30 October 2011

A Pale Blue Dot

tick, tock, tick, tock...the scariest halloween ever!!!

Global population to reach 7 billion people tomorrow. We're elbowing the other species out of the picture...and placing, perhaps, irreversible damage on Mother Gaia.

28 October 2011

The End of the Mayan Calendar

"Will our civilization succumb as the Maya's did? And will that be a bad thing? The Maya did not disappear. They just changed the rules. They made a different life that didn't include building fantastic monuments and temples. It was a simpler, communal and highly spiritual life that continues successfully to this day (although it is being threatened by modern interference, both hostile and benign.) Eventually the Northern Lowland Maya followed suit -- abandoning their magnificent cities to live in agricultural communities. Perhaps that is where we will end up too. Two thousand years from now, will people dig up Wall Street and wonder what caused our civilization to collapse?"

I changed one phrase only, inserting Wall Street for New York City. This work is Jeeni Criscenzo's from the turn of the millennium.

21 October 2011

The fairness of the American justice system. This is what Occupy is talking about

We truly live in a world where up is down, black is white...The Republicans have used trickle down since Ronald Reagan and given us this huge debt...they fight wars that last for years and years, with great loss of life (Americans and civilians)...and yet they accomplish little while touting "mission(s) accomplished"...no bid contracts to their cronies like Halliburton (Cheney) of billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars...trillions...and Halliburton moves their corporate headquarters to Dubai. Criticize Obama for whatever you wish...but look for the real truths. Obama has accomplished more in this 'war on terror' and Arab spring movement than his Republican predecessors could have dreamed. I recall GW saying, "I don't even think about Bin Laden anymore"...because he was incapable of accomplishing his stated mission, to get Bin Laden at all costs.

Watching the Republican debates...the immature bickering...only proves that the only adult running for the presidency this cycle is Obama. Get the do nothing obstructionists out of the way. Republicans and blue dog Democrats alike. Vote them out in 2012.

18 October 2011

The Old Song of the Tribes

The sky draws its curtain
across the season. Any day
now it will snow, curtaining

the footprints in the soft earth
we made today, but any day in this life
or another, if I meet you, the earth's

pull will be upon us, the mark of the forest
will be on us, indelible handprints, birthmarks.
We will know each other in city or forest,

despite continents and oceans, we will know
each other as much, as little as
we know ourselves, as much as we know

what the mind is, what the body
can be. Amidst
all the changing, our souls will remain
true to each other. The rest can be mist.

~Patricia Monaghan
I'm not one to (usually) quote the bible, however this seems appropriate:

Ecclesiastes 9: 11-12

I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.

Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,
or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by disaster
that fall unexpectedly upon them.
How much does one drone cost? One 'smart bomb'...one day in Afghanistan? How much taxpayer money did Halliburton get in no bid contracts before they moved their headquarters to Dubai? How much money has and does the Fed give to big banks at zero interest? How much money does a derivatives trader get each year from fraudulent paper, destroying pension funds and national budgets (which is what truly caused this global meltdown)?

The masters of the universe do a great job at keeping our house divided amongst itself...people who have been given assistance and 'made it'...against people who have been given assistance and don't live up to your expectations...it's truly sad.

Our national motto used to be E Pluribus Unum...

Unfortunately it has been changed to "In God We Trust"...

(all others pay cash)...



Check the reverse side of our great seal...something has stunk for a long time:

17 October 2011

The connections are easier when we feel the earth in our hands, when we work in the garden tending our flowers or vegetables...or when we cook, preparing the vegetables that the earth has given us, mixing in the herbs and spices that give us pleasure...or making love, as we share our body and bliss with our lover, we may feel the tenderness and power of that connection, how we find ourselves a part of each other. Our lovemaking is an offering to life itself, a fully-felt remembrance of connection with what we were before our physical-ness, and what we will be after we leave this plane of existence. A truly cosmic experience.

16 October 2011

Involvement or withdrawal...that often seems to be the dilemma to me. However, I've found that the best moral/spiritual/political statement we can make is how we live our lives...day to day. Keeping our end clean, living up to our own values and ideals...without fear of punishment or expectation of reward.

14 October 2011

Now as Then

I wrote this in 2003...January or February. We'd seen the death of Paul Wellstone, a dear friend teaching in Taiwan, two dear friends in Arizona...and were doing hospice with/for my sister in Seattle who was lying, dying from ovarian cancer. She passed in early March...immediately after that I was diagnosed with bladder cancer. I've been cancer free for 5 years now and have no fear of it returning. This writing seems as important now, as then.

***

With all that we've been experiencing this year, collectively and individually, I have some thoughts I'd like to communicate.

A Hopi Elder says about these times:

"You have been telling the people it is the eleventh hour, now you must go back and tell the people, this is the hour, and there are things to be considered. Where are you going? What are you doing? Are you in right relation? Where is your water? Do you know your garden? It is time to speak your truth. There is a river flowing now, very fast. It is so great and swift, there are those who will be afraid. They will hold on to the shore, and they will suffer greatly. The elders say, 'Push off of the shore into the middle of the river, keep your eyes open and your head above water.' And I say, 'See who is in there with you, and celebrate! For at this time in history your are to take nothing personally, least of all yourselves. For the moment that you do, your spiritual journey has come to a halt. Gather yourselves, banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that you do must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration. We are the ones we've been waiting for.' "

Ivan Illich died on December 2nd, in Bremen, Germany.
In the last 20 years of his life, he suffered increasingly from a persistent growth on the side of his face, which he never treated, nor had diagnosed. In what was his most provocative and perhaps final comment on the "pursuit of health", Illich wrote: "Yes, we suffer pain, we become ill, we die. But we also hope, laugh, celebrate; we know the joy of caring for one another; often we are healed and we recover by many means. We do not have to pursue the flattening-out of human experience. I invite all to shift their gaze, their thoughts, from worrying about 'health care' to cultivating the art of living. And, today with equal importance, the art of suffering, the art of dying."

Paper covers rock, rock breaks scissors, scissors cut paper...but fear destroys magic...that has been the celebrated cause of "Civilisation"...parents beating the magic from the child...religious governments and governmental religions instilling fear to cloud the reality that we glimpse periodically when we are quiet by a river in the woods, or celebrating life amongst the dearest of our friends...

08 October 2011

Just a couple of reasons


Canning and preserving season is upon us.  We've got most everything stored away in the cool pantry, or (in the case of onions, garlic and squash) hanging around the house decoratively.  I love living in the art of friends and nature, a personal gallery...I also enjoy having the animals of the wild around, from the omnipresent deer to wolves, cougars, owls, eagles, swans, geese, squirrels and chipmunks...grouse, wild turkeys...I consider all of them friends or acquaintances and allow them as much space as they need.  In turn I insist the same from them.  We're in the season of visitors and harvest gatherings, which plum tuckers me out.  I begin to look forward to the end of deer hunting season mid-November, the snow settling in...the smell of pine and birch incense in the morning fire.  A time for playing guitar, writing, planning, thinking, dreaming, baking, cooking, music and wine...the quiet of winter, the comfort of home.  To be shared with the one I love...and she loves so well.  Thanks for all of this.  I do appreciate it all so.  


As I sit staring out of the window in the woods, birds flutter by...Veterans' Day 2023

 With wars and conflicts raging in multiple locations, I'm living in relative peace now.   I went to the Wikipedia page to see how many ...