The Fabric of Nonviolence

Nature’s Art: The Beauty of Fresh Snow

To bring about peace in the world, to stop all wars, there must be a revolution in the individual, in you and me. What will bring peace is inward transformation which will lead to outward action. There can be right action only when there is right thinking and there is no right thinking when there is no self-knowledge. Without knowing yourself, there is no peace. Jiddu Krishnamurti (Daily Inspiration for February 2, 2021 from Pace e Bene - Campaign Nonviolence)

Perhaps this is what is so difficult about creating a culture of nonviolence: ultimately it is up to each of us, to our personal commitment to create peace within so that the threads we weave in our lives are threads of nonviolence. That concept is what drew me into my commitment to explore nonviolence each day during the 64 days of the Season for Nonviolence, honoring the legacies of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. https://gandhiinstitute.org/season-for-nonviolence/

While the themes for some days inspire me more than others, I recognize each as an important thread in the fabric of a nonviolent culture. This past week, I made the decision to watch much of the impeachment trial live. I revisited the shock, disbelief, and sadness I felt when violence broke out that fateful Wednesday just as I finished my weekly post. I wanted to witness the proceedings rather than rely on some reporter’s summary. I was curious and I felt a sense of civic duty to engage in that way.

In the wake of the trial, I began to question our system of justice and how it may discourage, even act as a block, to nonviolence. What threads might that system, indeed each of our public systems and structures, contribute to building a culture of nonviolence? What threads need to be dropped? These bigger, systemic question provided a backdrop for my personal musing on each day’s theme.

Today (day 19) the theme, acceptance, offers the opportunity to reflect on that which we find difficult to accept both in ourselves and others. I wonder how I might go beyond my judgements and resistance to fully accept the true essence of others, especially those whose words and deeds I experience as offensive or wrong.

I consider this as I look at the decisions and actions of political leaders and activists on all ‘sides’ as well as when I encounter a disheartening post on social media, especially those written by people I know. How do I/we accept ‘what is’ while holding the possibility for change as well as advocating and participating in bringing change about? Isn’t this what a commitment to nonviolence asks of us?

Other threads likewise offered points of reflection, questions to explore within. Reverence (day 15) brought me to a question that I’ve mused before: how can I deepen my reverence for ALL life? What do I most deeply revere? What is sacred? I began to imagine a world where we speak and act from this place.

Creativity (day 13) reminded to be aware of my ways of being, my thoughts, words, and deeds. What am I creating with them? Humility (day 14) and Gratitude (day 16) offered opportunities to reflect on my willingness to acknowledge when I err, to be humble in the face of life’s opportunities (often disguised as problems and challenges) AND to be grateful for those circumstances and people who offer up such opportunities.

Freedom (day 18) had me continuing a long-held question about the true source and nature of freedom. On day 17, integrity offered up the opportunity to explore how to live more fully aligned with my heart, what it knows to be true and its desires for the future I want to contribute to.

These seven threads, the 12 before and the 45 that remain are points of exploration and possibility for imagining a world where I/we speak and act to weave a culture of peace. May our weaving continue!

Nature Highlights Art

Digging Deep

Morning Fog Over Blanca Peak

In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity. Albert Einstein

The sun will come up tomorrow … This song from Annie popped into my head this morning immediately following the fortunately fleeting and rather silly thought: Stop the World, I Want to Get Off. (Perhaps there’s something about movies I need to pay attention to …)

I don’t, of course, want to ‘stop the world’ and ‘get off’ despite this time of turmoil and angst. For that angst and turmoil is ripe with opportunities to learn and to grow, to dig deep inside, into your core to discover more of who you are and who you are uniquely designed to be.

Being ripe with opportunity is the nature of crisis. Our task is to choose to feast on the ripe fruit of what is at hand and discover points of learning, points of pivot. Crisis demands adaptability: a willingness to change. Do what you must to navigate, to survive, to thrive. In no way does embracing opportunity minimize or, as some might suggest, deny hardship or despair: the very issues of survival that are faced each day across the globe. Opportunity invites us to embrace challenges as our teachers. As surely as those who stand before us to share what they know, life’s events have within them the potential for learning knowledge that becomes wisdom. That wisdom we carry forward in our BEing FOREVER.

The knowledge that becomes wisdom does not cease to exist when this physical body takes its last breath. That wisdom lives on in consciousness, that part of our BEing that is infinite.

