From Prison to Possibility

In the flow of life …

You need to remain open, yet maintain discernment and critical vigilance. Critical openness is true hospitality and receptivity. … Freedom challenges us to awaken and realize all the possibilities that sleep in the clay of our hearts. … In the inner landscape of the soul there is a nourishing and melodious voice of freedom always calling you. It encourages you to enlarge your frames of belonging – not to settle for a false shelter that does not serve your potential. There is no cage for the soul. John O’Donohue (from various essays in Eternal Echoes: Exploring Our Hunger to Belong)

O’Donohue’s words resonate deeply with an inquiry that emerged as I journaled early one morning recently. “Am I a critical thinker? Or just critical?”, I wondered. What does it mean to be a critical thinker? What is critical thinking’s role in discernment? And what about the heart?

The questions weren’t unfamiliar, but they rose in the wake of watching a controversial (some would say conspiracy theory) documentary that opened a familiar question: how do we know what is accurate and true? What stories in me may block my capacity for ‘critical openness’? How often do I engage in critical thinking? How often do I follow those with whom I tend to agree, without much consideration? What stories are so embedded in me that my automatic pilot kicks in with little if any awareness on my part?

I remembered an experience that brought this home to me decades ago while attending a Spiral Dynamics workshop. During a break the workshop leader casually inquired and determined that I was an alumnus of a particular university with deep and long traditions. As we settled in after the break to explore the impact of unconscious memes on our behavior and choices, the fight song of that university began to play. With nary a thought and zero awareness, I jumped up, began to sing loudly and move enthusiastically as I’d done many years before at football games.

Point made! That day we all learned anew that deep, unconscious memes, stories, and beliefs are with us 24/7 standing ready to blast forth when they hear the call. Whether we want them to or not.

As my inquiry continued, I wondered what other life experiences have a hold on me unknowingly and, thus, could be holding me hostage. What role do they play when I jump to being critical rather than thinking critically?

I recalled stories and beliefs that kept me in the ‘false shelter’ of a marriage until an event broke their hold and I chose to leave. I remembered a friend challenging my stories about all the reasons I could not purchase a house. Although years apart, my choice to end the marriage and my friend’s challenge awakened possibilities beyond any dream I’d ever allowed myself to have: living joyfully and gratefully in the paradise of a woodland sanctuary and being guided in how to honor this sacred dot on the planet.

Remembering those personal events of breaking free sparks a deeper inquiry. I wonder what memories, stories and beliefs live in me that block possibility, or that stifle any critical thinking about how to navigate today’s chaotic world? A world, I should add, that I hold less and less interest in and that seems increasingly irrelevant to what life truly is. Yet a world whose systems hold us hostage. Muse nods in agreement and prompts that this is a story for another day … from Prison to Possibility, Part 2, perhaps.

Returning to my inquiry, two experiences come to mind. During my early school years when our country was gripped in the fear of nuclear attack, we were instructed to ‘duck and cover’ under our little desks. This would keep us safe, it seemed we were to believe. Perhaps much like the lockdown drills in schools today. What of this experience still lives in me and impacts my views of the world? What are today’s experiences imbedding into our precious kiddos?

Later, in my junior high and high school years, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were periodic reminders of the danger of speaking up and speaking out. What might I/we hold deep within about the risk of taking a stand, speaking our truth?

How deeply and unknowingly do these and other events and experiences influence my choices? Our choices? Do I/we allow them to imprison us, or do we use them to open doors of possibility? In a world that so often would have us follow its ways, how do I maintain the ‘discernment and critical vigilance’ necessary to live as the sovereign being that I am?

The inquiry continues …

A Colorado Blue Sky Morning!

Pivot to Gentle, Curious, Adventurous Perception

The Flow in Nature Reflects the Flow of Life

The way you look at things is the most powerful force in shaping your life. In a vital sense, perception is reality. … There is such an intimate connection between the way we look at things and what we actually discover. If you can learn to look at your self and your life in a gentle, creative and adventurous way, you will be eternally surprised at what you find. John O’Donohue (Thoughts Are Our Inner Senses in Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World)

Life has a way of presenting us with opportunities when we are open to receiving. I aim each day to live in that openness and curiosity. Waking this morning with fresh awareness of two seemingly unrelated dream fragments, I wondered how they might relate to each other and what messages the dreams offered.

