Breaking the Chain

A Colorado Blue Sky Afternoon - Blanca Peak in the Distance

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction ... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.  Martin Luther King

I’m guessing that, just as I have, you’ve spent some time (perhaps a little, perhaps a lot) reflecting on and reacting to the violence perpetrated in the U.S. Capitol on all of us (not just those who were doing our business in that sacred temple of democracy) one week ago. Although my reactions have run the gamut – rage, sadness, concern, disgust, gratitude (for those who serve and that what could have been a massacre was quelled before more were injured or killed) - I’ve aimed to maintain calm and a sense of being grounded.

The irony (or perhaps synchronicity?) that my topic last week was nonviolence (read it here) wasn’t lost on me even though last week the muse was focused on the violence in western medicine’s approach to health. The timing was a reminder that everything and everyone are a part of everything else. We are each one of the One. I am as much a part of the perpetrators as I am of the peacekeepers, of those who hate and those who love, of those who promote violence and those committed to breaking the chain of violence.

I am as much a part of those whose political views are diametrically opposed to mine as am of those with whom I agree. And, of those who believe that this life in this body is all there is as I am of those who believe that the body is but a vehicle that their soul uses to navigate and learn throughout the ages. I’m as much a part of western medicine as I am of eastern, natural, holistic approaches; of those who subscribe to so called ‘conspiracy theories’ and those who rely solely on what they hear on so called ‘mainstream media’.

Holding this as my truth along with my deep connection with nature are anchors that help me stay grounded (or return fairly quickly when I’m triggered) in what’s true for my soul. And, what’s true for our souls, indeed, all souls, is what matters in this infinite Universe where today’s events are but a blip on the endless timeline of the Universe.

It is time to break the chains of separation and competition that foment violence. It is time to discover and create new systems that nurture nonviolence. It is time to build our soul force individually and collectively. Throughout my reflections and my observations of events this week the words ‘condemn the action, not the person’ have consistently popped into my awareness. Perhaps this is one small step we can each take toward breaking the chains that bind us toward violence as we seek justice, peace and to build a world which recognizes the truth of who we are.

Winter’s Art

Adios 2020!

Even Cottonwood Creek is smiling as the promise of a new year edges closer.

As I begin to update what has become my annual ‘Auld Lang Syne’ final post of the year, the online countdown clock indicated that it’s 1 day, 10 hours, 14 minutes, 37 seconds until the new year is rung in here in the Colorado Rockies. But, hey, who’s counting?

Almost everyone is waiting with bated breath to bid adieu to the tumultuous year 2020 will be remembered for around the globe. We want to turn the page. We long to dive deeply into the fresh start that began with the Solstice promise of our personal newness and culminates as we replace our 2020 calendars with new pages of promise and possibility that the coming year has the potential to bring forth.

It is, as always, up to us – individually and collectively – to bring potential to fruition. As sure as the light is returning day by day, we will have opportunities to do just that in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

While the first year of this second decade of the 21st century held much tragedy and darkness, it also shined lights of love and in dark corners needing our attention and care.  May we each be a part of shining the light of love in all the days ahead.

As I reflect on saying ‘Goodbye’ and refrain from saying ‘good riddance’, my year end reflections first written at the end of 2016 seem as apropos today as they did four years ago.

 “Give up the last year. Get rid of all those things of the mundane world. Make room for the awareness of a whole new spiritual understanding that will carry you throughout the next year.” Gregge Tiffen (The Winter Solstice: Giving To Yourself, December 2007)

“… and when you have the willingness to accept who you are, you become aware of an internal flame that burns with a fire that is unquenchable. It’s your acceptance that dispels fears and inadequacies.”  Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: Sacred Passageways, December 2011)

As the calendar year winds to a close, we tend to look back on its joys, its sorrows, what we accomplished, where we may have fallen short. Hopefully our review list includes acknowledging all that we discovered about ourselves and learned from the opportunities and events that life presented.

