Shall We Overcome?

A New Family Emerges….

I take pride in my counter-culture, child-of-the-‘60’s history. Truthfully, that’s not a fully accurate self-assessment. In the late 1960’s I was a nice Jewish girl in college, not dropping acid in Haight Ashbury, where I thought I should be.

On my college campus, I was busy discovering the world of marijuana, attending my Shakespeare classes stoned (in order to get the most out of it, so I thought), and bearing the weekend, non-negotiable fraternity parties. I wanted to go home with my sorority sister, Murph, not deal with the khaki-pants-frat boys. I couldn’t allow myself to know this—wanting Murph, or Audrey Hepburn, or Mary Travers of Peter and Paul—my true loves—all was a secret, a creeping secret festering inside of me.

What solution did I carve with my astute and mature counter-culture consciousness? To go for the creepiest guys at the frat party, then attach myself to one of them as a cover, drink as much of the grain alcohol being served as possible, keeping the guy at bay but dancing wildly around, pantomiming fun, and getting out of there as early as possible. Then I could smoke another joint in my car driving home, landing in my bed in the sorority house listening to Soft Parade by the Doors on my stereo. Of course, to get the most out of it.

A theme emerges.

But somehow, somehow, I knew that Good would Win.

Somehow, somehow, I knew that Truth would Prevail.

Somehow, somehow, I knew that the Goodness of People would overcome.

I believed the songs, we shall, we shall overcome. I went to protest marches, I tried to levitate the Pentagon (yes, that was a Thing, October 1967.)

The Vietnam War appalled me.

Horrified me.

Sickened me.

I joined the Peace Corps after college.

Of course I did.

I worked in an inner-city high school for 18 years.

Of course I did.

Oh. Yes. I joined an ashram.

Left my teaching job in Newark,

(Freaking out my dear, dear father),

Seeking Truth,

Seeking Goodness.

Somehow. Somehow, I knew Goodness would win.

And now it’s now.

~~~

Doctor King teaches us about “the arc of the moral universe (being) long, but it bends toward justice.”

I think about this truth, especially in the middle of the night. But the changes in our culture, the dismantling of our government, the denial of science, the unraveling of our liberties, the cult of the billionaires—all ring loud in my ears at 2:15 a.m., with dawn such a long, long time away.

I feel my 60’s heart closing down.

I hear the volume of my cynicism increasing.

I see the absurdities of the cultural and governmental breakdowns unimaginable,

Yet happening.

Yet, happening.

So, I want to dedicate this blog to the kids from the PS22 Choir.

~~~

PS22 Chorus is a world-famous public elementary school choir from Staten Island, New York. Since 2000, its music teacher, Gregg Breinberg, has offered his group of 60-70 fifth graders the training, the support, and the opportunities to sing, to shine, to believe in the best of people and of themselves.

Here is a powerful video worth our time. Here is PS22 offering us, A World of Peace, written by Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher with Madeline Stone.

~~~

“A WORLD OF PEACE”

An acorn gives life to a thousand trees

Raindrops make the greatest seas

Nothings impossible if we try

The smallest dream can reach the sky

We may be different in our beliefs

But we all share the human need

If flowers grow in the desert sand

Love can break through any land

All wars must cease

There will be peace

A world of peace

Where there’s a will there’s a way

We have the choice to be the change

With time and care we will win

The time is now so let’s begin

All wars must cease

There will be peace

A world of peace

Where the hatred will end

Where the broken can mend

A world of peace

Where the children will sing

As a peace offering

A world of peace

~~~

Friends,

To the children,

Let’s send love,

Light,

And laughter.

To the children,

Let’s send our prayers

For safety, for possibility,

For Everything Good.

May their hearts be strong.

May their arms be wide open,

To themselves,

And to

Each other.

Now.  Then.  And always.

May all beings benefit from our time together.

All blessings,

Aruni

 

Tears and Cheers from 1968

I was a sophomore in college. It was 1968. I was discovering a new best friend, marijuana, and marijuana was discovering me. Although I was a nice Jewish girl in college, with zero-relationship experience with men or women, long before the word lesbian entered my stratosphere, I fully identified with the Peace Movement.

End the Viet Nam war. Bring our soldiers home.

Hey, hey LBJ, how many babies did you burn today?

I was a child, a young twenty years old, living in our sorority house, truly in love with one sorority sister at a time. In silence. Serial and silent monogamous fantasy was my romantic life.

In that moment, 1968, Wendel Berry wrote this poem:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

And I wake in the night at the least sound

In fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

Rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

Who do not tax their lives with forethought

Of grief.

I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

Waiting for their light.