As surely as this is true, then we must have within us and available to us, the knowledge and wisdom of our past. Pause, let that sink in. Each of us know more than we are aware that we know.

We, you and me and all who are walking this earth, were made for this time. Perhaps we have faced crises, turmoil, or upheaval akin to today’s life conditions.

As I reflected on this idea, I began to wonder and ask: what about today’s world feels familiar? What do I KNOW that will support me in navigating this time? What pivots do I need to make to honor and align with my wisdom?

What about you? In the deep quiet of introspection, meditation, dreamtime, or walking in nature I invite you to join me in beginning to ask and discover:

·        What inklings of familiarity do I have about this time?

·        What does my heart KNOW that will guide me?

·        What hunches have I ignored that I need to pay attention to?

·        What pivots do I need to make for the sake of my learning, growing, and Being all of who I came here to be?

Notice what arises as you simply take the bold step into curiosity. Let’s see what this wild and crazy life has to offer as we wind down the current cycle and prepare to usher in a new one that will dawn very soon.

The Sun is definitely shining on the Ziggurat this beautiful morn!

Fertile Ground

Past their peak, but there is still much beauty in this aspen grove.

What we need is not another doctrine, but an awakening that can restore our spiritual strength. What made Mahatma Gandhi's struggle a great success was not a doctrine—not even the doctrine of nonviolence—but Gandhi himself, his way of being. A lot is written today about the doctrine of nonviolence and people everywhere are trying to apply it. But they cannot rediscover the vitality that Gandhi had, because the ‘Gandhians’ do not possess Gandhi's spiritual strength. They have faith in his doctrine but cannot set into motion a movement of great solidarity because none of them possess the spiritual force of a Gandhi and therefore cannot produce sufficient compassion and sacrifice. Thich Nhat Hahn

In the midst of the muse reflecting on the insights and inspirations which have crossed my path this week I was looking to discover if there is a common thread or theme. Then, life popped in unexpectedly.

It has been my practice for most of the 370+ weeks to ignore all incoming calls, emails, etc. Wednesday mornings are devoted exclusively to musing and discovering what wants to be shared in this week’s post. Today I needed to break from that pattern to handle a time sensitive issue regarding my cousin’s estate.

The issue addressed (at least for a bit), I gently returned to the muse and the message.  Noticing the broad scope of ideas and events that sprouted to take root in my attention this week, the phrase ‘fertile ground’ came to mind. I was aware of all that screamed for attention that I mostly gently (and sometimes not) turned away. What about my fertile ground guides me to make those choices?

I’m aware of and embrace the idea that deep change is underway individually and collectively for humanity and throughout all of nature and our precious home, Mother Earth. (Beyond this earth, I suspect that the same is true – but that is perhaps a muse for another day … As Above, So Below … As Below, So Above …). What about my fertile ground has me see life in this way and to be curious about the thresholds that are before me/us in the days, weeks, years ahead?

From what fertile ground does my conviction that how we choose to BE as we walk through this change is, moment to moment, determining how that change will be? What cultivated my deep knowing that ‘by our thoughts, our feelings, our beliefs and our actions we are co-creating our life, our future – individually and collectively’?

I think that somewhere along this 70-year path of my life, I embraced building my spiritual strength (you wondered, didn’t you, what the heck the quote had to do with this muse?).  Decades ago, weary after years of political activism and hard driving in my profession, I was exhausted and fearful that I couldn’t keep up (whatever the heck that meant at the time). A seed of metaphysical curiosity sprouted as I took time off to figure out what to do with my life.

I’ve nurtured that ground (not always consistently) since it sprouted. I’d like to think that I have some measure of spiritual strength as a result. As I choose how to navigate and BE in the changes upon us, I aim to make choices from a place of spiritual knowing rather than from some prescribed doctrine (religious, political, etc.). That is the fertile ground on which I stand from which the seeds of my expression flow. That is the ground I choose to nurture and grow.

What about you? What is your fertile ground? What is your state of being in the world? What attention is needed so that you can meet the thresholds before you with strength, conviction and with love?

A Quiet Hike in Nature’s Beauty

Courage for Our Time

A Visual Feast Every Day

It takes more courage to dig deep in the dark corners of your own soul and the back alleys of your society than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield. William Butler Yeats (Oct 13, 2020 - This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey from Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service)

When I read this quote it seemed to both echo and expand last week’s musing about true power. It reflects much of what we are witnessing in the collective move to look more deeply at history and understand the dark side of our so-called progress. To do so requires courage, especially in the face of resistance, sometimes armed and violent.