As 2020 ends, many will breathe a sigh of relief that it is finally over along with a breath of hope for better days in the year ahead.  The world we live in is chaotic and uncertain. It is. Those who put attention on the world forgetting that it is the world we live IN, NOT the world we are OF may look ahead with dread.

That need not be. Within each of us is a seed of understanding who we truly are. Nurturing that seed grows our faith in our capacity to be resilient in the face of the world’s chaos.

This seed of faith is within us all. It is not faith in anything outside of us. Rather it is faith in who we are, each as an individual, integral part of an intelligent Universe. It is a reminder that life is so much more than we experience and observe in our daily routines.

As you ring in 2021,  I invite you to join me in nourishing your seed of faith in each of the 365  days ahead and to remember how important your presence is at this moment on the planet.

Perhaps this prayer, one of my favorites of Gregge Tiffen’s writing, will support you to deepen your faith in you and in understanding just how important you are in the Universal scheme of things. 

Let me never forget how important I am to the Universal Picture. Without me there would be a blank space where there should be color.

 Let me understand that the challenges of life are just that and not battles. I am not out there to win or to loose, only to develop my skills as an on-going student in an omnipotent school.

Let me understand that the difference between people is one of the wondrous realities of an infinite Universe. Giving those differences space to be is far more important than comparing them to my set of beliefs.

Let me be proud of what I do. To whatever my hand touches, let me remind myself that it was my effort that added to the result. Perfection is not my goal. Creativity is.

 Let me remind myself that most of what I take seriously about myself also qualifies for a good laugh. Let me remember to be kind to myself. Loving companions are one of life’s treats, but they are not responsible for my care. Self-kindness can heal almost any hurt.

 Let me take responsibility as a gift and not a burden. Within that effort is the grandest sense of accomplishment I could achieve.

 Let me be patient with life. Nature does not produce the flower before the roots have taken hold. If I recognize that the place I am in is the right place at the right time, it will always be the right place at the right time. Gregge Tiffen (The Significance of Beginning, January 2007)

A Colorado Blue Sky Day with Snowy Peaks - How Winter is meant to be!

Blessed Solstice 2020

Sunset on the Labyrinth in the Woods Out Back

Winter Solstice is the time when you give up what you have and accept what is being born as the new power within you, the new awareness within you and the new person within you. (Gregge Tiffen, December 2019 newsletter)

All of heaven and all of earth coordinate at the Winter Solstice. Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

I’ve been feeling the energy of the Solstice for several days. Monday’s New Moon felt especially powerful here in the snowy woods, almost as if it were the Solstice day.  I was called to walk the labyrinth in the early morning cold and again as the sun began to set across the valley. I’m walking it daily and taking long slow walks with Zadie Byrd in the afternoons. Mild weather of a week ago has given way to winter weather. Eight plus inches of snow over the weekend and another inch overnight Monday. The beauty and the quiet that snow brings are tonic for the tumultuous frenzy that the world seems to be spinning in. Grateful! I am THAT!

Winter Solstice is a time of natural transformation, newness that comes forth with or without our awareness. It is the time when our receptivity is heightened in consciousness. Is it any wonder that with fewer hours of daylight, we are drawn inside into our homes and into ourselves at this time of year?

Solstice is the birthday of the Planet. It was celebrated as such with reverence and respect in ancient times by our ancestors who lived in close harmony with the Planet’s rhythms.

Solstice is the time of completion and of new beginnings. The old cycle is done. We are presented with the opportunity to declare completion and move on with awareness of the seeds of newness planted inside. A new ‘you’ with its potential to bring wondrous change in the cycle ahead is ready. Are you willing to claim it?

In keeping with my understanding of ancient traditions, once again this year I will take time at Solstice to create a personal ‘silent night’, a time to harmonize my rhythms to those of Mother Earth. With love and gratitude I let go of everything from the year behind and acknowledge the seeds of newness inside. I invite you to create quiet time amidst the tensions of the world outside of you and the hustle and bustle of the season to do the same.