For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and I am free.

~~~

How’s your “despair for the world” quotient doing these days?

I find myself in a post-No-Kings-slump.

The enthusiasm, the connectivity, the fabulous signs and positive energy buoyed me, quieted my pounding heart. And it ended and now, it is now.

I find myself easily slip-sliding into potential worry about the limited press coverage of the largest non-violent demonstration in our county….

Or perhaps worrying about the du jour violation of law and morality being perpetrated by our government.

Yes, despair.

Despair = complete loss of absence of hope.

“Despair for the world grows in me,” wrote Wendel Berry in 1968. It was a time of intense social and political upheaval, during the Vietnam War, smack in middle of the Cold War. Berry names our need to find solace and perspective.

Does anybody who is reading these words need solace? Perspective?

I love, love this poem, because Berry reminds us of—well, the peace of wild things.

The birds are back to the wetland, my neighborhood. Such celebration.

The pussy willows are coming out. We had a bush in our yard when I was a kid. I remember shyly and secretively rubbing my face against their comforting, almost unbearable softness.

Niki the Dog fits within the definition of wild things for me. Even though she is currently on my/our bed, licking her feet, taking a respite from the busyness of her morning (playing, eating, walking, pooping, sleeping), she is a true wild thing. A domesticated animal that sleeps in my arms, a wild thing that runs like the wind with her friends Spenser and Clementine through the Berkshire Hills.

The peace of wild things. I practice, most imperfectly, most briefly. Nature is the place for me to rest within. I dip in, I dip out.

I need to rest there more.

I know from what Berry writes.

Where do you find solace?

What quiets you?

What settles you?

What renews you?

DO IT.

GO THERE.

LET THAT BE YOUR PRACTICE.

It already is.

~~~

Music! OH, this song is another gift from 1968. It gave me more good tears this week. The video is created by Playing for Change, the profound non-profit that travels the globe, weaving musicians from different countries into one song. As I listened to this oldie but goodie, written by Robbie Robinson and released in 1968, my heart opened. How interesting, it was the same year that Wendel Berry wrote the above poem.

Please watch this—I was so struck with HOW MUCH BETTER THE SONG IS BECAUSE OF THE MUSICIANS’ DIVERSITY! Is there a universal truth there somewhere?

Tears and Cheers from 1968.

~~~

Dear Friends,

One step,

One thing,

One bite,

One moment,

One breath

At a time.

That is all that life asks of us.

Right here.

Right now.

This is where

It’s happening.

May all beings benefit from our time together.

Blessings, all—

Aruni

~~~

Spring-Summer-Study Options

Dear friends, I wanted to share with you the programs I will be offering at Kripalu Center during our spring/summer.  I look forward to telling you more about each program, their history, my personal relationship with each, and why I wholeheartedly invite your participation.

Grief, Loss and Renewal—Savoring Life’s Lessons

May 15-17

Information Here

Inner Quest Intensive

June 25-28

Information Here

The Yoga of Recovery

August 7-9

Information Here

Follow these links—check it out.  More next week about my personal as well as professional relationship with the program, Grief, Loss and Renewal—Savoring Life’s Lessons.

The Times? They’ve Changed. They Continue to Change.

Dear Folks,

I’ve been searching, seeking, wondering what to say to you, what to say to me, at the end of this week of such intense weather and such horrifying national events. What a week it was, a cold one, a painful one, a fearful one, a disturbing one, as the unraveling of the order of things continues.

I have been drawing upon this profound quote from the Talmud this week:

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.

Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now.

You are not obligated to complete the work,

But neither are you free to abandon it.

The Talmud

The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism. It is the primary source of Jewish law and Jewish theology. Compiled over several centuries, it was written between the 3rd and the 6th centuries CE. In other words, none of this is new.

None of this is new.

Today, I can attempt to dissect the key words here for us. I hope this might be supportive:

~~~

Daunted—to make someone feel intimidated or apprehensive or overcome with fear

(Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling pretty damn daunted these days.)

Enormity—the great or extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something perceived as bad or morally wrong

Do Justly—according to what is morally right or fair, to act in a fair, honest, and impartial manner

Love Mercy—to show compassionate, undeserved kindness and forgiveness, actively seeking to help the suffering, not just passively feeling pity, but embodying love, not judgment

(I’m struck by the phrase “undeserved kindness.” I feel such rage at the perpetrators in Minnesota, such fury. Kindness? That is who I would like to be. I can practice leaning in that direction.)

Walk Humbly—living a life characterized by service, recognizing one’s limitations, admitting wrongs, and valuing others above oneself

Obligated—feeling legally, morally, or socially bound to take a specific action, often out of duty or necessity

Abandon—to give up completely of action, a practice, a way of thinking

I feel and hear the otherworldly brilliance and profundity of these words. Its inherent power comforts me. Yet, how do we live into it? Each one of us may be called to interpret this within the riverbanks of our own lives.

