swiftly we are descending,

no matter how terrified and blindly enraged we feel.

This matters.

We matter.

I am holding onto grace with 

every fiber of my being.

Namaste

 

 

 

Amen

"Let me sleep with precious stones 

polished smooth by no man's hands."

I presume this line resonates with me so much

because sleep evades me often these days.

"We will disappear, inevitably rocked and rolled

by the daily bump and grind,

each wave simultaneously a flinging forward

and a torturous sucking back."

While this is certainly the case at times,

may I suggest that there are also times

when we're gently swept forward

and tenderly brought back?

 

May this be so at our "last exhale

and our final sweet surrender."

Namaste

 

Between Storms

This is extra poignant though its only slightly outdated

and the next storm is raging.

"a long skid, no brakes, on the kind of ICE that

hardens around the heart of a nation."

This captures the feel of what we're living through 

although I reject that its hardened the heart of this nation.

Maybe for a few but not for the many.

"I'm braced--we all are--for whatever comes next, 

for the wheels to come completely off the bus."

This sentence breaks my heart with its prophecy.

What decorations shall we display now?

What pots shall we clang and intersections will we block?

We will find a way.  Of that, I'm certain.

Namaste

 

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