Likewise, it reflects the personal courage that I’m discovering I need to look in the ‘dark corners’ of my lifestyle and habits of consumption where their true cost is revealed.  It takes courage to dare wonder about the cost of my choices and to ask who is paying the price of my choices.

These are the kinds of questions that present themselves as I explore the territory of greater awareness in spending and investing choices searching for avenues that are more fully aligned with what I claim are my values. And, wondering if I have the courage of those convictions.

Such musings seem magnified this week in the great divide between those who would celebrate the colonization of the Americas symbolized by Columbus Day here in the U.S. in contrast to the messages from indigenous people (who continue to pay the price) calling upon humanity to awaken to the consequences not just to their cultures but the very planet that we all share.

It takes courage to read and to think deeply about Nemonte Nenquimo’s message to the western world (click here).

It takes courage to listen to 2018 presentation (click here) that Nenquimo and other indigenous leaders made at the Bioneers conference and then to think deeply and do more than sign petitions.

I know this, because I am questioning how deep my courage runs to be better informed, to reflect AND then to ACT upon these and other issues of our time. I pray that it is deep enough and that I might earnestly adopt the words and spirit of a prayer that came my way this week.

It is said to be the Dalai Lama’s morning prayer, written by Shantideva, a Buddhist monk of the Mahayana tradition who lived around 700 AD. He was a devoted practitioner who authored the Bodhicaryavatara or Bodhisattva Way of Life. Thanks to Nick Polizzi and the folks at The Sacred Science for this uplift to my week!

Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity

"May I be a guard for those who need protection

A guide for those on the path

A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood

May I be a lamp in the darkness

A resting place for the weary

A healing medicine for all who are sick

A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles

And for the boundless multitudes of living beings

May I bring sustenance and awakening

Enduring like the earth and sky

Until all beings are freed from sorrow

And all are awakened."

… Enduring Like Earth and Sky …

Power and Possibility

Hints of Autumn on a Hazy Day in the Sangres

Power over is not true power nor is power over a lasting condition. Real, lasting power is the power within.

These words came this morning as I engaged the muse, reflecting and stirring the pot of this week’s soup curious about what would emerge. I’ve felt the world try to pull me into its power struggle. Through my revolving door a wide range of emotions paid me visits.

Dancing the dance of ‘staying informed’ I watched a bit of news and the documentary the social dilemma (find it here). I listened to Shelly Acorn’s talk on the emergence of fascism  (click here) offered by Humanity Rising’s Global Solutions Summit (info here).

I felt the heaviness of the world while recognizing that ignoring current conditions was not a wise option. Seeking to restore my sense of balance and being grounded, I stepped away. Zadie Byrd and I walked. I walked the labyrinth. I took in the beautiful evidence of the changing season just up the road and on the vast expanse of the steep slopes of the Sangres. I watched a squirrel playing, magpies flitting and listened to jays squawking in the woods.

I let the tears welling inside flow forth.

I wept for the pain of the world, for the planet, for humanity. I wept for those who are suffering illness, fires, hunger, oppression, fear and so much more. I wept for our sleepiness, the lack of awareness on which the world’s agenda thrives. I wept for the gap between the world that could be and the world as it seems. And, I shed tears of personal grief, missing my dear cousin’s physical presence.

In the pause that followed, I began to remember that change necessitates letting go …

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. Arundhati Roy

I saw power (true, lasting power) and possibility dancing together. I saw humanity rising to meet the challenges and opportunities of a crumbling world. Step by step. Minute by minute. Day to day. Person to person. I remembered my deep knowing that the Universe in its infinite wisdom offers a bigger stage on which to dance than the petty power struggles which capture headlines. I remembered that we are on this planet to learn from the events before us. I remembered Gregge Tiffen’s wise words:

We are constantly in a situation of applying the condition of re-adjustment. Our Earth is one of the most difficult laboratories in the vast Universe because of the utilization of three levels of energy. We know them as physical, mental, and spiritual. Gregge Tiffen (The Journey Continues: Mysterious Investigations – October 2010)

Let us know beyond a shadow of doubt, that Power over is not true power nor is power over a lasting condition. Real, lasting power is the power within. Let us embrace that change is upon us, a new world is not only possible she is birthing as we speak. Let us hear the peaceful breathing of a new day by standing tall in our personal power and guiding that change to unfold a world that works for all. Let us dance the dance of bringing light to the darkness.

