We carry their hearts

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“They want us to be afraid.

They want us to be afraid of leaving our homes.

They want us to barricade our doors

and hide our children.

Their aim is to make us fear life itself!

They want us to hate.

They want us to hate 'the other'.

They want us to practice aggression

and perfect antagonism.

Their aim is to divide us all!

They want us to be inhuman.

They want us to throw out our kindness.

They want us to bury our love

and burn our hope.

Their aim is to take all our light!

They think their bricked walls

will separate us.

They think their damned bombs

will defeat us.

They are so ignorant they don’t understand

that my soul and your soul are old friends.

They are so ignorant they don’t understand

that when they cut you I bleed.

They are so ignorant they don’t understand

that we will never be afraid,

we will never hate

and we will never be silent

for life is ours!”

― Kamand Kojouri

______________________________________

here is the deepest secret nobody knows…

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) (ee cummings)

it is also true, that you carry mine in yours

we are bound you and I

whether I know you, or not

whether I like you or not

or understand you

we are bound together regardless of race, or culture

or creed

education or standing

nationality

we are bound together by something older than the foundation of the world

something deeper that the greatest depth in the sea

we are bound together that that which carries us both

and compels us to communion

Oh we can deny it

And those in power often do

They foster fear, feed hate

Promote division

Build walls (or try to)

And seek expulsion, or even eradication

In anger some pick up guns, and kill

Or place guns in the hands of others

We are all too good at denying our bond

Denying that we all carry some of the Sacred in us

And so are brothers and sister

Bound together

But in that denial we deny ourselves

We exclude ourselves

We isolate our selves

You have only to look in the eyes

Those tight, angry eyes ( you know of whom I speak)

To know this truth

To know the pain that comes

From such a refutation of our very nature

It is hard not be afraid

It is near impossible to avoid hate

And we are often cowed into silence

But our brothers and sisters, dying on the streets of America

Hiding in terror under the desks of our schools

Our brothers and sister,

Bleeding in the dust of Gaza

Lying in the rubble in Syria

Call to us

We experience their pain, their fear, their horror

Their deaths

We feel the terror in their breasts

As bullets fly and bombs fall

For we carry their hearts

In our hearts

And so we must say to those who have chosen not to be fully human

Those who have denied their sacred DNA

Those who have closed themselves off, so they do not look

Past themselves

We must say to them, no matter what the cost…

“that we will never be afraid,

we will never hate

and we will never be silent

for life is ours!”

love and power

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“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

___________________________

Today I watched the world burning

I watched as greed men abused the earth, and lusted for more

I watched as men and women in leadership, tacitly approved torture

I watched our “leader” lie and lie and lie again

And assail the rule of law

I watch congress remain silent while the checks and balances that have kept our country safe

Were eroded

I watched a modern day Pharisee (Franklin Graham) judged and demean and play God

Suggesting that only he, and those who violate the spirit of Jesus’ teachings every day

Are the keepers of the Kingdom

I watched our country reaffirm its commitment to violence as a way of life

And listened to people choose guns over children

I heard hate, and saw hate

I heard greed and saw greed

I heard arrogance and saw arrogance

I heard judgement and saw exclusion

I heard racism and saw functional genocide

Ah what a world we live in

So full of evil and dysfunction

And I, I too

I am in the mix, with my own stuff

My own hate

My own desire that God judge and punish

That someone (who shall not be named) just die

Mea Culpa

Mea Maxima Culpa

Kyrie Eleison

On me

On those I love

Yes, O Sacred One

Even on those whom, today, I wished were gone

I think it is time

To dwell on the beauty of life

To run with the stars

And to remember God’s love

And God’s power

And what can happen

When power and love come together

letting go

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“There are too many people today who instead of feeling hurt are acting out their hurt; instead of acknowledging pain, they’re inflicting pain on others. Rather than risking feeling disappointed, they’re choosing to live disappointed.

                                                                        Brene Brown

____________________________________

Avoid it

Avoid it at all costs

That pain, that feeling

That disquieting thought

That uncomfortable truth

Stuff it down

Hide it repressive

Fill the trash can of your soul

What can go wrong?

Ah, the problem is that trash

Almost always,

Eventually

Stinks

Rot, rot

Fester, fester

And sometimes the trash can explodes

And what we chose not to deal with, not to express

Expresses itself

It attitudes

Feelings

Words

Actions

It explodes with in us

And we struggle with illness and pain

But it also explodes from us

And we act our pain and anger

Our hurt,

Wounded we wound

Fearful we live out our fear, creating fear

Infected we infect.

