The Road to BEcoming

Wonderous Springtime Clouds …

We cannot predict the results of healing, either our own or the world around us. We need to act for the sake of a redemption that will be a mystery until it unfolds before us. Rachael Pollack (Pace e Bene -This Nonviolent Life – quote of the day 18 May 2025)

I’ve returned to this quote daily, sometimes multiple times, since it landed in my box several days back. This morning it evoked a musing that any connection between the two, quite honestly, is mysterious and has opened me to simply wondering …

At some point on the road to BEcoming,

we realize that we have already BEcome.

Something. Someone.

And now,

we are BEcoming someone else yet again

in this body we have traveled in all these years.

A body that someday we will abandon so as to continue our journey of BEcoming

in the infinity that is Life.

My wondering about any link continues. Perhaps it’s purely about embracing the mysteries of the unknown, mysteries that we so desperately want to turn away from or control so that the outcome is known, assured, and of our choosing.

Perhaps it’s a faint, yet deep, sense that we live in a world of deception and opening to mystery offers a path to becoming undeceived. To knowing more of the Truth.

Perhaps it’s in the intensity of this time, intensity that we have and are experiencing individually and collectively as supposedly ‘self-evident’ truths are being challenged or blatantly ignored.

Perhaps it’s simply our deep longing for peace, inside and out, and for the remembering, the reconciliation, and the redemption that seem required on the path to that BEcoming.

Or, perhaps, there is no link at all, merely the opening to the wonder and mystery of what I and We are BEcoming …

… And a Colorado Blue Sky Day!

How Is Life Moving Me?

Early Morning Snow on the Peaks

How is Life moving you? The question arose yesterday in conversation with a trusted guide and friend. As I reflected afterwards, I realized that, without those exact words, I’ve been deeply in just that inquiry in recent weeks. Months really, but I’ve especially felt its intensity in the last few weeks as the question what is mine to do? arose in several situations that presented themselves on my path, including one that was a ‘Big Ask’ from a family member.

There’s no need to be an oracle of the obvious and tell you that we are living in an intense time. The evidence is all around. Someone, perhaps many, in your circle of family and friends, or perhaps even you, find themselves in crisis. The human train of tragedy, violence, cruelty, and war is an epidemic of misery, suffering, and death as the black magic of fear is perpetuated on many fronts from many sources. The earth is quaking and exploding, drying out in some areas, while inundating others. The sun is hurling solar flares and coronal mass ejections. And the planets in our solar system have been aligning and interacting with one another in ways that point to the end of old and the beginning of new cycles, inviting us into change and transformation, within us and in our world.

We are not who we were six months ago. We have been, we are, and we will continue to find ourselves at crossroads, opportunities to choose the habits of the old or to create new stories, new ways forward. As these crossroads come to me, I’m finding that a key question is, how is Life moving me in THIS?

I’ve discovered that inquiring in this way has the potential to shift the stress of immediately deciding what should I do? Or even how will I respond? It opens my heart to ask Life what she needs and wants in this moment, at this choice point. For me this is a very different energy and perspective, and it is somehow freeing and expansive rather than limiting my choices. A blank canvas rather than an either/or, this or that, yes/no challenge. An opportunity to write a new story, forge a new path.

Imagine for a moment letting this question lead in your world, your choices, your crossroads. Imagine opening the door and inviting What is Life Moving in Me in for a cup of tea. Perhaps a longer visit or even becoming a companion on the road of life. Imagine inquiring, what does Life need in my expression of Life now?

Now, imagine a world where this question leads. What does Life need? Imagine leaders in business, government, politics, technology, etc. asking it. Pollyanna? Perhaps. But I believe that they will if we are bold enough to ask it first of ourselves and then if we envision and demand it. For most have likely never heard such a question, much less been invited to ask it. And, while we may loathe how they lead today, Life is not served if we view them as enemy or ‘other’ for we are not separate.

We are One, and somewhere deep within each of us lies memory of the new and ancient truth that Life does not need suffering, war, fear, horror, or cruelty. Life needs kindness, harmony, understanding, joy, nurturing, laughter, dance, play. Life needs LOVE. Life IS LOVE.