A Pause in the Afternoon Glory of Autumn

Paradox, Discernment & Wisdom

Hints of Fall on a Beautiful Morning in the Sanges

We are being asked to discover what we think are our limits and to move beyond them, understanding our limitlessness.

One of the limits I experience in myself and I observe is rampant in our culture is the need to know, to be certain. We want guarantees that things are (or will be) this way or that before we allow those things (events, situations, people, products, etc.) to emerge and evolve. Although we might discount, even laugh, at the idea of seeing the future in a crystal ball, we would sure like to peek and to know.

We would like someone to tell us the ‘facts’, the ‘truth’ (the whole truth and nothing but …) about important matters in our daily lives. Take Covid-19 as one example among many. We want the facts, without contradictions and politicizing. Then we could easily choose what actions to take to maintain our health.

What we have instead in this era of competition is controversy, conflict, confusion, and chaos mixed with finger-pointing, blame, and (most destructive of all) fear mongering.

We are asked to choose sides as our health becomes a political football with elections to be won as more important than lives to be saved or personal freedom to be restored (yes, I said restored, not protected – but that’s a topic for another day).

We are told what someone ‘out there’ thinks we want to hear. Never mind that the message was totally different to another audience yesterday. And, that it will change yet again tomorrow. But, hey, who cares? Babel is the name of this frenzied game.

But Covid-19 and, indeed, most of the important matters in our lives are not so simple. There is no one size fits all approach to any of these concerns. There is no one set of cast in stone facts that are ‘THE facts’. We are being asked to discover what we think are our limits and to move beyond them, understanding our limitlessness.

Thus, it is up to us, individually and collectively, to examine the often paradoxical and contradictory information – both facts and opinions – and discern the best answer for us. To do so requires a commitment and vigilant practice to strengthen our discernment muscle (yes, you have one, even if it is a bit atrophied!).

We do so by turning off/tuning out the noise of the world.  We take time to sit and bask in the peace and quiet of the absence of that noise. Finally, we tune in to the quiet of our mind, our heart, our body, our nature. We invite the quiet to break its silence and speak gently to the core of our being. We allow its gentle nudging to stir up what we already know and to blend that with the new. We discern.

In the quiet, as we release our addiction to knowing, we come to know ourselves. We discover what is true for us. As we follow our truth, we honor that our knowing, our truth may not hold true for others. In the quiet, we come to understand that the source of deep knowing is not ‘out there’.

In the quiet, we build our capacity to accept the paradoxes and contractions of the world’s ways. We begin to discern from the inside out rather than relying on others to discern for us. Our wisdom builds. And, from that wisdom, we glimpse our limitless nature.  

Indeed! It IS a Beautiful Morning!

Nature's Extremes

SNOW - September 9, 2020

You are to live here with a sense of the planet and you as a vital unit because, in effect, you are that vitality. Nature will not sit back and allow you to set it aside like a poor relation with you living in isolation from it. Pay Attention! … Your body is nature, and nature is you. Your consciousness is the Universe, and the Universe is you. There is no separation between nature and you. Gregge Tiffen (The Language of a Mystic: Completion – September 2009)

Zadie Byrd and I have been back home in the mountains for six days. Weather records have been broken on four of those days. On two days record high temperatures were recorded. Yesterday nine records were broken here: low temperature, lowest high temperature, most snow, earliest snow and more. A note on our local weather website, indicated that as of 3 a.m. today, two records had already been broken.

Extreme? Yes. Extreme change? Most certainly.

I look out on the eight or so inches of snow that fell overnight recalling that in the pre-dawn hours just yesterday I wrote in my journal Life is not ‘me and nature’ or ‘nature and I’. Rather nature is ‘we’ in this cycle of life. I am Nature. Nature is me. Yesterday, I was reflecting on the changing season and on how I the darkness and deep quiet of winter call me to rest deeply as nature rests.

Today I’m aware that underneath the snow, leaves on the trees are still green. Summer is barely beginning to give way to autumn. And yet, the landscape is a winter wonderland. What is nature saying? What does she want us to ‘pay attention’ to?