There is another option

We can accept

We can embrace

We can touch our pain, and let it go

We can notice what we think

And accept what we feel

And take a deep breath

And let it go

Call it what you will

De-fusing

Forgiveness

Centering

We touch all that is wounded in us

And then turn from it

And do what we care about

We love

We serve

We help

We heal

It is an old truth

“You can only lose what you cling to.” – Buddha

It is a basic truth

“whoever wants to save their life will lose it”

Ah my dear ones

Tonight turn off the TV

Shut down the computer

Ignore your phone

Walk out into the darkness

Gaze at the stars stretching into the eternal

And “give to the winds thy fears;

hope and be undismayed.

God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,

God shall lift up thy head” (Traditional hymn)

You have everything to lose

Thank

God

Regard

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“Not every story has a happy ending, ... but the discoveries of science, the teachings of the heart, and the revelations of the soul all assure us that no human being is ever beyond redemption. The possibility of renewal exists so long as life exists. How to support that possibility in others and in ourselves is the ultimate question.”

                                                          Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

______________________________________________________________

Do I believe it

Really?

That no human being is ever beyond redemption

Do I believe it about Trump?

Do I believe it about you?

Do I believe it about me?

It is an important question

For in that answer is the genesis

of who we see others

feel about others

talk about others

treat others

Do we believe that every person is sacred

That each person carries divine DNA

Do we trust that this divine element

Woven into the fabric of each of us

Change the whole

As small as this element may be?

Jesus said yes

The tiny bit of yeast can affect the dough

Just a tiny bit of sacred, and determine who we are

So here is the larger question

The ultimate question

How do we support that possibility in others and in ourselves?

One wise sage once suggested that we must create a “free and friendly space” (Nouwen)

which gives others the freedom to cast off the alien self, created by the world

and become ourselves

that sacred child

How do I do that?

The simple answer is love

But what does love look like?

Perhaps at a profound level it is a matter of giving someone the sense

That there is someone there

Someone for them

Someone who cares

Perhaps, as Rogers once suggested

It is a matter of unconditional positive regard

An offering of worth

That gives the other hope

It stretches my imagination to believe

That this might truly help the most damaged among us

Especially the successful and powerful who are damaged

For with power and wealth their dysfunctional efforts to prove their worth

Are so intrusive

And powerful

And persistent

But what is our option?

We have tried hate

We have tried reward

We have tried punishment and resistance

Why not regard?

I know I do not have this regard in me

I know it will have to borrow it from the Sacred

But perhaps now is the time

In spite of the fact that there may not be a happy ending

To

Try

love or fear

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“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

― Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address

______________________________________

sometimes I think our fear is killing us

fear of failure

drives us into a lifestyle of stress and over work

and kills joy

fear that we are not enough

causes us to numb our lives

with alcohol or drugs

fear of strangers causes us to

execute compassion

and kill kindness

fear of other faiths

causes us to close our hearts

and kill forgiveness and love

fear causes us to hate

and judge

to oppress

and even to kill (literally)

fear feeds on fear

and feeds on us

and makes us less

there is only one antidote,

love!

wisdom reminds us

that “perfect love casts out fear”

but in the midst of fear

love is hard to find

in most cases

I have to import it

I cannot overcome fear by myself

and love?

it has to come from the place it ALWAYS lives

from the Sacred One

it has to come as Spirit

it has to come into that place at the center of who I

am, that place that makes me “me”

it has to come

into heart and soul

and only when it does

can I move beyond fear

can I move beyond the fear

that I will fail

that I will be rejected

that I will be hurt

only then can I dispel my greatest fear

that I will end up isolated

alone

without respect

without affection

without friends

surrounded by books and cats

but alone

so come O Love

come as Spirit

come through the smile of another

come through the beauty of the mountain

come on the wind

come through a child’s laughter

come in the Morels that grace the slopes

come in the flowers, pushing their way through the soil

come from places expected

and unexpected

come O love

The power of love

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

― Jimi Hendrix

 “Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”

― George Carlin

 “Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:

- I shall not fear anyone on Earth.

- I shall fear only God.

- I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.

- I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.

- I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

_________________________________________

Peace!

Is it that hard?

Apparently, yes!

When we worship power,

And love money

When our false self egos are in control

Peace does not come easily

Whether it be inner peace, relational peace

Or world peace

There is only one antidote

Love

Not love as that mushy feeling we human’s feel

Which may, much of the time, be mostly hormones

Not the love of mother’s day cards (although that love is beautiful)

But Love

As that power, that presence, that is love

That love that is God

This reality is tough

It refuses to fear

It forgives

It sees the best in even our enemies

It is tolerant of all people

But intolerant of injustice and inequity

Intolerant of anything that harm a Sacred Child

(and we are all Sacred Children).