A good place to start is by harmonizing with nature. If you are blessed as I am to live in nature’s beauty, take a walk. Observe and honor the rhythms of nature, whether the slow steady growth of a tree or the daily cycles of ocean tides. This year the planets will offer quite a show as Jupiter and Saturn come together and appear as one bright star in the night sky on Solstice.  

If nature is not outside your door, then sit quietly and imagine your favorite peaceful place in nature. Feel yourself in that place and allow its rhythms to bring you the quiet peace of the season.

In that atmosphere embrace an attitude of gratefulness. Let go of everything that has come to you in the cycle ending. Empty and prepare space for the new. Let go of not only what doesn’t serve or suit you, of those things you consider ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’, but of everything: every attitude, your wants and desires, your fears, your hopes, your stories about the events of the year ending, the people in your life.

Finally, when you are ready (perhaps after only a few moments, perhaps a few hours), evoke the sound of newness with the declaration “I am new”.  Speak it boldly.  Be still and feel this newness. This is the place where heaven and earth come together in you, as you. The place where ‘heaven and nature sing’. The new you is ready to meet, greet and receive the gifts of the new cycle.  On this dark and silent night, let us sing with the angels and call forth love and light and peace. Then, in all the days ahead, let us BE the love, light, and peace that is our true nature.

May the blessings of your unique newness follow you into and throughout the year ahead!

A Protective Blanket of Fresh Snow Cradles Grasses and Seedlings and Mother Earth Herself

Living Life Beautifully

Signs of Winter on the Creek

The pain we feel for our world is a living testimony to our interconnectedness with it. If we deny this pain, we become like blocked and atrophied neurons, deprived of life's flow and weakening the larger body in which we take being. But if we let it move through us, we affirm our belonging; our collective awareness increases. We can open to the pain of the world in confidence that it can neither shatter nor isolate us, for we are not objects that can break. We are resilient patterns within a vaster web of knowing. Joanna Macy

As I prepare to bid this current cycle adieu (none to soon in the view of most) the quote above reminded me that pain is a part of living life beautifully. Macy also reminds us of this: We are resilient patterns within a vaster web of knowing. We are part of a unified field of being, each a field within fields … but I digress.

Because we tend to collapse pain with suffering (and who among wants to suffer?), all too often we deny our pain. Yet, as Macy suggests, pain is a doorway, a portal to recognizing the beauty of our interconnectedness, the unity of all life. We need not deny pain its place in order not to suffer. We need only embrace our pain and allow it to reveal its wisdom. Tears may flow. Joy is sure to follow.

As I reflected on the questions that emerged in last week’s post (click here if you missed it), I experienced a felt sense of having walked this earth before. Recently, I’ve been drawn to explore ancient civilizations and the startling discoveries rocking the world of archeology. Such unearthings are the nature of growth and change: new discoveries guide us to understand differently what we once thought of as ‘truth’.

A part of living life beautifully is opening to whatever pain new discovery may bring. Our pain is likely to include the discomfort of letting go of treasured understandings. We cling to the old at our peril. We suffer when doing so is our choice.

Although I am optimistic about the future, I hold no illusion that a new year, a new presidential administration, a vaccine will return us to the ‘normal’ that so many long for. That ‘normal’ was and is deeply flawed. Its social, economic, and environmental injustices were and are vastly out of sync with Universal law, not to mention common decency. Change we must, individually and collectively. That for me is living life beautifully.

My heart, indeed my whole being, aches for those who are facing health challenges, loss of the physical presence of loved ones, economic hardship, discrimination and other social injustices. I feel my connectedness with them, and I wonder what role I can play in bringing light to the darkness, healing to the pain. What do I need to change in me to be part of the healing, the growth, the love standing ready to be revealed?