Amidst the chaos and cruelty, I’m dreaming this dream and holding this possibility. In this moment that is How Life is moving me. What about you? Are you ready to build a new story from that!

Foothills, Ziggurat, Valley and Mountains Beyond

Honoring Truth & Stepping Into Possibility in Perilous Times

Be kind. Be connected. Be unafraid.  … When fear is used to control us, love is how we rebel. Rivera Sun, The Dandelion Insurrection

The burden of continual injustices and angers is more than one person can bear–or should. And consequently I’m constantly replete with admiration and love for the people I’ve painted who so fiercely bear those burdens. Rob Shetterly

We as readers of these stories who are holding a collective vision of them have the power to create the reality we are walking into by choosing what we give our attention to. What more powerful message could we be receiving at this time when we feel so powerless? Sherri Mitchell

Rivera’s words and their spirit have been with me this week as I’ve looked out at the world which seems ever more on the brink of explosion and as I’ve witnessed the constant efforts to spread fear in order to control. I’ve called on her words in the midst of challenging conversations around a family matter this week, holding them in my heart as reminders pointing the way forward on my path. They are with me as well as I engage in exploration of building new systems to create a bright future story in community with others. I resonate with their simplicity and their power.

Rivera’s stories live in me as visions of possibility and promise, reminding me of the world that is possible if we are willing to hold its vision, its hope, its promise and to step into whatever is our role to be and to do on the path of co-creation.

Be kind. Be connected. Be unafraid.  … When fear is used to control us, love is how we rebel. Powerful words embedded in power stories reminding us all of what is possible and reminding us to step into our power to create that world.

Today, I want to continue the honoring of the mother of these words that began this weekend past at the unveiling of her portrait by artist Robert Shetterly to join with the portraits of 270+ other truth tellers in Shetterly’s mission to put attention on courageous American truth tellers, past and present.  Honoring Americans Who Tell The Truth https://americanswhotellthetruth.org/. Today, I want to introduce you to or remind you of the work of my friend, author and activist Rivera Sun. A truth teller. One who shows the way. https://riverasun.com/.

One of the speakers at the unveiling was Sherri Mitchell, Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset, an Indigenous attorney, activist, and author from the Penobscot Nation. Mitchell spoke about her experience of working with Rivera and said of her, … she has the ability to shift us from the common themes of warfare and conquest and domination and destruction and dismantling to ones of building a path forward that we can all walk upon … a way that invites us into the story as real people … she writes authentically about the very real challenges that we’re facing in ways that give us a pathway forward that is an option that has not been presented to us in real time in the world we are living in. We need these stories to exist. We need young people and old people and all of the people in between reading and imagining and believing into these stories. We as readers of these stories who are holding a collective vision of them have the power to create the reality we are walking into by choosing what we give our attention to. What more powerful message could we be receiving at this time when we feel so powerless?

I frequently speak about our current need for new stories and in series like The Dandelion Insurrection, a prescient novel about the challenging time we are living in now and the Ari Ara series for young readers about building a world of peace, Rivera offers us such stories to read, to imagine, to believe, and to live into. Indeed, if one turns their attention away from the mainstream, there are vast, real-time stories of people changing the world to be discovered. She inspires me to do just that. To not get mired in the toxic swamp of fear, but eyes forward to march onward to the horizon of peace and possibility that is beckoning our attention. This, as I often implore here in The Pivot, is where our attention should be if indeed, we desire a new world.

Rivera is one of my sheroes, and my grandchildren love her too. Who are your heroes and sheroes? Where is your attention? Who/what is calling you to build and co-create the future anew?

Pivoting Perspective - From Spending to Investing

Investing in the Joy and Beauty of Morning Light …

Investing connects. Spending feels only about the present moment and about me, not the greater whole.

A thought that just won’t let go popped in last week during a robust discussion of our local food system, strengthening it, and the perception (only sometimes grounded in fact) that local, healthy food is “too expensive”. A young community leader suggested that perhaps there are different questions to be asked and perspectives to be shifted, planting a seed, a gentle nudge to open hearts and minds to new thinking. Oh, how I honor these Millennials and their wisdom, their care, their energy!