On top of them, Mind recalled a choice that I’d taken with me to sleep: which of two events scheduled at the same time should I attend? Then Mind leapt to analyzing, comparing the two, apparently seeking a rational decision to put the question to rest now even though the events are a few days away.

Feeling tense and pressured (self-imposed to be sure), I paused. That wasn’t how I wanted to make the choice. In the pause, a gentle suggestion rose, “Ask for guidance.” Ahh … I relaxed, pivoting to a more curious, gentle perception of the question. Hmm … What is my intention for joining either event? What guidance am I seeking?

Muse reminded me that ‘back to basics’ is always a good place to start. As I sat quietly, clarity began to emerge. I began to wonder, “What is in my highest good and the highest good of all? Which event will best serve my growth and provide opportunities for expressing my values, for building community, and for more closely aligning my life with Gaia?”

The questions as context further eased my angst and the self-imposed pressure to decide now. They give me clarity for the guidance I’m seeking and opened me to receive that guidance. They offered a gentle path to making the choice and offered an opportunity to be creative in doing so.

I realized that I could let go of ‘missing out’ on something and open to the gifts I’m sure to receive whichever event I choose to attend. That’s the beauty of our thoughts; of allowing them to emerge, to develop, to shift; and to being gentle with self and all that creation presents.

The process unfolded in a short time, but the reminder of the importance of thoughts, awareness, and perspective will stay with me far beyond the making of this choice. May I be continually surprised by where my thoughts lead and the adventures they offer up.

Morning Clouds

Breaking Out of Habits

Dawn in the Sacred Sangres

The mystery and magic of being an individual is to live life in response to the deep call within, the call to become who we were dreamed to be. … Freedom … is the poise of soul at one with a life which honours and engages its creative possibility. John O’Donohue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)

Sitting out on the deck as the day began to dawn and walking before the sun rose over the sacred peaks of the Sangres, I broke free of the habitual winter routine this day. It’s transition time here. Pots of geraniums that spent their winter indoors called to move to their summer homes outdoors. Flannel sheets and blankets give way to cooler crisp organic cotton.

I feel deeply the creative possibility in small things: hands in the dirt, listening to birdsong call the day into being, care of Zadie Byrd, care of self, care of and reverence for this place. Listening for and imagining new stories for how life – mine and ours – can unfold. Allowing life to define itself and its facets rather than fitting life into an old story heard throughout my life as the way things are and the way things should be.

John O’Donohue’s words remind me of the beauty of being in the question, the mystery. Listening for  calls from within. Noticing what has my attention, what resonates, what doesn’t. Breaking habits of knowing and needing to know to allow wonder about how the mystery will unfold. Breaking habits of judgement to allow curiosity to discover a possibility for reverence and care.

After a long day with my hands in the dirt, I settled in last evening for a second listening to a recent Charles Eisenstein talk, Staying Sane in the Next Five Years [click here to watch]. I appreciate his thinking, his way of being, his kindred contrarian spirit, especially in this time when, for me, old stories are giving way, dissolving. New stories are on the rise.

The old stories based on half-truths and lies have become so dissonate in me/for me that I can barely follow them. Eisenstein calls this a time between stories. What we need in times of such transition is rest, care, attention to the call within, to what wants to rise, to mystery. We need time to grieve what seems lost so that we can hear clearly what wants to rise and what our part in that rising is. We need to break habits that tie us to the old. We need to let go. We need to call on grace.

And when we do, what new stories can rise? I envision new stories based on ancient truths of who we are, who we BE as humans in the web of life on this precious planet, a mere dot in the vast cosmos. Stories weaving new threads in existing webs of natural connection. Stories that hold reverence for ALL life. Stories that receive life. Stories that give.

Such stories are by no means a given. Old stories of control over and separation are trying to maintain our attention and will cleverly continue to endeavor to hold us in their grasp. A new coat of paint on an old story is not a new story, despite its fresh look.

So, this time between stories offers choices to each of us, individually and collectively. What habits must be laid to rest so that authentic new stories, new ways will rise? What stories will rise in us? What timelines will we follow? The answer my friends is in embracing the mystery of life unfolding! Are you in?

