Yesterday taught me something valuable.
After an enjoyable and long day of working, I tuned into the highlights of the inaugural ceremonies and celebration. I’m aware of the potential of any significant change, such as a transfer of leadership, to raise or lower the human capacity to live well.
Curious about the prevailing message of the day, I surfed the highlights.
Grateful for freedom to choose what I watched on youtube, granting me the ability to avoid the “noise” of commentary. I saw evidence of a transfer of leadership – peaceful, solemn, joyous, determined. Historic for many reasons, including welcoming a woman of color as vice president. I watched the live evening events focused upon new opportunities, the need for repair, the goodness of people, and the benefit of serving one another.
Promoting the capacity to live and work well, together as a human family sharing a country.
To honor one another and those who have suffered. To reach for one another so that they may know to reach back. To commit to finding a way to tend, mend, and grow. To step up and sing together. To begin to continue to complex work of bridging instead of dividing people.
Words, actions, and songs reflecting the need for love, caring, and respect.
And sure, we need lots of intelligence, fortitude, courage, and faith in our capacity to rise to every challenge. All of this may be familiar as rhetoric so often heard in political speeches and well orchestrated programs designed to inspire unity within a county. And to call forth the agreement that some grit is required if true transformation is to occur.
I also wondered about those too angry or disheartened to tune in.
I thought of those I know who think very differently than me. About people who resist the new ideas, with these leaders’ underlying and far reaching ideals. Who feel threatened by what is to come and are disheartened by this new direction. I felt the potential for more division, more derision, and more misunderstanding.
And then a young woman poetically reminded us that our blunders are the next generations’ burdens.
Oh. A realization emerged. I speak of bridging while I remain divided. I’m okay with having a stance. I express my disagreement or condemnation of those ideas, ideals, actions, and rhetoric which I believe dehumanize people and divide us. With clarity, it leads me to action which aligns with my beliefs. And I’m okay with you having a stance.
I’m doing the same as everyone else here, regardless of “side.”
Today I was grateful to have some conversations with people on both sides. Some were happy. Some were wounded. Insulted. Disheartened. I sought to understand and learned that flames had been fanned by a deep insult. Grouping everyone together on one side and labeling them in a certain way. A group is not an individual. For her, it simply wasn’t true.
“I want peace.” was the plaintive cry. I heard her pain.
My actions align with my beliefs. Or do they? If I speak with derision of someone’s lack of respect in how they conduct themselves, am I not disrespectful? If I make fun of another whom I disagree with, even on core fundamental beliefs, aren’t I diminishing their personhood? And on and on these questions arose.
Revealing my blunders. Contributing to the future ….. burdens that I scatter about mindlessly by my actions.
I’m mostly surrounded by people who think similarly to me. People interested in personal transformation. Spiritual seekers and yogis. Humanitarians. Those committed to bringing light, harmony, and improved conditions for humanity and the planet.
So, it’s easy to miss the obvious.
There is a way to express a difference of opinion or belief with consideration for the other.
To condone an action and take a different route in response without demonizing those you oppose. A 16 year old told me recently that she stopped going on Tik Tok so frequently. What used to be clever, entertaining, and funny had turned mean. She was so over the meanness of social media. That wasn’t fun nor funny.
Mean humor is deprecating.
Disparaging another human, even when their behavior is abhorrent to you, disparages all humans. You know this. So do I. I’m not trying to preach to the choir of good people wanting to be better people and improve the world. I want that. I know you do also. And I enjoy a good laugh at the expense of myself and my fellow, fallible humans like the rest of us.
But, a new dawn can’t bloom without me (and you).
I heard a call to action last night. To be a better human. To start in the mirror and within my deeply seeded conditioned beliefs. To notice how easy it is to disrespect another without consciously intending that result. And to see how it is okay to do so in those circles who think like me.
Hmmmmn. Maybe I’m not so different than those I judge.
And maybe my first bridge to be built is within.
(Blunders and burdens inspired by Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem. Let the young wisely lead us forward.)
Peace be with you and with all. No exceptions.
Good News, Wise Strategies, and Reasons to Be Cheerful. When you are in need of restoration, solutions, and a general pick me up, seek those sources which uplift. And point the way to inspired solutions. There is plenty of good in the world. Plenty of people using heart, innovation, and compassion to improve things. Here are two of my favorite places to be inspired, celebrate the good, and seek positive strategies. The Greater Good Science Center at Cal Berkley offers the Greater Good Magazine. David Byrne of Talking Heads fame sends out a Reasons to be Cheerful Blog. There’s just so much good in this amazing world. Seek it!
Learn the one essential skill that allows you to face any challenge with confidence, sturdiness, and inner calm.
More than a technique. It’s a game changer.
ia Sophia has arrived. This “Way of Wisdom” offers an invitation to step upon a Living Spiral Path and discover a new understanding of what it means to embody the Mystical Feminine.
For the past fifteen years I have lived and taught within the Mystical Feminine. I have sat within many circles and immersions with women as we explored how to practically and powerfully engage Feminine wisdom in everyday life.
When my daughter was in eighth grade, she and her Girl Scout troop were beginning to explore ideas for their individual Silver Award projects.
Around our dinner table, we tossed around possibilities. Nothing landed. Nothing stirred real interest. So we encouraged her to do what we have always trusted. Stay open. Listen. Pay attention to what people are talking about in the world.
Driving into Soul Sanctuary last weekend, I noticed the trees were engaged in a wild dance.
I should have paid closer attention as I got out of the car, because the wind nearly took me with it. Walking to the door, I had to lean in and brace myself for a moment just to stay upright. The cold whipped through my clothes and found every uncovered space, sharing its bone-numbing chill.
We recently had a big snow in my neck of the woods.
Everyone was hunkered down. The fridge was full, chicken soup was bubbling on the stove, and my book pile sat patiently on the coffee table. As the snow covered the neighborhood and the plows dumped fresh mounds over our carefully shoveled walk, we took turns peeking outside.
As a kid, snowstorms were pure joy.
“I think we need to be friends.”
Those were the first words out of my mouth when I introduced myself to Rev. Hilda Covington. We’d just finished a county meeting of nonprofit mental health and social service agencies. She was the presenter that month. We almost didn’t meet because Hilda arrived an hour and a half late to a two-hour meeting.
Life has a rhythm. It speeds up and slows down according to mysterious forces.
Your personal rhythm dances with the celestial bodies, seasons of the year, developmental phases, and the pulse of your Soulful evolutionary process. Living in harmony with these rhythms is in many ways hard to understand as it is a complicated and deeply personal process. Your rhythm dances with everyone’s rhythm in the grand Cosmic Dance.