What I’m witnessing here at home is not an isolated weather event. Extreme weather in multiple forms is responsible for vast devastation and suffering all over the globe. What is nature saying? What does she want us to ‘pay attention’ to?

Could it be that she is reflecting the extremes in our own thoughts, our words, our deeds? Is she inviting us to look anew at our fractured culture and our reactions to one another, especially those who are different from us? Is she saying ‘Enough ready! I’m mad as hell and I can’t take it anymore’?

She is wise our Mother, our Nature. Is she calling for us to fall in love with her, recognizing that as we do so we are loving ourselves and reconnecting to the deep knowing we share about the oneness of all life?

Is She reminding us that every thought we think matters in the grand plan of life? Is she inviting us to awaken to the reality that each choice we make and every action we take contributes to, indeed determines, the quality of nature, her health, her vitality, AND to ours, collectively and individually in the whole that is Nature?

In how we see, reflect, and respond to today’s extremes, both natural and man-made, we are co-creating the future. May we see with clarity. May we reflect with deep awareness. May we respond with love. For surely those – clarity, awareness, and love – can bring some balance to the extremes.

We Are HOME!

Cycles

WSU Museum of Art Staff Loving Pack One of Many Art Pieces Donated to the Museum. Zadie Byrd ‘Supervises’

Stress is produced when you try to regulate productivity based on manmade time. … You lose your creative drive when you are under pressure. … Do what comes to you in sequential order, or the situation becomes a demand, and once there is a demand, there is stress. Gregge Tiffen – The Language of a Mystic: Cycles (August 2009)

As the cycle of being in my cousin’s home and executing her last wishes begins to come to a close, I’m noticing that I’ve used the above words of wisdom from Gregge Tiffen, consciously and unconsciously, throughout my time here. What could have been a quite stressful experience has been relatively stress-free.

That said, I’ve experienced the stress of deadlines – most self-imposed. In unconscious moments of rushing, I’ve begun to catch myself. Noticing that I created the demand. Recognizing that I can operate differently. Recognizing cycles rather than time. Step by step as each presented itself for attention.

Although many things have required scheduling, approaching them sequentially and thoughtfully, and being flexible has eased what could have been many stressful days.

I noticed there’s some magic in this approach. For instance, help packing appeared from an unexpected source just when I needed it most.  Looking in the basement for some antique items, a local friend in need of a freezer found just what she needed, along with some useful antique boxes. I suspect that had I been operating on a rigid schedule I wouldn’t have experienced this and other ‘magic’.

When stress creeps (or roars) in uninvited, take a step back and notice what demands are present. What can you shift to ease the pressure?

Mother Nature’s Art Stays in Place

Living in YOUR Rhythm

Home Sweet (Away from) Home

Conditions become chaotic when you are not in a position to manage the harmonics of your core energy to create. Gregge Tiffen (The Journey Continues: Time Travels – July 2010)

I’m reminded of this Gregge Tiffen wisdom as I look out at the multi-faceted chaos in our world. And, as I walk through current events in my life.

Maintaining order is an inside job. Peace within creates peace and order as we walk through the events presented to us on our path. Managing personal energy by living in your unique rhythm is key.

While others can support us on our walk and may even help discover our rhythm, the responsibility is ours alone to manage our energy whatever the conditions, whatever the event. When we move through life in our unique rhythm – our pace, our style, our ways of being – we can experience life in its glorious flow.

Your rhythm is unique to you. It is the beat of the drum to which you naturally and easily respond. It knows no stress, no overwhelm. There is no right or wrong. Simply there is your rhythm, your tempo – YOUR way of life. When we operate in our unique rhythm we experience harmony in body, mind, and spirit. Life flows.

We find our individual rhythm by experimentation and discovery, listening for our beat, noticing when life flows easily even in challenging times. When that is our experience, we are living in our rhythm. Notice it. Nurture it. Allow it to speak and inform. Notice times when you feel stressed, overwhelmed, or that conditions are in control. These are clues that you are not living in your rhythm.

I’m particularly aware of this as I handle the estate of my dear cousin who died unexpectedly three weeks ago. Her passing necessitated a road trip across five states and 1200 miles. It finds Zadie Byrd and me away from home for an extended time, finding our rhythm in a new environment with new challenges, new opportunities, and more interaction than in our quiet Crestone life. Adjusting, while not allowing events and conditions to overwhelm.