Dawn Over the San Luis Valley

Upping Our Vibes: Grounding in Higher Consciousness

Daily Reminder Above My Desk

The level of consciousness is the most crucial aspect in health. I’d wager it will improve relationships, improve our self-esteem, lift us up to really live, all without drugs. Our level of consciousness is that part of us that is unsullied. It is waterproof, fireproof, age proof, bulletproof. If the mystics say that our primary purpose in life is growing in consciousness, then the intention broadcast marks very significant progress in science and medicine. It is revolutionary. As conscious humans, we have a responsibility. We cannot remain Homo dubitat for much longer. We must act and overthrow the programming of our cellphones, unplug from the TV. We are being called to become alert, awake, in charge. Nisha J. Manek, MD (Bridging Science and Spirit)

Early this morning as I settled in to focus on today’s post, I was clear – or so I thought – on our direction. Then I read something that offered a mindful detour to which Muse didn’t seem to disagree. Amid the detour, life called for my attention. It was time for morning walks and breakfast. Then a series of distractions rendered Muse incapable of settling me down until late morning.

With life’s details handled and the detour set aside, my original direction returned, clearer than before: our intentions and the level of consciousness from which they rise are key to powerfully navigating the events of life.

My clarity rises from a recent experience during a consultation with a specialist veterinarian when she made a strong declaration that momentarily took me aback. She was, she said, 100% certain that because of ‘x’, ‘y’ would follow. In other words, ‘Y’ was the only possible outcome.

After a moment, I realized that her certainty was not aligned with my understanding of how life works. I asked her to pause, and I challenged her perspective. “What about intention? What about miracles? Where in your certainty is the space for that?” I probed calmly.

The vet paused for a moment before a thoughtful response. “You’re right,” she said acknowledging that while ‘y’ seems to be the most likely outcome given ‘x’, it is not a certainty. Our consultation continued from her new perspective, a shift from certainty to possibility.

The moment was powerful for me, standing in my truth as I was seeking advice and making decisions based on advice from trusted professionals. I stood in my power and in the truth of what I understand about intention and consciousness.

I did so not from a stance of fear, denial, or defensiveness, but rather from a place of strong conviction, of heart-centered, coherent love, care, and understanding. From MY truth.

I deeply believe in the power of our beliefs and our consciousness to affect the trajectory of most anything. Countless research by Lynn McTaggart, Bruce Lipton, and others bears this out as does the research of Dr. David R. Hawkins (Power vs. Force). Nisha Manek deepens my understanding further in her outstanding study of Dr. William Tiller’s work, Bridging Science and Spirit.

Key it seems is the level of consciousness or frequency from which we are operating. Is my conviction and my action grounded in love, in reason, in gratitude, trust, and/or reverence for all life? That is the consciousness from which so-called miracles rise.

Or am I operating from anger, fear, grief, hopelessness? That is where miracles are stymied, and the world’s predictions of doom and gloom can manifest.

In a sense the choice is for life and all that generates life or for death. The paths of life and life generating are not always easy or clear. Sometimes choices for life seem to counter the mainstream and the experts as my experience reminded me. Choices for life may even be unpopular in some circles, though this truth may be hidden. But as we ‘up our vibes’ to higher frequencies our choices become clearer and easier with practice. Choice by choice. Step by step. Day by day.

‘The Thinker’ - a Favorite Tree Stump in the Woods Out Back

Morning Musing on the Deck

Morning in the Woods

The opposite of love is not rage. The opposite of love is indifference. Love engages all our emotions: Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger is the force that protects that which is loved. We cannot access the depth of loving ourselves or others without our rage. Valarie Kaur (daily quote 5-17-23 in Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey)

Out on the deck! Sun beaming on my face. Cottonwood Creek offering background music with beautiful sounds of flow from the snow melt. Deer nearby. They scattered when I came out. Hummers joyful that the feeder is replenished. Zadie Byrd, content after breakfast, rests as she watches over these woods, ears UP. Stillness this blue-sky morning as the sun rises higher over the peaks.

Thus begins a blessed morning, a blessed day, in this blessed life. How do I express the depth of my gratitude for this, THIS? I wonder, ‘is a simple thank you, felt deeply in the heart, enough?’ For truly this morn, this moment my heart feels it. Appreciation for life, this life, this place, this being that I am radiates in every cell of my body. I am that. I am.