It wasn’t part of the discussion or even a new idea to me, but I wondered ‘what if we looked at our choices – not just those related to food purchases – as investing rather than spending?’ Could this small pivot in perspective support us, individually and collectively, to create a healthier, more just, and thriving future that supports all Life?

In our consumer culture we’re conditioned to ‘spend less and get more’. We’re drawn to bargains, sales, cheap stuff and celebrate them. We ‘spend’ time, money, and our personal energy. What is the cost of our spending in terms of our health, our well-being, our contentment? What is the cost to all Life, including the Life of our planet home?

I began to wonder, what might shift if I began to more consistently see my ‘spending’ choices (money, time, and energy) as investments in both the present and the future? What if WE did so collectively?

I realized quickly that this would invite me to question many habits of my daily life, not a new idea, but with a bit of a new twist. So, I’m experimenting making more conscious choices from this perspective and asking ‘does this choice align with my values and the future that I want to contribute to? With Life?

As my writing rambles I sense a deeper meaning and call to this exploration that I don’t yet have full access to. Seeing choices as investments feels like a call of the soul to a new future, while spending seems to just get me through each day. Investing seems more conscious, more mindful, and asks more of me.

We tend to put investing in a bucket that is about our individual future and is limited to those who have the money to do so. Thus, there’s an aspect of privilege in how we think of investing. Saving money and investing to receive a future financial return that will be ‘enough’ for me in my future. Increasing numbers of people take a step beyond financial return to include people and the planet in their investment decisions. Yet, for the most part it’s still about the money and having that elusive ‘enough’. How might I/we hold this differently? Is this the time to redefine ‘investment’? And, perhaps, to rethink and redesign this whole idea of ‘money’?

Investing feels like looking to new ways, new possibilities, contributing in some way to shifts in consciousness as we navigate a tumultuous world and its changes. What do I/we want those changes to be? Is the choice I’m making in this moment an investment that aligns with that future?

Investing feels both present and future oriented, connecting me with purpose, intention, my BEing in the world and how I relate with others and the environment. Investing connects. Spending feels only about the present moment and about me, not the greater whole.

How might seeing more of our choices as investments support the birth and nurturing of new systems that move us beyond the competitive ways of separation and its power-over systems toward a future where, knowing that we are One with each other, we co-create, nurture, sustain and maintain people, planet, and indeed all Life?

I’ll continue my inquiry and experimentation, aiming to ask myself often ‘what future am I investing in by making this choice?’.  Join me? 

… And in the Peace of First Light in the Woods Out Back

From Flooding to Remembering - Shifting Our Relationship With Water

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Toni Morrison

Water, what it is and my relationship with it, has been a focus of recent attention and reflection. Unlike the very real, on the ground, drought and ‘abnormally dry’ conditions we’re currently experiencing here the valley, water has been present in my dreams, my prayers (for blessed moisture to fall), in what I’ve read and watched, and in what emerges when my pen meets the blank page of my journal many mornings.

Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink. I think of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner feeling as if I’m swimming in questions that when an answer comes, yet another question arises. Curiosity. Wonder. A sense of change within and without. A thirst not quenched.

Why water? I wonder as I write. Water covers more than 70 percent of Mother Earth’s surface, just as our bodies are 60-70 percent (or more according to some) water. We mirror each other. We ARE each other. There’s no ‘me’ over here and ‘it’ over there. How can I more deeply kindle this truth in me? What will help us remember?

A couple days ago, I read Morrison’s words above twice within a couple hours. Each time quoted by different writers in contexts that were both different and the same. Neither author offered information on the origin which I learned was a talk given at the New York Public Library in 1986 [As I side note, I observe that I’m encountering a number of very resonant pieces from the 80’s … hmmm…] in which Morrison says,

You know, they straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for hourse and livable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. "Floods" is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, that valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory--what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our "flooding”. Toni Morrison

Why water? How do the words we create to describe what water may do hold us in the illusion that we are separate? What am I remembering as I walk my path of exploration? What are we remembering?

Could it be that water is guiding us to remember who we are? To step into our memory not just that ‘water is Life’, but the unity of all Life? To know that we are water and water is us?