And, my. heart, indeed my whole being, aches for our planet and the vast abuses our ‘normal’ has cast upon her. I know that my heart beats with Mother Earth. What do I need to change in me to be part of the healing, the growth, the love standing ready to be revealed?

Living life beautifully is living life aligned with our true nature, a nature that knows nothing of the ills that plague our culture. Finding our unique alignment is the key to unlocking a path to a world that works for all.

Still in Flow

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!

Vigilance From the Inside Out

Majestic Mountain Magic

If thou wilt be observant and vigilant, thou wilt see at every moment the response to thy action. Be observant if thou wouldst have a pure heart, for something is born to thee in consequence of every action.  Rumi

As I sat with the muse earlier this morning, I was thinking about a question I’ve been holding for some time:  what science are we to believe? There is after all enough conflicting scientific information, especially in the domain of health, to make one’s head spin and to foment individual and collective confusion.

Science isn’t my wheelhouse. Not even close. Looking at scientific data and reading articles replete with same is torture for me. Yet, I want to know and to understand alternatives so that I can make good choices. ‘Good choices’ being defines as choices that are right for me. I don’t subscribe to the notion that one size fits all. Not in terms of health, nutrition, or any set/subset of ideas and ideologies.  What is best/right/etc. for me may not be the same for you in science, in health, and, yes even in politics.

To be clear, there are facts. Yes, there are observable results. From them conclusions are reached that are then labelled ‘the truth’.  I’m old enough to remember that science was used to claim cigarette smoking was safe. Few would make that argument today.

All too often, it seems to me, that ‘truth’ has an agenda: to entice us to buy and consume, to convince us to go along with and accept conclusions to be part of the crowd. Something, be it a product or a candidate or an idea, is for sale. We are the target audience.

Frequently there are conflicting scientific facts, differing approaches and studies to the same question, and, sadly agendas that compete with one another. We hold warring views of what is in the common, public interest and how best to honor that.

Navigating this environment requires our vigilance: keen awareness of how we are being and what we are doing in the world. After all we are creating that world by our thoughts, our words, our deeds. The world, other people, nature, the planet herself are responding to us. We are responding (and reacting) to one another. Conflicts ‘out there’ reflect our inner conflicts.

The world as it is now will not hand us clear answers to the decisions and choices we will face in the days, weeks, months, and, possibly, years ahead. We will argue over ‘this’ and ‘that’/’us’ and ‘them’/’right’ and ‘wrong’ until we can embrace the pure-hearted truth that there is no ‘this’ and ‘that’. No ‘us’ or ‘them’. No ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.  There is but one unified field of which we are all a part.

Navigating that road and making choices along the way demands our vigilance step by step, moment by moment, day by day.  Navigating that road requires that we be clear about what we believe at the same time we are open and adaptable to other possibilities. Navigating that road requires both strength of our convictions and the nimbleness to adjust. Navigating that road invites us to know more deeply who we are and what our true purpose is at this moment in time on the planet.

Early Morning Moon in the Sangres

Patience and Rumi Wisdom for This Day

Labyrinth in the Morning Light

What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is your candle. Rumi 

These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them. Rumi

Before this day, the morning after election day here in the U.S., dawned I woke thinking about patience: the need to be patient as all votes are counted, the need to be patient with uncertainty, the need to be patient with myself and the swirls of thoughts and feelings, the need to be patient with each other … each and every ‘other’.

As I waited for the darkness outside to lighten so that I could venture out to walk the labyrinth in the woods outback, I was drawn to Rumi. What did he have to say about patience?

Patience is not sitting and waiting, it is foreseeing. It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose, looking at the night and seeing the day. Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full.

This day I find it difficult to see the ‘rose’ amid the thorn. Indeed, thorns seem to outnumber roses. I have no doubt that soon the sun will rise, but how will I light my day in what feels a dark time? How will I pivot to my deep knowing that the Universe is unfolding in divine perfect order, despite and interpretations I may have to the contrary?