More gratitude for my health as last week’s cold symptoms wane, a lingering cough yet to clear (but moving in that direction!). Gratitude for the health that is this body, this spirit, and its movement to clear and release that which needs to be cleared and released. How we miss this subtle, yet obvious, miracle of LIFE working its magic. 24/7, 365 life is always ‘on’ no matter the calendar or the clock. All Ways! May we go beyond the world’s training of our rational minds so that we can know this, experience this. May I.

I pause to listen to an unfamiliar sound. Animal-like, but not familiar and hard to describe. Not a ‘moo’ or a ‘meow’. Soft, slow, short. Two deer walk up near the Circle of Elders, the sound moves with them. It is them or one of them. I have never heard a deer before. Life’s magic is given voice in this moment.

Before the pause, I was about to write about anger, posing the question ‘how does one feel anger from this place, this gratitude?’ I rarely feel angry and yet I know it has a presence in my life at some layer or level. It sometimes pops out obscuring the love, the care, the curiosity, the true being that I am and want to express in the world, with self, with others, with Zadie Byrd, with all of life. There is little, if anything, to be angry about in my life, about my life, even with its curveballs and setbacks.

As I’ve reflected this week, I’ve come to see that what truly rises my ire is the systems that are unjust, unfair, damaging to people and the planet and have many people trapped in their webs of greed. Perhaps too I am angry with myself for missed opportunities to speak out, do more. Where might I be a greater contribution? What is mine to do? I wonder.

I put the pen down and enjoy for a few more moments of the sun’s warmth, the creek’s song, and the beauty of the woods outback. As I open the computer, the quote above greets me with a new light on anger. The magic of life unfolding!

Cottonwood Creek

Pausing for Self-Care

Radical self-care is quantum and radiates out into the atmosphere like a little fresh air. Anne Lamott

This blog day I’m pivoting to deep self-care, mostly in the form of deep rest, Chinese herbs, and nourishing food so that a visiting cold bug will not linger. I may also watch again a beautiful film that I a colleague recently shared: Human. I hope you’ll watch – click here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uog4eCZTUX4&t=33s

I was moved by the visual beauty, the music, and experienced a number of emotions as the stories unfolded. My soul felt nourished and awakened to some deeper understanding of humanity, our humanness, and the range of our life experiences.

I was moved to learn more about the film maker and the making of the film in 2015. In doing so I found this moving quote from the artist:

I am a human being among seven billion others. For 40 years, I have photographed our planet and human diversity and I feel that Humankind has not moved forward. We cannot live together yet.

It is in their faces, in their gazes, in their words that I now see a strong way to plunge into the depth of the human soul. Each human interaction makes you move forward. Each life story is unique. By plunging into the experience of the Other, I felt the urge to understand.

And in the end, what is a human being today?

What is the meaning of human life?

Are our differences so great?

Don’t we share more values ​​than we think?

I felt the urge to ask all these questions, to speak about Humankind. A crazy, utopian bet. With my team, we started our quest with great humility and restraint. For two years we travelled across 50 countries, shot more than 2000 interviews... we travelled to meet with Others. There were those who talked and especially those who never talked before. Those who told their life stories for the first time.

By placing at the heart of the movie the evils of Humankind: poverty, war, migration, homophobia, I made choices. Committed, political ​​choices. People told me all sorts of things: from their difficulty to grow, to love, to happiness. It is all this wealth of human expression, which is the heart of 'HUMAN', and which resonates with the images of the beauty of the world.

This movie brings the voice of all men and women who told me their life story. It is has become their messenger. I made the movie I dreamt of, my greatest wish is the everyone takes hold of it in their own way, organize screenings and become Ambassadors for Living Together. Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Indeed, may we each live as an ‘ambassador for living together’ …

It IS Up to US!

Heart of the Labyrinth

You have three votes every day. Nick Chambers, Valley Roots Food Hub

Our choices are the guiding force for how life unfolds.

I think of Nick’s quote often. In my mind, we have vastly more than three. EVERY choice we make is a vote for something. In the fast pace of today’s world and the multitude of choices we face, I wonder whether we’ve lost connection with how important our ‘votes’ are. Perhaps more importantly, I wonder if we are willing to take seriously the power of our choices and make them wisely on behalf of ALL life.