I think of my second encounter with Morrison’s words, Natalie Diaz narrative poem, The First Body Is The Water:

We carry the river, its body of water, in our body. I do not mean to invoke the Droste effect—this is not a picture of a river within a picture of a river.

I mean river as a verb. A happening. It is moving within me right now.

This is not juxtaposition. Body and water are not two unlike things—they are more than close together or side by side. They are same—body, being, energy, prayer, current, motion, medicine.

The body is beyond six senses. Is sensual. An ecstatic state of energy, always on the verge of praying, or entering any river of movement.

Energy is a moving river moving my moving body. …

Ending with Morrison’s words and:

Back to the body of earth, of flesh, back to the mouth, the throat, back to the womb, back to the heart, to its blood, back to our grief, back back back.

Will we remember from where we’ve come? The water.

And once remembered, will we return to that first water, and in doing so return to ourselves, to each other?

Do you think the water will forget what we have done, what we continue to do?

What is water inviting us to remember? How will we answer Her call?

[Natalie Diaz is a Mojave / Akimel O’odham poet, language activist, educator, and former professional basketball player.]

The Hard Work of Nurturing Peace

Imagine When We All Do This! (From Hartford International University for Religion and Peace)

… although the ideas of “love” and “neighbor” seem self-evident, they are also more complex than we often realize … “love thy neighbor” is hard work, and at times complicated, but is fundamentally important. Joel N. Lohr, President, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (from a blog posted Oct 12, 2023 – read it here)

Several times this week I’ve been reminded that life here on planet earth is complex, challenging, and, yes, that we humans often make it more so. We do so, it seems to me, as a result of our far too long separation from Nature, forgetting (or ignoring) Her ways, and our separation from one another born out of conflict, fed by the systems of mankind’s win-lose world.

Yep, here I go again, writing about that. I do so not because I’ve figured it out and have a great track record in practicing loving kindness toward those with whom I disagree, but because I haven’t. And my heart tells me that I, and we, must. That this is our evolutionary path, our potential, our true path to freedom.

I write remembering my reaction to an appeal from a local activist group to ‘convince’ those who support the current presidential administration how ‘wrong’, unconstitutional, etc. the administration’s actions are. Having just encountered someone who holds that view that the administration is ‘right’, indeed, “has the guts to change things” and who I experienced as having no openness to dialog, exploration, much less another point of view, I knew that this was not an appeal I could engage in.

Convincing ‘the other’ that you are ‘right’ is its own form of conflict. Sadly, we don’t recognize how it furthers separation, seeking to ‘win’ so that ‘they’ will ‘lose’. Convincing puts conditions on love.

How, I wonder, do I hold true to my values without feeding the fruitless fray of separation? It’s not a new question for me or for The Pivot. It’s a question that as I ‘be’ with it, exploring possibilities, embracing the mystery of unknown expressions of me that seek to come forth, I touch that place in that knows the answer is love.

How do we love new ways, new awareness, new connection, new tolerance and acceptance into form? Into becoming how we live? How do I? Asking, wondering opens me to an awareness of my deep desire to nurture peace into the experience of life. Peace within. Peace in the world. I remember the invitation to ‘Love thy neighbor as thy self’ that is held and spoken in most every religion. Common ground that sounds oh so simple and makes me wonder how it is expressed in these different traditions.

A quick search gives me that information and more: the essay quoted above which reminds me that the work of finding common ground and nurturing peace is deep, hard, hearty work. Worthy work. Work that requires commitment and consistency. I honor my many friends and associates who walk this path. I honor those whom I know of, who do the same. They are the way-showers, and I bow in gratitude to them for their commitment.

Sitting with the Sun gently kissing my face as it rose over the mountains this morning, it occurred to that when we truly love ourselves, our true, capital ‘S’ Self, not the small self of the personality and the ego, it will be impossible to not love another, indeed to love all sentient beings, including Mother Earth herself.

As we call a new world into being, may that love be integral to our path.

