This year we have a celebratory day and then a weekend of transition, and where I live it’s raining, another gift.

I’m with these words of Rumi as I absorb entry into receiving this bold and tender offering to begin.

What in your life is calling you, when all the noise is silenced, the meetings adjourned… the lists laid aside, and the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest… what still pulls on your soul?​

What still pulls in my soul? I’m reminded of Rilke:

I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

And for further guidance I lean into the breathing path of Thich Nhat Hanh!

In: Out – Deep: Slow – Calm: Ease – Smile: Release.

I light a candle, strike the flame in rocks, reflect the fire in stars.

Do you love me? Of course you do!! Enjoy!!

I rise early, exhilarated by the excitement of New Year’s Eve.  I go outside to walk forgetting my mask which is a luxury and doesn’t matter as no one else is out except the moon, birds, and squirrels.  Moon is still shining in the sky, but is shy about having her picture taken, so her bright light isn’t coming through in the photo.  I’m grateful to live on a planet with a moon.  

Blessings abound.  

It’s a day to look back over the year and years, as we mobilize to meet this new year with optimism, trust, and an “Is that so?” greeting of Hope.

Terry Tempest Williams:

A good friend of mine said, “You are married to sorrow.” And I looked at him and said, “I am not married to sorrow. I just choose not to look away.”
And I think there is deep beauty in not averting our gaze.
No matter how hard it is, no matter how heartbreaking it can be. It is about presence. It is about bearing witness.
I used to think bearing witness was a passive act. I don’t believe that anymore. I think that when we are present, when we bear witness, when we do not divert our gaze, something is revealed—the very marrow of life. We change. A transformation occurs. Our consciousness shifts.

This morning I went through photos and videos of my grandson and his cousin taken as their families have gathered together so these two beautiful, loving, and generous children  can see, touch, play and be with another person their age – 14 months.  Their smiles and innocence are enchanting – pure bliss.

I then read Heather Cox Richardson on the Massacre at Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890, so not so long ago..

How to hold it all?

On our local Next Door is a post with a photo of two empty toilet paper rolls.  The sign says “free toilet paper seeds”.

Muriel Ruekeyser wrote: Nourish beginnings. The blessing is in the seed.  

A new year comes.  “The blessing is in the seed.”   

Last night I finished reading Louise Erdrich’s incredible book, The Night Watchman. It’s based on her grandfather and the work he did to save their native land in 1953. Now, I read this. It’s heart-breaking.

He passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 75. If you’re not familiar with him, or his writing, or even if you are, this is a beautiful essay on Love.

It’s not over yet.  Heather Cox Richardson continues to provide information we need.

This is part of her column from yesterday.  

Tonight, Trump relented and signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which includes the coronavirus relief measure and the 2021 appropriations bill (along with other measures).

Trump tried to suggest he was saving the nation from the crisis he, himself, has caused, but it is likely that he finally signed the bill because his stubbornness was not playing well across an increasingly desperate nation, especially as he is golfing at Mar-a-Lago and Vice President Mike Pence is skiing in Vail, Colorado. Americans were generally angry over his inaction on a bill that would provide relief for those suffering from the economic crisis, funding for the distribution of vaccines, and funding for the government. As Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) pointed out today, “If his goal was really to get a better deal on the budget, he would have vetoed it immediately and begun negotiating. But his goal is actually national arson—chaos for the fun of it. So he sits on the budget—does nothing—in order to guarantee a government shutdown.”

Heather continues.

So the CAA will become law, and the drama of lawmaking for this congressional session should be over. But it is not quite over yet. Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act, which specifies how the defense budget will be spent, on Wednesday, December 23. The NDAA has passed with bipartisan majorities since the 1960s when it first began, and presidents have always signed it. But Trump has chosen to veto it, on the grounds that it calls for the renaming of U.S. military bases named for Confederate generals and that it does not strip social media companies of protection from liability when third parties post offensive material on them. 

The National Defense Authorization Act this year does something else, though, that seems to me of far more importance to the president than the naming of military bases. 

It includes a measure known as the Corporate Transparency Act, which undercuts shell companies and money laundering in America. The act requires the owners of any company that is not otherwise overseen by the federal government (by filing taxes, for example, or through close regulation) to file a report that identifies each person associated with the company who either owns 25% or more of it or exercises substantial control over it. That report, including name, birthdate, address, and an identifying number, goes to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The measure also increases penalties for money laundering and streamlines cooperation between banks and foreign law enforcement authorities. 

America is currently the easiest place in the world for criminals to form an anonymous shell company which enables them to launder money, evade taxes, and engage in illegal payoff schemes. The measure will pull the rug out from both domestic and international criminals that take advantage of shell companies to hide from investigators. When the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists dug into leaked documents from FinCEN this fall, they discovered shell companies moving money for criminals operating out of Russia, China, Iran, and Syria. 

Shell companies also mean that our political system is awash in secrecy. Social media giants like Facebook cannot determine who is buying political advertising. And, as Representative Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) noted, shell companies allow “foreign bad actors” to corrupt our system even more directly. “[I]t’s illegal for foreigners to contribute to our campaigns,” he reminded Congress in a speech for the bill, “but if you launder your money through a front company with anonymous ownership there is very little we can do to stop you.”

We know the Trump family uses shell companies: Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen used a shell company to pay off Stormy Daniels, and just this month we learned that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner approved a shell company that spent more than $600 million in campaign funds. 

The new requirements in the NDAA apply not just to future entities, but also to existing ones. 

Congress needs to repass the NDAA over Trump’s veto—indeed it is likely that the CTA was included in this measure precisely because the NDAA is must-pass legislation—and both the CTA and the NDAA bill into which it is tucked have bipartisan support. Trump has objected to a number of things in the original bill but has not publicly complained about the CTA in it. It will be interesting to see if Congress repasses this bill in its original form and, if not, what changes it makes.

You can read her whole column here:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-27-2020

Here’s a wonderful article on Heather in the NY Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/business/media/heather-cox-richardson-substack-boston-college.html

I am sad to learn this morning that Barry Lopez has passed away.  

Bill Moyers reports from an interview with Barry that one of his most important teachers, never wrote a book or stood in a classroom, “I can remember walking on different — what a scientist would call a substrate — walking in sand or on rock or across water. Not on the water. But my body will talk to me and say, ‘I was listening when you were not paying attention. And here’s what your body learned through its senses about the world that you were moving in.’ So, the earth has been a teacher.”

This morning I watched Jeanine Martin in an interview with Stefan Laeng, the executive director of the Sensory Awareness Foundation, say what Sensory Awareness has meant to her this year.  “Breathing is like flowers blossoming.”

This next Saturday Stefan will lead a free class at 9:00 Pacific time.  Check it out, and if you’re intrigued, keep following the SAF offerings, and perhaps make a donation to gratefully support this powerful and life-changing work.  

Here’s a beautiful and inspiring look at sensing through Jeanine.