Here’s another educational post from Lynn J Kelly. She reminds us of the value of being determined to:
buddhasadvice.wordpress.com/2024/04/30/determination-adhiṭṭhana/#like-19452
You know, it don’t come easy and then, again, it sometimes comes way too easy.
The man said, “good topsoil will attract everything: native and invasive, desired and undesired, flowers and weeds. So, there’s always maintenance required to remove the unwanted.”
Plant what you want and be prepared to remove what you don’t.
That beautiful field of wildflowers might be happenstance or design or a little of both.
What are you growing today and what are you maintaining?
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.”
Here’s another provocative post from Lynn J Kelly. May we all be happier.
_/\_
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
Check out this brief provocative post by Lynn J Kelly and the George Bernard Shaw quote she references. Well worth our time!
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
A beautiful article about a beautiful book that helps us realize:
“The only thing we distance is ourselves from ourselves” AND “we are losing so much because of greed.”
For the full article check out Tricycle at:
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.”
“War represents the worst and feeding the hungry the best of human nature.”
Below is an excerpt of Matthew Fox’s latest meditation on the killing of the World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza last week. It highlights the words of Jose Andres. For the full articles see and/or watch:
dailymeditationswithmatthewfox.org/2024/04/06/jose-andres-wisdom-hope-for-a-transformed-humanity/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-WKEDxrb9Y
Jose Andres:
Wisdom & Hope
for a Transformed Humanity
04/06/2024
Jose Andres is founder of World Central Kitchen and a well-known chef. He knew and worked alongside the seven people who were trying to relieve starvation in Gaza and were blown up by the Israeli army on Monday.
In a moving and powerful article in the New York Times, Jose says this about his co-workers: “they risked everything for the most fundamental human activity: to share our food with others.”*
Jose worked among these people in very difficult circumstances as they tried to provide food for people suffering from war and earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters in Ukraine, Turkey, Morocco, the Bahamas, Indonesia, Mexico, as well as Gaza and Israel.
The hungry are not judged for their ideology or their religion or their being rich or poor or left or right. The work of the murdered food workers “was based on the simple belief that food is a universal human right.”
Andres tells us that from the beginning of the war in Israel, they fed both Israelis and Palestinians more than 1.75 million hot meals and 43 million meals all told in Gaza. “Food is not a weapon of war,” he declares, and
“Israel is better than the way this war is being waged,” including the killing of aid workers.
He offers this advice, “after the worst terrorist attack in its history, it’s time for the best of Israel to show up.”
Half the population of Gaza’s 1.1 million people are currently facing an “imminent risk” of famine.
Food and hospitality are integral to the spiritual traditions of both Israelis and Muslims. … Spirituality and eating together go together, these are ancient archetypes that inspire Jewish, Christian and Muslim beliefs … One sign is simply the courage and generosity of people like Jose Andres and his co-workers. War represents the worst and feeding the hungry the best of human nature. “Feed the hungry and you feed me.”
Life Matters 