It is honest

It does not lie, does not dissemble

This is the Love we see from the Sacred

This is the love that walked dusty roads and ate with “sinners”

This is the love that hung on a cross

To model the way to the Kingdom

In this world where the is so little people

And people who are not “love”

And do not love

And perhaps cannot love

We need a little Love

(And a whole lot of God)

Hate is a waste

“Hate is a lack of imagination.”

― Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory

_____________________________________

I hated today!

I admit it

I heard the words echoing around in my skull

As I listened to him speak,

Why can’t you just die!

It is all too easy, this thing called hate

All to easy

But hate is a lack of imagination

if I hate

I do not have the ability to see

the good in you

the possibilities in you

the sacred in you

if I hate

I have already given up

on change

and reconciliation and compassion

if I hate I can do nothing more imaginative

than violence

I have no better solutions than

lying

misrepresenting

excluding

judging

picking up a gun

hate is a colossal waste of energy

________________________________

Lord help me not to hate

I find it all too easy

My religion is love

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

The Dali Lama

_________________________________________

when you get to the center of it all

after you dig through all the pages of all the tomes

and listen to all the words of oh so many teachers

you will find that there are just some people

who embody what you want to be

who glow with the Spirit

who are lit up from within

when you are with them

you find

you are more,

you wake up

to who you really are

and then you realize

that what makes them who they are

is kindness

deep rooted

persistent kindness

the source of which

is in the very nature

of the Sacred One

they love

That's my child

“I believe that appreciation is a holy thing--that when we look for what's best in a person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does all the time. So in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something sacred.”

                                                                                                    Fred Rogers

__________________________________________________________

I don’t believe God is a man

Or a Woman

I think we make a mistake, at some profound level

When we anthropomorphize God

We make God too small

God becomes something contained, limited

Rooted in time and space

God becomes mine, and not yours

God is for me, and not you

It is better to think of God as bigger

Broader

Less definable

After all, who can define infinity, really?

And yet images can be helpful

And I love the image of God a Parent

And image which gambols through the pages of the sacred texts

Not just a parent, a good parent

A doting parent

I love the idea that God

Looks upon these strange creatures called humans

And see them with the eyes of delight

Knowing the worst

But believing the best

Hoping against hope, that we will grow up

Into the divine image

But most of all I like the idea that echoing through

The darkness of failure

And the haze of uncertainty

Echoing down through the immensity of eternity

I can hear the voice of One who loves me

Saying

“Hey, that’s my kid!”

Sacred Child

I like the idea, although it torment me at times

As I am sure it does Sacred

That the same voice says the same thing

About every person who on this fine spring day

Takes a breathe

And feels their heart beat

Yes, every person

Sacred may say it with sadness in some cases

And with all the hopelessness of a parent watching a child

Make choices he or she abhors

But God says it, nonetheless

With appreciation

For what was, what is (at times)

And for what may yet be

Walking each other home

That's what it's all about!

We are here to walk each other home.

I have tried hard over the years, to figure out what the teachings

of Jesus were all about

People have taken the words of Jesus

and made them mean so many different things

they have used Jesus words to inspire works of great love and compassion

and used them to justify acts of violence and hate

they have used his words to heal

but also to wound

Some people use Jesus’ words to promote generosity

but many more use them to justify greed and selfishness

but this is what it is all about

I believe Jesus calls us to walk each other home

Even when we don’t quite know where “home” is

Even when the way is long

Even when the path is torturous and vague

We walk each other home

We care for one another

We carry one another

If we must use some of our strength, some of our resources

To help another along that path,

We do it

We do it whether that person deserves it or not

for Jesus never worried about merit

all he ever saw in another was a precious soul

Oh, sometimes he was saddened by what he saw

But he always, still, wanted to help that person home

Tax collector

Fisher, farmer, cook, cleaner

Man on the street

Woman by the well

Thief on a cross

Blind one, sick one, wounded one, hated one

He simply sought

With the love of God in him

To walk them home

To that place of peace

So we are here to walk each other home

And it is not acceptable to leave others behind,

so that we might get there ourselves

It is not OK to leave others behind,

To make our journey easier

No precious soul, and we are all precious souls,

Can be left behind by our choosing

By our decision to exclude

By our choice to shame, to minimize

By our decision to go the way of wealth and power

And our decision to abandon the poor, the ill, the aging, the addicted

For we are here to walk each other home

I know I do not always succeed in this task

I have walked by people (literally or figuratively)

I have left some there, in the dust, by the side of the road

Broken and bleeding

I suspect you don’t either

But we do carry some of God’s power (Spirit)

And we do carry some of God’s love, for God has given us his love

And when love and power come together?

