COLLATERAL DAMAGE

                                              COLLATERAL DAMAGE

It’s no longer just about them, you know, those nameless names that get in the way of our semi-accurate bombs and drones, or those children on the nightly news fleeing war or gunned down on our city streets.

Too bad. Sorry. What’s for lunch?

No, now, it’s about us. We are the ones. Really.

Yes, we the ones who are killed. Bombed, gunned down, droned and drowned sitting in our comfy living room chairs or standing at the kitchen counter.

When we do nothing, say nothing, think nothing, feel nothing about the vile and villainous doings in this world…

Every time that one of those nameless names is maimed or murdered and we carry on as though another atomic bomb did not just explode in our faces…

Then we die. A vital part of our precious humanity simply goes up in smoke.

But, cheer-up. It’s ok.  Keep watching. Post another selfie.  Sip a latte. Have a piece of pie. 

IN CASE YOU HADN'T NOTICED...

IN CASE YOU HADN'T NOTICED: In case you hadn't noticed there's a terrible tide surging up and tearing down those tall trees full of lovely leaves.
.
It's like some newly opened wound inflicted before you or I were born,
pusing fear and hatred from venomous mouths with pompous pouts.
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Tell me, what are we? What have we become?

Is our nobility merely sleeping or is our noble king dead, poisoned through the endless hearing
of mindless rants without a human head?

THE STRONG WINDS OF SPIRIT

MAY THE STRONG WINDS OF SPIRIT clear from me these lifeless leaves of fear and hatred that still cling to this magnificent tree that is True Self. May I stand before this world rooted in compassionate depths, in openness and strength, in vulnerability and love, naked, fearless, fierce and free.

ENTANGLEMENT: SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE

ENTANGLEMENT: SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE. This was Albert Einstein's way of describing what Quantum Mechanics shows us, namely that two separated atoms continue to affect each other, faster than the speed of light, no matter what the distance of their separation. Perhaps in our prayer and meditation we can remember that our thoughts, words and actions, and even our intentions, may indeed span the known universe in unimaginable and infinite ways. And the distance that we think is there between us, may in the end , turn out to be yet another illusion. After all, we are, each one of us, a wondrous universe of whirling atoms.

THE DREAM MAY NEVER HAPPEN...

THE DREAM MAY NEVER HAPPEN, the vision may never be seen, the song may never be sung... but all through this dark night, this dream, this vision, this song will be a light guiding your faltering steps to that place that, for now ,is only glimpsed in dreams, in visions and songs. 

WHEN WE ARE SHAKEN TO THE CORE...

WHEN WE ARE SHAKEN TO THE CORE...that is NOT the time to react. Rather, when our inner landscape trembles, that is the time to draw more deeply from the well of wisdom and compassion, to cup those wondrous waters with open hands and drink of peace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXjUwSxNUL8 

LONGING OR THE DOGS OF LOVE

 LONGING OR THE DOGS OF LOVE: When we enter the silence of meditation many things surface from the depths. One such depth-dweller is the presence of longing, the experience of our deepest desires which often we cannot articulate but we know are present in powerful ways. This is the stuff that breaks the heart. Sometimes we attempt to express this longing in terms of our desire for love, meaning, happiness or power. Whatever name we apply, it somehow seems to fall short of the reality we experience. Sometimes, naively, we even try to place our deepest longing on a person or thing, a career, our dream house, a community....But sooner or later we return to this ache of the heart that refuses to leave the room. The Welsh have a word -'Hiraeth', pronounced hee-reyeth. It doesn't translate well into English. It is a particular kind of yearning or homesickness that longs for the land that once was or that never was. A beautiful, painful place in the landscape of the human heart, not unlike Augustine's restless heart. I wonder... might this longing be that good guide and even more... that can lead us further along the Path to that Place we call Home? The poet Rumi has a lovely little poem called " Love Dogs". Here is my own paraphrase based on Coleman Barks translation::

" In the night, a voice cries out
' Oh God, Allah, Oh Love'
Lips grow sweet with the sound of praise-
'Oh God, Allah, Oh Love'
And then... a cynic shows up and says:
'So, I have heard you calling out.
Tell me, have you ever gotten any response?'
Silence. The one who praised stopped praying altogether
and fell into a confused sleep.
Dreams came...
Dreams of Khidr, guide of souls.
Khidr, sitting in a lush green forest asking the question:
" Why have you stopped praising?"
The answer? 'Because I have never heard anything in response.'
" Ah," said Khidr. " Do you not understand?
The Longing you express IS the return message.
The grief you cry out from draws you
closer and closer into Union.
And your pure sorrow desiring help...
your pure sorrow, this is the Secret Cup.
Listen to the moaning of a dog for its Master.
That whining is the connection.
There are Love Dogs no one knows the names of
Give your life to be one of them."
-Rumi

" Out of the Depths I cry to You..." -Psalm 130:1