As I began preparing for the journey, I promised myself that I would stay in my rhythm and practice extreme self-care throughout. ‘No rush.’ ‘Everything in its time.’ ‘Allow – don’t push (and don’t be pushed).’ These are my daily mantras. They help me live in my rhythm in this new territory with its rich opportunities for learning. They remind to adjust when stress or chaos creep in.

More than ever, I’m reminded that I/we are not the chaos in the world.  Rather, I am/we are each here to walk through, to navigate, to learn to live in our rhythm, whatever that is, in ways that maintain our peace within. No matter what.

Nourished by Art and Nature

Discovering and Creating The Ways Between

There’s always a Way Between … Think about it until you see it clearly. Shulen, the Old Warrior challenging his apprentice Ari Ara (Not This, Not That), a young orphan girl, in Rivera Sun’s novel, The Way Between. https://www.riverasun.com/

The Way Between must have been with me early one morning a few days before the Summer Solstice when this flow of words landed on the journal page in front of me.

I love being awake to watch the day dawn.

Dark mountain against the lightening sky.

First sounds of life

Winged beings flit about

Singing, not quite – testing their voice in preparation to

Greet the Day.

Hummingbird buzzes.

And, yet these woods are oh so quiet in their waking.

Gentle

in the cool morning air,

reminding me

Gentleness is the way – MY way.

Gentle with self.

Gentle with others.

Ah, ‘others’ …

Solstice Sunrise in the Woods Out Back

That particular morning I was thinking about creatures that we label as ‘pests’ – ants, mice, mosquitoes (it’s THAT season here in the mountains) - and, how often I mindlessly swat a ‘skeeter’ or squash an ant that, perhaps with at least equal mindlessness, has dared to crawl on my arm while I’m engaging in a Feldenkrais lesson. I think about this as I observe myself and others in our relationships and our conflicts with one another. I think about it in relation to working with my canine companion, Zadie Byrd, when I become frustrated or confused. I know that there are better ways.

Discovering and creating those ways, then practicing and following them with conviction and commitment is a sure path to creating a more peaceful and just world. This, my heart knows. These better ways? Most start with listening – listening to others, to nature, to self, listening within.

Shulen’s quote above is from a scene where he has told his apprentice in Azar, The Way Between, to put an end to the bullying she has been subjected to by another orphan. She is challenged to not fight (she’s committed to peace and, besides, she’d likely loose) or flee (report the perpetrator to the Head Monk at the orphanage). She must find The Way Between for this situation.

She does so, first by connecting to and acknowledging the boy’s pain and by listening to his angry, heart wrenching story. Then,

The moment opened like a door. Ari Ara saw his leap coming in slow motion. She stepped through the possibilities between fighting or fleeing and entered The Way Between. As Brol sprang at her, Ari Ara turned his momentum in midair. Softly as a snowflake in Shulen’s hand, she leveraged his flying weight into a flip and brought his body to the ground. ‘It ends here, Brol,’ she warned him in a low voice as his shocked eyes stared up at her. She held his gaze for a moment, until she saw something shift in his face. Then she stepped back and strode out of the monastery without another word. Rivera Sun, The Way Between

Ari Ara came to this strength and capability, not in a moment of sheer luck, but with months of study and training, of trials and tribulations. (Get the book, read the story, be inspired).

My own dive into exploring nonviolence and peace this summer is deepening my understanding that peace and nonviolence won’t happen ‘out there’ in our chaotic, violent world until we each create peace within and craft our lives and our systems from that place, from finding and creating The Way Between in our thoughts, words, and deeds. Listening. That is the opportunity, perhaps the necessity, of this time.

Acts and approaches that exemplify The Way Between abound in our world, often are ignored by a media seemingly trapped by the dark aura of violence and chaos. We are steeped in this culture by our language (think ‘war on poverty’); by products designed to rid us of pests of all kinds; by books, movies, games, cartoons and more. Activism can be as simple as unplugging from the systems and products that brought us to this place: being more mindful of what and from whom we purchase goods and services, and where we invest our time and our money.

I’m imagining a world where we relate, create, and make choices from The Way Between: a just and caring economic system, love for our precious planet, wellness and health systems that honor the body’s intelligence …

These are the pivots inviting us forward. What are you imagining? What are you wanting and willing to create?

Sunset - Day is Done, Rest for the Days Ahead