As I settled in to write early this morning and the direction became clear, Muse, knowing my passion for the topic, gently suggested that I take care not to rant. I take heed of Muse’ message, especially in this intense time where the planetary energies are magnifying much of what is occurring in our world. I aim not to contribute to the chaotic energy, but rather to look deeply at what is being revealed with care and compassion on my own journey to live in alignment with all life. What do we need to reckon with? What do I?

In a world of distractions and complexities, it seems that collectively we’ve lost the awareness that our power to choose IS our personal power. And that our choices matter in the greater context of community, planet, and life.

Our choices are the guiding force for how life unfolds. Take a breath. Let that sink in for a moment. Our choices ARE the guiding force for how life unfolds. It IS up to us!

Paradoxically we crave freedom of choice while at the same time looking outside of ourselves to burdensome, self-interested systems (governments, institutions, corporations) to ‘solve the world’s problems’ and even our own. Even more (and with good reason) we have lost faith in those systems.

Though wobbly, old systems persist, and they continue to be the ones that receive the attention of mainstream media and dominant search engines. Alternative choices are often labelled as ‘dangerous’, ‘risky’, ‘misinformation’ and the like.

Just this week as I was researching alternatives to traditional veterinary medicine, I was warned about the dangers of a therapy that I’m quite certain extended the life of my dear canine Luke several years ago. While I’m sure that, like all interventions, this therapy has had negative consequences for some, my instinct now as it was then is to ‘vote’ for its use.

In one sense my vote is a vote to buck the system. To support an independent practitioner whose experience, knowledge, and heart I trust. In this case I’m blessed that our ‘traditional vet’ is supportive. I do the same with my own health, doing my best to vote for healthy, local, organic foods and work with independent practitioners whose values align with mine. And with other choices like where to bank (locally as much as possible), to invest (finding initiatives aligned with my values – locally where possible), to shop (local and directly with companies whose products I value – though, yes, I haven’t ditched Amazon – yet).

I’m reminded that my job is to be clear in purpose and intention. To act from a place of self-trust. And then to ‘let the chips fall where they may’. This is my aim in all the choices I make, the votes I cast daily. I understand that these votes matter, just as my vote does in every election. Not only does the choice itself matter, but my intention and spirit in which my ‘vote’ is cast…Muse says that’s a thread to weave another day.

In what area of life do your choices create angst? With new awareness what pivots are possible to align your choices with what you value?

Morning Light and Shadow in the Labyrinth

Pivot to Sanity

Ziggurat and Spring Storm on the Horizon - 4-25-23

Till the cloud weeps, how should the garden

     smile?

The weeping of the cloud and the burning of

     the sun

are the pillars of this world: twist these two

     strands together.

Since the searing heat of the sun and the

    moisture of the clouds

keep the world fresh and sweet,

keep the sun of your intelligence burning bright

and your eye glistening with tears. Rumi - Intelligence and Tears

As I moved toward dreamtime last night, I opened a book of Rumi wisdom. The verse above is where my eyes landed. My heart followed. I felt the paradox that rises often with opposites: bitter and sweet, joy and sorrow. Each holding truth, sanity, yet not all the truth, nor all the sanity.

 Earlier in the evening I watched a Charles Eisenstein talk titled The Next Five Years. As I listened, I felt a deep resonance as he wove together a myriad of thoughts and possibilities about the years ahead. While much of what he sees is not rosy, I found it calming in a strange way. Accuracy. Recognition. Truth.

 In leaning into the darkness of possibilities that seem inevitable, I discovered the sanity that lives beyond denial. I was reminded that the future is in our hands, in the choices we make day to day, in the stories we embrace each time we choose, whether that choice is conscious or not. What does this choice say about me? What am I supporting when I take this action or when I react in certain, less than stellar, ways? How do I sustain and maintain my awareness and my sanity? What new stories do I/will I embrace to call forth a new world?

 Rumi’s wisdom speaks to me of the sanity necessary for navigating the crumbling complexities of our current world and for co-creating a new world. I’m not pointing to the ‘sanity’ of our legal system that judges whether someone is ‘competent’ or to sanity in our culture’s terms where we’ve come to dehumanize and render those who are different as ‘crazy’ (or worse).