Robin Visits Calling in New Growth

Sacred Relationship with What Is

Sacred Mountain, Sacred Snow, Sacred Light, Sacred Life

‘This is how I see my life,’ my friend … says, gesturing at the trees and parts of trees in front of us. Just ahead of our feet, off the side of the path, lie metre-long segments of a felled beech tree. Solid and lifeless, not yet decaying or on their way, yet possessed with an air of regency. Rising behind and around them are other beeches in their prime, releasing gold and brown leaves in great drifts with each gust of new wind. … ‘I have to carry both of these realities now,’ she explains. Ruth Allen, Weathering: How the earth’s deep wisdom can help us endure life’s storms

Although I’m in a different rhythm and flow this blog day, I began my morning as I do in winter and early spring when there’s still a chill in the house. Lighting a fire in the woodstove, gazing in with gratitude, then quiet, reflective time with a mug of warm liquid.

Today I realize that soon this part of my morning routine will shift. No fire to light and tend, my reflective time will be gazing into the woods greeting the sunlight, feeling gratitude for the sun’s warmth, for the beauty and sacred Life that is ‘the woods out back’. Today, as I often do, I bring with me a few current favorite books from the reading stack. I wonder what might catch my eye that will pull together or shed new light on the wild ride of observations, experiences, and reflections of this week past.

I think about what will rise to be shared, and I wonder if you too have experienced a roller coaster week.

Smiling, I return to the stack, finding Ruth Allen’s Weathering answers the call with Allen describing her elder, recently retired friend’s reflections as she observed both old life and new as they began a hike. Her description felt sacred to me and, as I reflected, the story deepens the sacredness I experience in these woods as I observe tiny pinon seedlings sprouting near older mature pines, as well as downed trees and branches, seemingly lifeless, some decaying, yet sacred still. When I take a closer look, these downed beings are teeming with Life, offering shelter and nutrition for a variety of other dwellers in these woods.

Allen beautifully shares her elder friend’s reflection of how she holds the ‘both and’, the newness and freshness of retirement along with whatever realities accompany her as she add years to her life. The beginning of Life and the waning of Life, perhaps not as death, but as preparedness for changing from one form of life to another system in the ongoing cycles of Life. Sacred holding that somehow reflects how I hold this chapter in my own life. Sacred holding as I observe the world, old dissolving, new emerging.

Sacred relationship that feels important to bring to awareness. Sacred awareness that invites us to examine our relationship to all that is.

I wonder in this time of chaos, turmoil, dissolution and destruction, polarization how we might invite the sacredness of what is into the activities of daily life? And, when we do each in our own way, how that might shift how we navigate and dance with this world?

How might it be if we embrace the sacredness of what is at the same time, we either protest or embrace it? How will it be when we restore our sacred connection with all Life and discover the common ground we share in the sacred? 

Sacred Mountain, Sacred Melt, Sacred Life

Restoring Connection to ALL Life

Spring Snow on the Peaks Yesterday …

Snowflakes fall to quench the thirst of Mother Earth as Robin sings its song of Spring and I write contentedly by the fire with a full and grateful heart.

Restoring our connection with All Life and its Source is first developing a way of BEing from which new choices of doing offer themselves and rise.

This morning I’m happily snuggled by the fire as snowflakes fall to quench the thirst of Mother Earth and as Robin sings its song of Spring and I write contentedly by the fire with a full and grateful heart. While Robin harkens the coming of spring weather, winter snowflakes invite me deep within. I reflect on the conditions of Life on our planet and especially in the country that is my home, while recognizing that Gaia knows no such manmade boundaries of place. I ask ‘what is mine to do in the year ahead?’.

Earlier I was thinking about how so many of our habitual patterns are reinforced by the world’s systems. We’re guided away from spontaneity and the flow of life by such things as cheaper airfare and lodging when we forego the right to cancel or change our plans without penalty or forfeiture. While I understand the ‘business’ case of these systems, my heart observes tenacles reaching out from the power over paradigm. One more way in which we are habituated to disregard the flow of Life.

It is also part of the nature of our extractive, exploitive ways. In our relationship with the Earth and sometimes in our relationships with one another we have forgotten to ask and wait to be answered, to give gratitude, and to reciprocate.

