Again, I’m outside in the early morning dark lit by stars. I feel the leaves and buds as they begin to rise and emerge from the trees. I’m aware of the blessing of moving through air, of how I influence my surroundings either consciously or unconsciously.
All flows in and out and through me.
What am I here to do and be?
I feel so entwined with the niches in my life, the riches, these words beacon through me, lighthouses guiding fluidity.
John O’Donohue:
I would like to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.
This morning I was outside with the stars. I rose on starlight.
I’m reading The Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. It was a book group choice and I was hesitant, but wow. Thumbs and toes way up. I can’t stop. It’s a drama that will keep you entranced as you see how power, money, and lies manipulate and corrupt. It looks at the Sackler family and their founding of Purdue Pharma and the lies they tell as they hire lawyers to cover up what they do.
This is a taste of how they buy politicians.
“Shortly after Rudolph Giulani stepped down from his position as mayor of New York City, he went into business as a consultant, and one of his first two clients was Purdue. When he entered the private sector, Giuliani was looking to make a lot of money quickly. In 2001, he had a net worth of $1 million; five years later, he would report $17 million in income and some $50 million in assets. For Purdue, which was working hard to frame OxyContin abuse as a law enforcement problem, rather than an issue which might implicate the drug itself or the way it was marketed, the former prosecutor who had led New York City after the 9/11 attacks would make an ideal fixer. In Michael Friedman’s view, Giuliani was “uniquely qualified” to help the company.”
And help he did.
Because I often feel our government could move a little more quickly to address obvious wrongs I’m with these words of Auguste Rodin:
Patience is also a form of action.
I’m also with today’s report from Robert Hubbell:
Biden created more jobs in his first year in office than any other president did during their first year.
Biden created more jobs in his first year in office than Trump created in 4 years—because the economy lost 2.9 million jobs during Trump’s tenure.
Biden created more jobs in his first year in office than Trump created his first three years in office (before the pandemic recession).
This day was special as all days are. In our family, we receive a Secret Santa gift. Mine was a family photo taken today in Golden Gate Park with brunch afterwards by the ocean at the Park Chalet.
It was so touching, so special, so sweet – no words – no pictures right now just gratitude for the sweetness and love that encircle this world and deep gratitude for my own small circle, as it expands within, and in and out. I am so grateful for my life and this world. Thank you! Head bowed!
Sunrise this morning!Such beauty as the day comes to rise – on the circling we live – and share – One!!
Not only is it Groundhog’s Day, but it’s February 2, 2022, so 2-2-22.
And if we pause at 2:22 today, we’ll be in a lineup with twosas though entering an Ark.
And with that, I bring forth Pema Chodron’s words from This Sacred Journey:
My children met the Sixteenth Karmapa when they were teenagers, and I asked him if he’d say something to them. I said to him, “The children are not Buddhists, so is there something you could say to them with that in mind?” He just looked right at these young teenagers and said, “You are going to die. And you’re not going to take anything with you except your state of mind.” You die, but your state of mind continues. So how we work with our thoughts right now really matters.
And right now I’m thinking of the number 2 as a place of balance and harmony.
Today the Lunar New Year begins the Year of the Tiger. The tiger gives people hope and is associated with bravery, courage, and strength. It’s a time to wear red for good luck and to ward off evil spirits. It feels like Christmas to me, a time for birth and honoring our time on earth.
I’m with this quote of G.K. Chesterton:
What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. I was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world.
I invite that now.
One thing I’m noticing is the importance of looseness in the lips, shoulders, and armpits. Do we allow breathing under our arms, the flow out from the heart? Do we taste the freedom blooming there?
I came across a poem I wrote a few years ago and it guides me now, this early morning, as I rise to welcome this new day and year. I shine in the early morning dark.
Lighthouse to myself,
Armpits open to air, shine
Beacon inside out
When Thich Nhat Hanh and his followers walked in a Peace March, others passed them, as they were walking slowly and mindfully and being peace, but then, they were shown a shortcut, and they arrived first. Life can be like that, pure ease, when we embody interbeing, and live as a torch or lighthouse of peace.The moon is new; may we be too.
This quote comes my way today and brings a smile to lips and cells.
Yes, Mary Oliver, yes!
Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.
Our family is in a discussion of death these days. It began with the passing of Thich Nhat Hanh and then my daughter-in-law’s mother. What does each of us want, this moment, now?
How do we deal with grief?
For comfort, here’s Thich Nhat Hanh’s wonderful words on mother.
“When my mother died…”
“The day my mother died I wrote in my journal, “A serious misfortune of my life has arrived.” I suffered for more than one year after the passing away of my mother. But one night, in the highlands of Vietnam, I was sleeping in the hut in my hermitage. I dreamed of my mother. I saw myself sitting with her, and we were having a wonderful talk. She looked young and beautiful, her hair flowing down. It was so pleasant to sit there and talk to her as if she had never died. When I woke up it was about two in the morning, and I felt very strongly that I had never lost my mother. The impression that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother is always alive in me.
I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. It was a hill covered with tea plants, and my hut was set behind the temple halfway up. Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tender, very sweet… wonderful! Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine but a living continuation of my mother and my father and my grandparents and great-grandparents. Of all my ancestors. Those feet that I saw as “my” feet were actually “our” feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil.
From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time.”
Yesterday I was by the bay watching the tide go out changing the niches for the birds. Newly exposed mud offered new opportunities to feed. It was like a poem unfolding new places to feed what we already know.
My daughter-in-law’s mother passed away early Friday morning. She and her brother are dealing with the details and I am with how we meet death. How do we rearrange ourselves for this matter to energy exchange, this cloak of the personal opening to the universal?
Ramana Maharshi, was once asked, “How should we treat others?” He replied, “There are no others.”
I sink into knowing that.
Romance by the bay Opportunity and Search Emergence Flight
My teacher of Sensory Awareness, Charlotte Selver used to say we have wars because we don’t listen to each other.
It’s not always easy to listen, to listen to ourselves, and through that, to another. A cultivation of empathy is required to receive the perceptions of another.
Charlotte:
We can think the work has only to do with what’s going on inside us. And we can become carried away by this inner excitement, and we can stay entirely within ourselves. ‘Am I sitting right? Is my head free? Is my neck elastic?’ Be careful about that. When another speaks, live with the other. Creep under the skin of the other, if possible.
Everyone of us, in hearing what the other person has to say, goes away enriched by what everybody else has experienced—-if it is allowed in.
Allowing InDifferent niches at Kehoe Beach Mother and two baby otters on the sand
I just read the new translation of The Plague by Albert Camus. I don’t think I would have made it through the book if it wasn’t for what we’ve all been through together with the pandemic: denial, fear, depression, questioning, wondering, and now, perhaps there is an opening. In that opening, can there, and should there be, a return to “before”?
We’ve been given time to reflect and connect, connect with ourselves, and others, not necessarily in person these days, but on Zoom and in other ways.
I just watched this beautiful piece by Thich Nhat Hanh and Br. David Steindl-Rast on Interbeing and Gratefulness. I recommend it as inspiration and guide to this new year opening within us,as step by step, and breath by breath, we live as peace.
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