 Rather I’m pointing to the sanity that is wholeness.

 In wholeness is our capacity to experience the depths of sorrow and despair, acknowledging the truth, the pain, the errors at the roots of this despair AND to embrace the pure joy of beauty, of Nature, of the miracles that are Life. Indeed, the beauty in that very sorrow and despair.

 In wholeness is our capacity to see the nuggets of truth in all points of view, as well as to recognize and navigate in the paradoxes that life and truth offer.

 In wholeness we find our knowing that we are One. One with our planet. One with Nature. One with one another, each and every One.

 In wholeness is our capacity to co-create new stories, new agreements, new systems and structures, new ways of allowing what Life knows to guide us when we don’t yet clearly see the path ahead or even the next step to take.

 In wholeness is the recognition that everything we create is based on story: family, community, country, systems, health, money, politics, art, business, home, EveryThing.

 In wholeness is our recognition that our old stories of separation no longer serve because they are not the truth of who we are.

 In wholeness is letting go of our old stories so that the new may rise.

 In wholeness is sanity, embracing the story of your heart even (perhaps especially) when that story runs counter to the cultural stories that you may find yourself still swimming in.

What a Difference a Day Makes! 4-26-23

This New Moon Day - Attend to Intention

Mountain Morning Beauty This New Moon Day

Setting an intention is like drawing an arrow from the quiver of your heart. Bruce Black

Be mindful of intention. Intention is the seed that creates our future. Jack Kornfield

Our intention creates our reality. Wayne Dyer

I woke up this morning with a clear message this ‘blog day’: Attend to setting clear intentions for yourself on this powerful new moon/solar eclipse day! I was clear as well that this is the message to be shared in this week’s Pivot. Muse nods in agreement bowing to the power in you, in us all.

Ancient traditions recognized the new moon as a time of new beginnings, a tradition and practice that continues to this day. For many years I have recognized each new moon as a time for reaffirming intentions previously declared and for creating new ones, examining how I want to be in the world, my desires for self and others, how I want the world to be and my role in bringing forth that reality.

And so this day I invite you not to ‘take time’, ‘make time’, ‘spend time’ (old phrases long past their useful prime) but to give yourself the gift of attending to becoming clear about what you intend IN your life, FOR your life, for the environment that you inhabit (home, hearth, community), for our world, for humanity, for our planetary home.

Take stock not just of your desires and goals but of how you intend to BE in the world at this potent time of change.

Create intentions that will anchor you as the winds of change blow stronger. Intentions that will support you to BE the change you want to see in the world. Intentions grounded in love that will buffer you from the fear that some will try to perpetuate. Intentions from the ‘quiver of your heart’.

May the winds of change be guided with love as they cleanse and clear and open us to the new.

Light and Shadow in the Valley

A Step Toward Unity

Just for fun … What do YOU see?

Perhaps if we stopped setting ourselves enormous anxiety-producing quantitative goals and instead focused on building fewer but deeper relationships, across difference, we’d actually shift more hearts and minds. Charlie Wood (daily quote for 11 April from Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service)

For several months my community has been engaged (‘embroiled’ says Muse) in a debate over whether to incorporate as a town. It’s not a new question and has been looked at from time to time since the 1990’s. I’ve been reviewing that history and the various reports created to grasp the issue more deeply personally. I’m talking with folks on both ‘sides’.

I know from my experience in government early in my career and from serving on the board of the local water and sanitation district several years ago just how challenging governance is. I can imagine in the current climate of political discourse that it’s more difficult today. Indeed, many decline to serve because of this environment.

Self-governance which involves active participation from all community members presents even greater challenges.

When I read the above quote yesterday, familiar on one hand, a question that I’ve set aside for a while popped up and let me know that it wouldn’t go away: Where are you willing to engage with others across differences? Indeed, where am I willing to reach out to discover common ground rather than to simply seek information? What is possible when I hold this question with sincere curiosity?

On a day that finds me unexpectedly needing to be on the road, I take the question with me for my drive through the beautiful Colorado landscape and I invite you to muse with me: What’s possible in our world if we each take a step or two in this direction? What if our enormous quantitative goals shifted to building peace through qualitative relationships right in our own back (and front) yards?

Happy musing! I suspect there’s more to explore …