Forgetting that She is a living, breathing Being, without permission we poke holes in Mother Earth to extract her life blood in support of our ways of living. All too often far too many of us don’t give thanks to Gaia, and even less frequently do we reciprocate. Our systems fail to include these important aspects of relationships. And, as a result, we have lost touch with Life, its Flow, and its Source.

While I often remember to say, ‘thank you!’ when I turn on the tap or drink a glass of water, I can’t recall a time when I’ve done the same as I pumped fuel into the gas tank or when I light the propane stove daily to prepare a meal. I do give thanks each time I build a fire in the woodstove for the wood that warms my home. Sometimes I even wonder how the tree beings in the woods out back feel about me burning their kin. I suspect that they are more in touch with and honor the cycles of life and death than do I.

Coming home last evening to a surprisingly darkened neighborhood that had apparently lost power in the brief time I was away, I thanked the Sun for providing energy stored in a battery that kept the porch light burning on a dark, though starry, night and that powered the few lights needed to make my way to getting under the covers. But rarely, if ever, do I thank the other sources that also power the lights and appliances in my grid-connected home and that keep me connected to the world beyond these woods.

Rarely do I fully acknowledge all that Mother Earth provides that supports my well-being, my comfort, and, indeed, my convenience.

I claim to ‘steward’ this land and these woods that I am privileged to occupy. And, while I do regularly offer my thanks as well as small gifts to the trees and the other Beings that dwell and traverse here, rarely do I remember to ask permission and wait to be answered before I barge in for a visit.

It occurs to me that I (and we) can use the disruption of systems in this time as catalysts to examine my (our) choices, our habits, our ways of life. As the systems we’ve grown accustomed to are crumbling, opportunities to ask and listen to our planet home, to Mother Earth’s wisdom, abound. As I examine and re-examine my habitual ways, I aim to ask and listen more and to set aside acting as if I already know the answer.

Restoring our connection with All Life and its Source is first developing a way of BEing from which new choices of doing offer themselves and rise. I long to more clearly hear the gentle whispers and loud roars of the Ancestors offering their wisdom to guide me. I hear the voices of the children and those yet to inhabit physical bodies on this earth plane asking me (and us) to listen. I listen for the voices of the Mother Trees and their offspring, of the flowing creeks, and the land. I listen, longing to hear more clearly, the guidance of Mother Earth and all the Great Mothers of our cosmos.

As I begin a new trip around the Sun, the first of a new quarter century of such journeys in this physical vehicle, this is my prayer as I/we seek to co-create new ways forward, new habits, deeper alignment with and appreciation for Gaia and the cosmos that is Home.

… And Here in the Woods this Morning!

The Heart's Call to Action

A Quiet Colorado Blue Sky Afternoon at the Stupa …

Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. That is what is happening as we see people honestly confronting the sorrows of our time. … You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. … The wave of the future is on the local level. … Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into e imagination. … We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts. Joanna Macy

In this time, we are being called to go deep within to the quiet place inside that knows the Truth and is called co-create a new world from that place of knowing. Let’s create a steady flow of traffic, co-creating with one another and that which Sources Life. Let’s LIVE! The Pivot 3-19-25

I begin where I began and where I ended last week’s Pivot. The deep dive I’ve been in, the explorations and listening I’ve engaged in, beginning to hone in on and bring clarity to my heart’s call, to what I cherish that is mine to do, to co-create right here at home. To what I can imagine and dream: healthy soil, healthy people, happy community in this sacred high alpine valley as more farmers and ranchers pivot from soil-depleting, dirt and dust creating practices to listening to the land and engaging in regenerative practices that over time will transform dirt to healthy, nutrient rich soil.

The vision has been stirring deep in me for some time, occasionally surfacing in conversation then all too quickly put aside for whatever seemed more important and doable at the time. I didn’t know where to begin. So, I didn’t. The dream seemed too daunting. So, I avoided stepping into the unknown.

But my time in the metaphorical kiva, the spaciousness in my life to explore inner and outer planes, along with this week’s heart-wrenching, heart-opening listening to those directly impacted by the chaos and discord (not to mention the devastation and destruction of lives in the war-torn world) has awakened me more deeply to the suffering not just of my fellow human Beings, but to the suffering of all Beings and, indeed, of the planetary Being herself. And to the need to be in action on behalf of all Life. NOW!