~~~

Consider. Contemplate. Ponder.

Is there one thing you can do today to practice, “do justly”? What might it be? How might it/how did it make you feel?

What does “love mercy now” mean to you? How can that specifically show up in your world?

“Walk humbly now.” How can you specifically practice this?

Friends, I have no answers. Today, I only have these questions.

~~~

I keep thinking about the Times They are A’ Changing by Bob Dylan, for me an ultimate of protest songs. I have found solace in this song written in 1963. I can’t always grab its words. Here are the lyrics:

Come gather ‘round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you is worth savin’

And you better start swimmin’

Or you’ll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin’

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

And there’s no tellin’ who

That its naming

For the loser now

may later to win

for the times they are a’ changin

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway

Don’t block up the hall

For he who gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

The battle outside is ranging

Will soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a’ changin

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don’t criticize

What you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly aging

Please get out of the new one

If you can’t lend a hand

For the times they are a’ changin.

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin’

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a’ changin.

~~

I offer you this different version of the song, sung by the Women’s Voices Chorus, a powerful regional chorus. Please do enjoy:

 

More information about the Chorus

~~~

Friends,

How strange.

A song 60+ years old along with a philosophy of living centuries and centuries old,

Speaking so specifically about today,

Right here,

Right now.

We are here to hold the space for goodness and grace.

We are here to practice taking care of ourselves.

We are here to offer that care to each other.

We are here to be vessels of kindness.

Give us the courage and the strength to practice.

May all beings benefit from our shared words.

All blessings,

Aruni

 

 

 

*The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism. It is the primary source of Jewish law and Jewish theology. It was complied over several centuries, written between the 3rd and the 6th centuries CE.

“To See the Evil and the Good without Hiding”*

Ahhhh…season change.

Last weekend I did some hiking in the Helderberg Escarpment in New York State. Oh. The views, the vastness of the expanse. At the near-end of a remarkable foliage season, the golden yellows of the leaves were captivating in their astounding beauty.

The air was fresh.

My friends were easy and kind.

Niki the Dog was a good canine citizen among so many others,

Not always a guarantee.

It was a stunning day.

I came home feeling both emptied and filled.

Emptied of the push of the workweek.

Filled with silence and expansion.

And then the news of the world awaited me.

Ahhhhhh.

The news.

Ahhhhhh.

The world.

~~~

I’ve had a challenging month with my weekly blogs.

They have been stubborn buggers, not wanting to reveal themselves,

Constricting inward toward themselves rather than flowering open to others.

It’s been difficult writing, for the first time in…???

First time in….forever?

This sobers me.

This scares me.

This is my practice.

Writing to you—

This is my practice.

I will continue practicing.

Yet—I wonder—

And I simply exhausted in my individual dance,

My seeing both “…the evil and the good”*

Am I just exhausted,

Awed by the blessings I see around me,

The power of Kripalu’s mission,

The lovingkindness of my mutual communities?

Am I awed by all of that,

As I sit, so privileged, so blessed

In the middle of the bluest of blue worlds,

While being simultaneously pulled into the pain,

The unraveling of kindness,

The loss of humanity and caring

Around us.

The real threat of hunger hovering?

Children, people dependent on support

That is in question?

Gaza and peace that does not look like peace?

Soldiers in our cities?

Inconceivable.

And true.

Maybe I’m just tired.

~~~

Then I found this amazing version of Doctor My Eyes, such a goodie/oldie by Jackson Browne.

I’ve played it a lot this week, it has been helpful.

Please check out how Playing for Change, the brilliant collective of world-wide musicians brings to this song.

And check out Jackson.

He wrote this song in 1972.

Is that really 53 years ago?

Lyrics follow,

Worth considering.

Enjoy.

Doctor, My Eyes

By Jackson Browne, 1972:

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years

And the slow parade of fears, without crying

Now I want to understand

I have done all that I could

To see the evil and the good without hiding’

You must help me if you can

Doctor, my eyes

Tell me what is wrong

Was I unwise

To leave them open for so long?

‘Cause I have wandered through this world

And as each moment has unfurled

I’ve been waiting to awaken from these dreams

People go just where they will

I never noticed them until I got this feeling

That it’s later than it seems

Doctor, my eyes

Tell me what you see

I hear their cries

Just say if it’s too late for me

Doctor, my eyes

But cannot see the sky

Is this the prize

For having learned how not to cry?