We not only want to do good, we have the power to do it

So this day

As the rain falls

And the thunder rolls

And the clouds encase the earth

I will remember the words of the man Jesus

The words of the eternal Christ

We are here, to walk each other home

spiritual poverty

“When will our consciences grow so tender

that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?”

                             Eleanor Roosevelt

_____________________________________

Are we so empty

So fearful

That we have lost our ability

To give

And to welcome?

In the mist of a rainy evening

I watch the horses play

Musical hay piles

Wandering distractedly

Sadie, the alpha

Aged and bony though she may be

Still queens over the pasture

Finally settling

And so to the others

And then, magically

From the darkness under the trees

Come the deer

Tentative

But eager

Finding their way to the piles of hay

And there they

Graze

The haves and the have nots

All stomachs being sated

Because of generosity and welcome

How it speaks of the poverty

Of those with obscene wealth

That they must grasp for more

Knowing that because they do

Someone goes hungry

Someone sleeps on the street

Someone has no health care

Someone lives in despair

How it speaks of the poverty

Of those with all the power

Who misuse that power

Who lie and cheat and steal

Gasping, consuming, gorging themselves

On what does not

Will not

Can not satisfy

Trees of Heaven, Seeds of Hell

You can't plant the trees of Heaven, ...

with  the seeds of Hell. "

                             Ammar Al- Shukry

____________________________________

It doesn’t matter

It does

Not

Matter

Whether you are trying to Make America Great Again

Or

Establish the Kingdom of God

It does not matter how you define yourself

Or your spirituality

You cannot create good out of evil

You cannot build greatness out of greed

You cannot create justice if you lust for power

You cannot create hospitality with fear

You cannot generate compassion out of judgement

We cannot create world of peace and equity

A world of love and justice

By insisting on our own way

The way to what is good

Is not merely paved with good intentions

But with good actions

And good hearts

With compassion and generosity

Equity and equality

Acceptance and love

There is no other way to make American Great

There is no other way to usher in the Kingdom

It takes sacrifice

And giving

Sometimes it takes dying

Always it takes love

Live in the questions

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.

...live in the question.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

________________________________________________________

I have so many questions

The longer I live

The more I have

It seems as for every answer

There are 5 questions,

Waiting to ambush me

And so I walk each day

With so much unresolved

Living the questions

Knowing that perhaps there is no answer

to be found in this world

in this moment

only in the depth of eternity

and maybe not then

perhaps then it won’t matter anymore

as I find resolution

and return to the One from whom I came

Why do children get sick?

Whey do parents brutalize their children, mental, and physically?

Why are we so selfish?

Why do wicked people seem to prosper?

Why do we so easily believe liars?

Where am I going?

Has my life been worth anything?

Why am I so often lonely?

Why do I do so many stupid things?

How do we create change?

How do we defeat evil?

These things torment me, and go unresolved

Yet I will hold them patiently

And I will let them go

For they are of no earthly good

Of no heavenly good either

and the answers are sometimes worse

being not the answer

really

so

I will live in the questions...

And keep walking

Keep searching

Keep trying

Keep loving (as best I can)

peace

be kind

“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”

                              Henry James

 “Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

                              Desmond Tutu

________________________________________________

Where did it go?

It must be hiding some place?

Perhaps it is under the desk in the White House

Or ensconced in some back row in Congress

Perhaps it is hiding behind the pulpit a church

Maybe, just maybe, there is a webpage someplace

Where it is to be abundantly found

But kindness seems to have left the building!

I find far too little of it left in my soul

Replaced instead by outrage

And a desire to attack and overwhelm

With the brilliance of my rhetoric, with the force of my anger

Where or where is love

Where is kindness

Where are those little bits of good, put together?

They are there, I believe

Those little acts of kindness

Kindness is in the hands of a older farm widow

Who knits shawls and blankets for people who are struggling

Kindness is in the help given, freely and without question, by an aging farmer

Who gives of his time and his skills to help in so many practical ways

It is in the gentle counsel of the woman everyone calls when life caves in

Counsel given in the context of great trial (cancer) within her own family

It is given through the hands of nurses

Through the listening ears of healers

Those “little bits of good” do litter the universe

And the tipping point is there

That place where those acts of kindness overwhelm the world

But it takes us all

All of our little acts

All of those brief moments

So today

Let us try to be kind

And no matter how today turns out

Remember there is always

tomorrow