Feeling this sense of urgency, I asked, “what is mine to do?”. An answer came. Clear, concise, starting point guidance:

Ø  Listen to the land.

Ø  Honor the land.

Ø  Support strengthening community to protect and restore the land.

Ø  Trust. The land will show the way and will care for all Life.

Ø  Act. One step each day.

The guidance was affirmed yesterday as I sat quietly at the nearby Padmasambhava Stupa shortly after listening to a Montana farmer speak about the uncertainty she and her husband are navigating on their organic, regenerative wheat farm/cattle ranch with changes in federal policies and programs and cancellation of commitments adding to the uncertainty that is already the very nature of farming itself. Her story, echoed by that of a local rancher heard later in the day, reminded me of Macy’s call to local community, to local action. From the heart. Now.

As illusions of certainty continue to vanish, I’m deepening my connection to the certainty of that which sources Life. I’m listening to the land herself and to those who work with her daily, 24/7 to grow food.

I’m examining my food choices with an eye toward even greater support for the local farmers and ranchers on whose shoulders my health and well-being and that of my community depend. As our local food hub says, “you have three votes every day!” I’m voting local!

And I’m mitigating the personal impact of the world’s uncertainty by listening to and following the certainty of my heart. Trusting its lead to guide the next step. And the next.

… and the Ziggurat Nearby

From the Inside Out - Heart Speaks Its Knowing

Into the Kiva …

Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. That is what is happening as we see people honestly confronting the sorrows of our time. … You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. … The wave of the future is on the local level. … Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination.

We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts. Joanna Macy

My pen flowed across the journal page this cold morning as I settled in by the fire. A stream of ink forming words, thoughts, sentences from somewhere beyond my (so-called) rational mind, that part of me too long trained to ‘figure things out’ rather than to create, or rather co-create, with Source.

I was in the inside-out dance of a particular astrological event on this day before the Spring Equinox. For those curious, today Neptune, representing the inner, is conjunct the Sun, outer expression. Experimental Generative AI popped up in a quick search of what ‘the world’ has to say about such events, informing (tongue in cheek) me that the event marks “… a time when reality blurs and illusions thrive, encouraging intuition and exploration of fantasies.”

As I see it, that world has us all too focused on what we’re told is a reality outside of us, one that we are on this earth to simply navigate. That is the nature of the ‘power over’, domination paradigm that those who seek to control would have us believe in their idea that they know best. Oh, how the systems are designed to keep us ensnared! For, if we believe ‘navigation’ in their system is the Truth, we are caught in its prison, accepting its illusions, its crumbs of freedom, while complying with its ways. Going along to get along.

I do this. You do this. We all do this to some degree because we exist in the system. I use exist deliberately because I believe (and the ‘voice’ which spoke through the pen early this morning seemed to affirm) that this is not the purpose of LIFE. It is not the Truth of who we are, of our interconnectedness with one another and with ALL that is.

What came in the early hours by the fire is not new to me (or to you, if you’ve been with me for a while).

Life is not the busyness of the world! That is why there is such deep anger against systems and the current administration in the (not so) United States as well as corporations, etc. They do not affirm Life.

The choice is not good versus evil. It is Life vs. not life. Reverse evil to LIVE.

Choosing Life is aligning with that which Sources Life, knowing that Life is infinite and that you are a sovereign Being. Life is Living from this knowing, choosing from this knowing, speaking from this knowing. And this can be a lonely road.

It is both a solo journey and, as Joanna Macy suggests, a co-creation with a community of others, each from our inner foundation, our heart. We need a traffic jam on this road of Life, a tipping point that has us deeply know the Truth of our connection with all Life, a Truth that the heart knows. Indeed, a Truth that is buried in our cellular memory across many lifetimes. In this time, we are being called to go deep within to the quiet place inside that knows the Truth and is called co-create a new world from that place of knowing.

Let’s create a steady flow of traffic, co-creating with one another and that which Sources Life. Let’s LIVE!

Into the Kiva II