Dear friends,
Hold steady.
Dear friends,
Keep breathing.
What are the words
For this moment?
How do we do this?
Dear friends,
We just do it.
One step at a time,
That’s all life
Asks of us.
Dear friends,
Hold steady.
Dear friends,
Keep breathing.
Right here
And right now,
Let us live.
Dear friends
Hold steady.
Dear friends,
Keep breathing.
We know how
To do this.
We notice,
We practice.
Dear friends,
Hold steady.
Dear friends
Keep breathing.
Invite joy,
Pleasure,
Connection.
Dear friends
Hold steady.
Dear friends,
Keep breathing.
Outside circumstances
Do not validate us.
We are equipped
And we
Are
Able
To find our way forward.
And whatever happens
Out there…..
In here,
We
Are
Safe
And
Whole.
Dear friends,
Hold steady,
Dear friends,
Keep breathing
~~~
Brought Back by Popular Demand
(Not really, I am spreading disinformation again…..)
ANOTHER VOTING OPPORTUNITY
Suggestions for Pathways to Probable and Potential Post-Election-Almost-Equanimity:
- Get outside!
- Breathe air.
- Move your body.
- Pray and pray some more.
- Release your attachment to the outcome of your prayers.
- Rest and nap and cuddle with consenting animals.
- Manage your intake of news.
- Savor really bad movies.
- Rake, oh, do yoga, rake some more.
- Dance with yourself, consenting or non-consenting animals, and/or with another.
- Dance with strangers. Just wear your mask. (ya think?)
- Indulge your intake of streaming, surely life’s best invention.
- Be oh, so kind to yourself.
- Hold gentle riverbanks of care with such love for your human, human self.
- Take care of yourself.
- Be there for another.
- Eat as well as you can, without meanness.
- Be gentle and softly strong with self-care.
- Proclaim on your lips and with every beat of your heart:
COUNT EVERY VOTE
so that the wind carries it
the birds repeat it,
and the heavens open to our righteous request.
- Count every vote.
- Count Every Vote.
- COUNT EVERY VOTE.
And if you choose, please do vote for your favorite/and/or/most effective mode of seeking equanimity in the middle of This Time. Feel free to add your own suggestions. YES, send them into me!!
Results of this election, at least THIS election, will be released with next Sunday’s blog.
~~~
Dear friends,
Hold steady.
Do whatever you need
To do
To find your way.
~~~
How have I found inspiration, wise hope, and patience? Here are a few of my supports this wacky and wild week:
Valarie Kaur is an American activist, documentary filmmaker, lawyer, educator, and faith leader. Her words woke me up a bit, clarified, allowed, helped. What do these words mean to you? Where do they touch you?
“Not now, but soon, it will be time to lift our gaze to those who voted against us — our neighbors, our co-workers, our family members, and when we wonder about them, we can begin that work of understanding them, and show them that they too have a place in the nation that we are building, a nation where everyone belongs, even those who don’t want us to belong.
For now, let us hold fast to each other and to the vision of a nation that the promise of democracy inspires. A nation in which we strive to protect the dignity and the wellness and the safety of all. It is the America longing to be born.”
~~~
And to soothe our hearts, this oldie-but-goodie from Kander and Ebb:
~~~
And, if we ever forget that spirituality and Grace and God are a part of social action and our human response, here is Roshi Joan Halifax from the Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico, at a Greenpeace demonstration. I have been gazing and gazing at this picture. She so helps me. Bigger than political parties, there is Something running the show. Roshi Joan reminds me of that:
~~~
Dear Friends,
Take care of yourself.
Be there for another.
Ride the waves of your feelings.
We can do this.
Life is asking us to do this,
Exactly this.
This one moment,
Exactly—this moment.
Breathe and relax and take good care—
The world needs you to be
Exactly
Who
You
Are.
All blessings,
Aruni
~~~
ANNOUNCEMENTS
YEP, Wisdom Circle—please join us. It’s a wondrous time to see others without having to change them—to see and be seen—to hear and be heard. Join us on Thursday, November 12, @ 2:00.