 

~~~

So how do we do this?

How do we keep our hearts open to the beauty and to the bounty,

While being in a relationship with the heartbreak, the unraveling?

I think of Joanna Macy, lifelong eco-activist, master Buddhist teacher and scholar.

In 2020, when I began a yearlong training at the Upaya Zen Center called Socially Engaged Buddhism, Joanna opened our training. Her words deeply comforted me. Here is my paraphrase:

If you are here now, you are meant to be here now.

You are alive now,

You are meant to be alive now.

Ours is to bear witness, to watch.

Perhaps it is not even to change what’s happening.

But it is and it will always be

To bear witness.

More about Joanna Here

~~~

What can that look like?

How do we do this?

I say—

Let’s take good, good care of ourselves.

Let’s been kind and generous to ourselves

And to others.

Let’s keep it super-simple,

One day, one thing,

One breath at a time.

Kindness.

Super-simple.

Easy breath.

One step.

One step.

Just

One

Step

At

A

Time.

 

Dear Friends,

The leaves are down now,

On the ground,

Returning to the earth,

Their colors already a memory.

May we be present.

May we be whole.

May we ride the waves

Of our lives.

May we live in peace,

No matter what

We are given.

May all beings benefit from our time together.

 

Stay blessed,

Aruni

A Blog About Spinning

Friends,

 

There is spinning going on in my world.

 

Returning from vacation—spinning.

Recovering from the-gastric-on-vacation-attack-from-hell—spinning.

Realigning with regular-life-much-going-on—spinning.

 

Do I need a vacation to recover from my vacation?

Have I really become that person?

I do believe, I have.

 

Wait,

I forgot

A tiny thing

That is also happening—

 

The upending of the world as we know it.

 

More spinning.

 

Yet as I spin through these first few days at home,

I luckily stumbled across these wonderous words:

 

“…all shall be well and all shall be well

and all manner of things shall be well.”

 

I love this.

I need this.

I hold these words close.

 

Have you heard this before? These words are written by Julian of Norwich, an 14th century English anchoress and mystic. Her writings are the earliest surviving English-language works of a woman, quite cool. She lived in Norwich, suffered through and survived the Black Death, the Peasant’s Revolt, and the suppression of the Lollards, all in her lifetime. Big events happened.

Suffering happened.

 

Her writing assured us that in the face of suffering, amid real life happening, in chaos and in difficulty, resolution will come. All will be made right.

 

She believed that Divine Grace will win in the end, that no matter the intensity of suffering and pain life offers, eventually and inevitably, Goodness will prevail.

 

Julian sounds like a Kripalu Yogi to me.

~~~

No matter the circumstances,

There is goodness.

 

Divine intervention comes

In the face of

Human suffering.

 

We don’t go past it,

This thing called suffering.

We don’t go around it.

We live into it.

And life

Resolves,

Life grows us.

 

I must admit,

These times

In our country

Are trying.

 

They are trying me,

They are testing me,

They are stretching me.

To keep my faith,

To continue to believe

In the best

Unfolding

For

 

All.

 

Is there a subgroup emerging?

 

Do I believe that

Goodness

Wins?

 

I do.

 

I do believe it.

 

And I will continue

To practice

This.

 

One reminder, however.

Resolution,

Healing,

Realignment

Happens

In life’s timing,

 

Not in ours.

 

Damn it.

 

If it were

My timing?

 

We would have

Been complete,

Finished,

Healed

And

Done

 

Yesterday.

~~~

So, what do we do, friends?

 

How do we live with faith

That the best will unfold

While witnessing

Injustice

And

Intolerance?

 

Any ideas?

 

I say:

 

Look for the Beauty.

Look for the Grace.

 

Love the things we love.

Savor the deliciousness

Of the truth, as we know it.

 

Play and laugh

And weep

And

Celebrate.

 

Pray and dance

And hope

And

Love.

 

And witness.

~~~

Anybody

Have any ideas?

 

How do we do this?

I know one thing for sure—

Right here,

Right now.

 

Staying

Right

Here

And

Right

Now,

 

That has

To be

The place

In which

We

Practice.

~~~

Check this out—

My car found this song for me!

 

At first, I was suspicious about the Car’s choices.

I mean, she’s a car.

She does know, however,

What I listen to.

 

This song is a goodie.

It’s a comforting one.

I love repetition

I find it soothing—check it out.

 

How might you utilize this song for calming yourself?

For remembering?

For practicing

For resting in faith?

 

Mother of the Waters

By Alexa Sunshine Rose

 

~~~

Folks,

One step at a time,

May we find our way.

One thing at a time,

One word at a time,

One interaction at a time—

Right here and right now.

May we put our foot down

In the next, best place,

And keep practicing.

Stay blessed,

Aruni

~~~

A Happy Announcement!

The Inner Quest Intensive Returns

Kripalu Center

June 26-29

Information Here

Stay tuned for juicy Inner Quest tidbits!