No Peace for the Wicked

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Liar, Liar, Mother Earth on Fire

live by the lie die by the lie

easily misled by sociopaths who cry

war is peace ignorant belie

no justice no peace no shut eye

nature knows that by and by

oceans warm watch fish fry

hoping for the wells to dry

goodbye Goldilocks and die Lorelie

P.S. with thanks for inspiration provided by Isaiah 57, George Orwell, Robert Southey, Heinrich Heine and Thich Nhat Hanh who reminds us:

“We have a seed of anger in us. We have a seed of compassion in us. The practice is to help the seed of compassion to grow and the seed of anger to shrink.”

Stringing Pearls

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It’s early morning and I’m looking for pearls to guide me today. Here are three that have helped me already. May they be helpful to you as well.

“The principal purpose of memory is to anticipate the future, not to remember the past (Hancock 2009).” Peter Hancock @ peterhancock.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2012/06/Hancock-Shahnami-2010.pdf

“It is the Breath … that reveals life, sustains life, and renews life in every way.” Richard Rohr @ cac.org

“Getting angry and making a decision out of anger are not the same thing. That’s why Seneca said that the greatest remedy for your temper was delay. Feeling the feeling and acting on the feeling are separated by a space and the bigger that space, the better the choice we will make.” Ryan Holiday @ Daily Stoic

Henri Nouwen Meditation

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“What keeps us from opening to the reality of the world? Could it be that we cannot accept our powerlessness and are only willing to see those wounds that we can heal?

Could it be that we do not want to give up our illusion that we are masters over our world and, therefore, create our own Disneyland where we can make ourselves believe that all events of life are safely under control?

Could it be that our blindness and deafness are signs of our own resistance to acknowledging that we are not the Lord of the Universe?

It is hard to allow these questions to go beyond the level of rhetoric and to really sense in our innermost self how much we resent our powerlessness . . . .

The astonishing thing is that the battle for survival has become so “normal” that few people really believe that it can be different . . . .

Oh, how important is discipline, community, prayer, silence, caring presence, simple listening, adoration, and deep, lasting faithful friendship. We all want it so much, and still the powers suggesting that all of that is fantasy are enormous.

But we have to replace the battle for power with the battle to create space for the spirit.“

For more see henrinouwen.org/meditation/

Daily Thoughts & Rehearsing Suffering

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Woke up this morning in a sunny disposition

but then read my email, the forecast, news highlights and social media.

Truly, we are bombarded daily with thoughts that are not of our own making:

  • Am I safe?
  • Am I lovable?
  • Do I matter?

How we handle these thoughts is critical to our mental and physical health. What options do we really have?

Below are two excerpts that have helped me better understand where many thoughts come from and how they may affect us.

How Many Ads Do We See Daily?

“It is estimated that an adult in a metropolitan area may see anywhere from 50 to 400 advertisements per day1. Digital marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads each day2. Folks from marketing firm Yankelovich, Inc. estimate that the average modern person is exposed to around 5,000 ads per day3. An average modern individual is estimated to see 300-700 ad messages per day4. thedrum.com

Rehearsing Suffering

A major obstacle … is the tendency of our mind to get stuck in negative thinking. The mind “rehearses” the scenarios that bother us, ultimately because it wants to resolve the problem and to find a way out. Unfortunately, it may get stuck … repeating the same track ceaselessly.

The mind has been likened to a search engine—you (start with one) thought and it gives you other thoughts related to it. (For example,) if we keep harboring hateful thoughts—even if we don’t act on them—they may lead to more hate and violence. …

Everything we routinely do can be understood as practicing and rehearsing. … In neuroscience, it is known that neurons that “fire together wire together.” ….

When you do or say something negatively the first time, you may feel bad about it, but the second time it may already feel less unsettling. You may tell yourself “You’re not worthy,” — the first time you do it, it is a shock. But the second time you may feel less bad. And then the behavior may become a habit. Every time you get angry, you punch the wall. It can become uncontrollable. A habit becomes a personality, which then determines the course of your life and destiny. …

For those who tend to be gloomy and in despair easily, compounded with the suffering of the past, our habitual mood makes it even more difficult to handle and transform the situation. … It takes a lot of courage to release and let go of our negativity.”

Excerpt adapted from Flowers in the Dark: Reclaiming Your Power to Heal Trauma through Mindfulness by Sister Dang Nghiem © 2021 by Sister Dang Nghiem. Reprinted in arrangement with Parallax Press. For the full article see: tricycle.org/article/sister-dang-nghiem-suffering/

What are you thinking today?

Two, Two, Two Things in One

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Hot & Steamy

this is not triple x

this is my dog’s first dump of the day

large, firm and steaming with its salute to the sun

on this fine spring morning

mid-50s temp at 7:30am

oh, glorious excrement

to honor another opportunity

to process life’s bounty

Forecasters

calendars, like meteorologists,

or even those predicting the apocalypse,

can look foolish when their forecasts ring false

for example, spring begins on March 20

no, not true in Michigan,

calendars say what they say

but in reality

a Michigan spring begins later

oh, sure, in March there may be a sneak peak

but winter returns … to tamp down premature joy

suffering and joy …

the same is true for the other seasons too

each begins with a tease

only to truly arrive

much later than forecasted

Michigan and again and again ….

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I recently moved back to my home state for this beautiful peninsula with its comforting and familiar geography. I have also returned to rebuild a relationship with my beautiful, comforting and familiar wife.

Thank god for second chances and a home that supports them.

Below is the link to another beautiful post from John Coyote aka John Castellenas accompanied by The Accidentals beautiful song.

I won’t leave Michigan again..

Virtuous Community

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Lynn J Kelly provides another great summary of how we might grow individually by helping a community grow. A quick excerpt is below. For the full post see the link below.

“Trust is the foundation of any well-functioning community, and trust is built through truthfulness, kindness, common goals that are visibly being pursued, and commitment to each other and the stated purposes of the community. 

Every family and community culture is unique, and they fluctuate with time, but there are hallmarks of wholesome behavior we can look for and encourage wherever we find ourselves. This mutual respect and care is at the root of growing virtue.”

Virtuous community