I take my swirl to the labyrinth. Coyote, the wise jokester, howls in the distance. I chuckle wondering just what he may know that I haven’t yet discovered. I walk slowly toward the center, hand on my heavy heart, asking that heart to be open and to light the path ahead. Reaching the center, I thank the four directions, Mother Earth, the sky and all above. I begin the slow walk out, the heaviness of my load lightened just a bit.

Questions begin to form: How will I stay present to the perfection of this time and of however events unfold in the days ahead? How will I invite the darkness to inform me, to be my candle? What are the messages of the pain I feel? Of the pain I see in others? How will I remember to make choices from a loving heart and from understanding that this time is just a blip on the infinite timeline of existence? How do I live the truth that every blip matters to my/to our evolution, learning, and growth?

‘This’ time, these events, my swirls of thoughts and feelings matter. My sadness, my anger, my worry each matter. So do my love, my compassion and my patience. My curiosity matters. My care matters. My gratitude matters. My thoughtfulness matters. My questions about how to be and how to participate matter. Yours too. All our swirls of thoughts and feelings matter as does how we BE with them and what we DO in response to the world that we are in and the world that we are co-creating with each (and every) other and with Source.

I’m at peace with having more questions than answers in this moment. I don’t know how a collective pivot toward love (click here if you missed last week’s post) might unfold. I’m curious about how to create economic systems and systems of governance that work for all. I’m curious how I will navigate the coming days and beyond and what may emerge in this space in the weeks ahead. And, yes, I’m curious about who will win the Presidential election and how that result will be met with each of us.

Sunset on Election Day

Envisioning a Collective Pivot to Love

Snowy Morning in the Sangres

Everyone has their story – good and bad. We are all different. We are all the same.

One week from today will be the ‘morning after’ what feels like a monumental presidential election here in the U.S. We may or may not know the result when we wake from our slumber, if indeed we slumber at all. Yet, whether we know or not, we are unlikely to experience a huge sigh of relief that ‘it’ is over. (Yeah, that bums me out too.)

Although election day itself will be behind us, the acrimony and divisiveness will surely make their presence known. The divide may even be deeper. Each ‘side’ will stoke its core to react; some with fear and hate, others with love and care. Fingers of blame will be pointed. This is how political machines and pundits thrive. This is how the machines of war and weaponry get funded.

But this is not the way of nature nor the true way of human nature. My heart aches when I consider the very real possibility of massive violence in the streets stoked by fear of ‘the other’.

That same heart bursts with joy at the possibilities that lie within and beyond a pivot to non-violence, to understanding, cooperation and to peace. Science is discovering more and more that this is the nature of we humans. That we each are an integral part of a whole, cells in the body of life on this planet, and, perhaps, beyond. May we come to know more deeply that everyone has their story – good and bad. We are all different. We are all the same.

No path forward from where we find ourselves today will likely be an easy one. We have much work to do starting with an honest look at our own habits of separation. Collectively, we need to review history and somehow make amends for the crimes of our ancestors. From our sincere efforts a framework for living fully into the truth that we all were, are, and will forever be created equal. Everyone has their story – good and bad. We are all different. We are all the same.

It will not be easy to bid adieu to the structures and forms that have never served this higher truth. Like all creative acts the process will be messy, chaotic and require courage and commitment. Our ‘willingness to change’ muscles are sure to be tested and strengthened in the process. Then, beyond the chaos and messiness, a new world, one that works for all, can emerge. Like our precious Mother Earth, she will require diligent nurturing and care for generations to come. We can do this!

We are built for this time, this change and for the sake of humanity and the planet, pivot we must. By our thoughts, our words, and our deeds we are each creating the present moment and each moment beyond. May we think, speak, and act from open-hearted love for self, for humanity, and for the planet.

Frozen Morning Landscape

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 …