When Sorrow Comes

Posted on Mar 27, 2022 in Uncategorized

Photo by Gabrielle Henderson

“When sorrow comes, let us accept it simply, as a part of life. Let the heart be open to pain; let it be stretched by it. All the evidence we have says that this is the better way. An open heart never grows bitter. Or if it does, it cannot remain so. In the desolate hour, there is an outcry; a clenching of the hands upon emptiness; a burning pain of bereavement; a weary ache of loss. But anguish, like ecstasy, is not forever. There comes a gentleness, a returning quietness, a restoring stillness. This, too, is a door to life. Here, also is the deepening of meaning – and it can lead to dedication; a going forward to the triumph of the soul, the conquering of the wilderness. And in the process will come a deepening inward knowledge that in the final reckoning, all is well.” – A. Powell Davies

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Hell YES!!!

Posted on Mar 19, 2022 in Uncategorized

Photo by Eduardo Flores

Well folks, again I am pausing our policy of keeping posts to 750 words. But, damn, this woman can write! And, yes, she plays hardball. But come on people… we are way past hotdogs and softball.

I didn’t know of Anne Helen Peterson’s writing until recently, but I suggest you grab her words and consider where you stand in all of this. And then maybe think again.


What If This is Just the Way Things Are?

Anne Helen Peterson

(…)

My partner and I go on a long walk with the dogs every Friday afternoon, the sort where you can actually feel some of the accumulated tension of the week fall off you the further you get from home. Last week, as the invasion in Ukraine continued to escalate in ever more horrifying ways, we were talking about that feeling that we don’t leave crisis mode; we just move from one (or more) primary sources of crisis into the next.

In many cases — including the current one — we don’t actually leave the previous crisis behind; it just wanes in urgency, with a promise that it will certainly wax again. It demands a sort of cyclical vigilance — and it’s been the norm for the last two pandemic years, with their ongoing waves of high-alert anxiety, but it’s also characteristic of the ongoing climate catastrophe, of the erosion of voting rights, of the threats to trans kids and the families and health care professionals and educators who affirm them, of outbursts of horrific racist violence, of school shootings, of giant steps back when it comes to women’s bodily autonomy. It happens, then it happens again, then it just keeps happening.

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ACTIVE PATIENCE vs. PASSIVE PATIENCE

Posted on Mar 6, 2022 in Uncategorized

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy
Below is Shane Parrish’s Tiny Thought for this week.  
 
I have never thought of patience in these terms. Passive patience seems to rely on thinking you will get what you think you deserve, if only you wait long enough, or pray long enough.

Tiny Thought

by Shane Parrish
 
“Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength.” ― Bruce Lee

People wait in different ways. Some are passive. Others are active. These two approaches are as different as the results they yield.

Passive patience is waiting for the world to give you the thing you want. A lot of people live their life with passive patience. Rather than go after the promotion at work they expect it to fall in their lap. Rather than go after the love of their life, they sit back and expect to be courted. Rather than chase their dreams, they wait for just the right opening that always seems around the corner but never comes. These people have the wrong kind of patience.

Active patience is different. Active patience demands action and intention, even while waiting for results. Active patience means not only applying for the promotion but taking your time to build the skills you need to put yourself in the best position to succeed. Active patience means starting the business, writing the book, going after the love of your life.

Active patience puts you in the best position to get what you want. There is almost always an action you can take to improve the odds.

Active in the moment but patient with the results.

Active patience.

 

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Where We Have Power

Posted on Feb 26, 2022 in Uncategorized

As Russia moves into Ukraine, I find myself more concerned than I expected. People are going to die, needlessly. Not having any influence, I am brought back to my “localness”… to my small world and one of my favorite short Green Renaissance films “What Love Is.”
 
Brett Bard says:  My farm in its little corner of the world, is the only thing in my power to do. I want to change the world but I don’t have the power to change the world in that sense, but if I change my world – then it holds power.

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No Matter Your Age, You Need to Fall Out of Your Front Door!

Posted on Feb 19, 2022 in Uncategorized

Photo by Ostap Senyuk

Since I now spend a good part of each day in my studio painting I have used stair-running and any other indoor opportunity (like flopping down on the rug to do yoga) to convince myself that I am getting enough exercise. Yet in the back of my head there is this niggling idea that I need to get outside… that “outside” is somehow critical to living well, which is probably why I was drawn to reading the latest two studies on mental health and green environments. “Pretty-pretty” amazing as Larry David would say.

You know this is serious when the insurance companies get involved. Follow the money, right? Still Philadelphia is to be commended for finding out if something mattered vs. apply band-aids.

Below is an excerpt of the article.


The Incredible Link Between Nature and Your Emotions

Outside article by Aaron Reuben

Imagine that the day you were born you were assigned a personal code, much like a Social Security number. You used this code when you enrolled in school, visited your doctor, filled a prescription, paid your taxes, got married, got divorced. But unlike a Social Security number, this code tracked your every move, inscribed in a massive system of interlocking data registers that could tell a researcher almost anything they wanted to know about your life. Such a personal identification system is the norm in Nordic countries, where the government provides a wide net of services for its citizens and consequently monitors their health, needs, and use of public services. This year, researchers in Denmark used this system to generate the largest and most comprehensive observational study of mental health and the environment yet undertaken: one million young adults, or everyone born in Denmark from 1985 to 2003 and still living there by their tenth birthday.

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If we are awake, what does it mean to BE awake?

Posted on Feb 5, 2022 in Uncategorized

photo by Shannon McGee

William Stafford’s poem addresses the explosion, not recognizing the issue and responding with an indifferent “shrug.”  Bottom line: do we get lost in the deep darkness or do we help each other through it? 


A Ritual to Read To Each Other

By William Stafford
 
If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
 
For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dike.

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What Would Jesus Do?

Posted on Jan 29, 2022 in Uncategorized

Photo by Brandon Mowinkel
by Vicki Panagotacos

The ability to vote is likely to be compromised in 17 states even though Marco Rubio recently said no proposed legislation in this country will keep a person from voting. It’s a matter of degree folks, as you well know. A slight of hand, but a human tragedy because those who suppress a voter’s right to vote are getting away with murder without being charged.

Granted the “black situation” in America took a long time to create and it’s not going to be easy or pleasant to improve. But if we continue to ignore it, can we at least stop pretending that our policies focus on the human dignity for all.

Can We Stop Being Hypocrites?

In 2015 Ted Cruz said on Christian Broadcasting Network, “If Christians will simply show up and vote our values, we’ll turn this country around.” I must say the comment is rather stunning considering his current approach.

 

Frankly, the Christian Conservatives behind this recent move must have gotten a hall pass from Jesus. In any case they are taking advantage of the luck of the draw – i.e., they weren’t born black.

Putting aside America’s earlier right to enslave another human being, why can’t we be decent – now – and make it easy for every citizen in this country to have the dignity of the vote?

If you want less crime in black neighborhoods and inner cities, if you want “them” off the street corners and employed, if you want “them” busy being educated and trained to make a decent living so they aren’t inclined to steal—one would think you can’t at the same time support limiting a person’s ability to vote in state and national elections.

I am not saying you should feel safe in poorer black neighborhoods at night. Jesse Jackson, when running for office, spoke in SF and admitted: “If I am walking down a dark street alone at night and someone is following me, I’d rather it be a white man than a black man.”

That’s the way it is – but who set this up to happen? Turn that pointed index finger of yours around, folks.

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