Gratitude

This morning while eating oatmeal I was reminded of the sacrifice of the plants on our behalf. Each grain is precious and include gifts of the earth, rain, sun and the planters and harvesters. These plants have consciousness. They give their lives just as animals and fish are sacrificed for our energy. Gratitude is the most compassionate state of mind.

Mvto Alligator Stillness

Animals teach us. Last night alligator showed me that with stillness within the waters become still. Then you can see and know.

Lightness of Being

Visited with my cousin George Coser, Jr yesterday at the kitchen table. He's a gift. Always something profound among the stories. The sacred lies at the root of the mundane. And every word is a power element. Each word or sound, whether thought, written or spoken grows our path, the path of our generation, the children, grandchildren, the Earth...We become the ancestors. A sense of play gives a lightness of being. So get out there and play--and be kind while you're at it. To yourself, too.

November 27, 2012

Disappeared Website and Scrambled Blog Posts

I received a few notes on Facebook that my website appears to be gone, and some say these posts are scrambled. I have sent an SOS to my webmaster. I DO have a site. It is somewhere in time. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks, Giving

In honor of a day that's come to be known as "Thanksgiving". The holiday's origins are shady, but we've made it a day of thanks.

PERHAPS THE WORLD ENDS HERE

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat

to live.

The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it

has been since creation, and it will go on.

We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners.

They scrape their knees under it.

It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human.

We make men at it, we make women.

At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.

Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our

children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as

we put ourselves back together once again at the table.

This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.

Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the

shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.

We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for

burial here.

At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering

and remorse. We give thanks.

Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

c Joy Harjo from The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, W.W. Norton 1994

BEFORE ALL THINGS (first draft)

My eyes peer above the horizon.

The waters below this world are my calm.

I hear the breathing of the sleeping.

I have given birth here. I will die here, in the not too long awhile.

In this ceremony of the sun, the earth will be cracked open with light.

We will rise up and walk the human road.

The clatter of good and evil will test the heart.

My heart is weary of the fight.

I’d rather be here in the balance where I can see everything.

The earth’s soul shimmers with turquoise.

Particles from the indigo path to the stars are still in my teeth.

My thinking mind has been swept clean by currents of the night,

The sky carries the knowledge of all the other worlds

I watch it for signs.

It is here where human imagination has placed our maker.

I feel the maker here in this breath, in these words, on this earth,

As I surface up from the deep.

I have seen sharks there, canoes that fly through time, and plants that walk.

I have bathed in mystery.

I will pause here with the maker, in a dusky field before sunrise

Next to stones that speak of honor--

There is an eternity of sky.

This morning it is red.

c Joy Harjo 11/21/2012 Albuquerque, NM

Heavy Matrix of Divisiveness

The story matrix is heavy. I feel it through my body and soul. There is such divisiveness at the national and global levels, a divisiveness that begins within each of us.

I need to find some way to walk through the hatefulness with grace, to not become part of it. I must investigate my own house within. 

It hurts my heart to hear those close and far away say that there is only one doorway, one religion and all else is evil. That there might be only one religion, one doorway makes no sense at all. Why would a Creator of such a magnificence that s/he creates each of us: human, animal, plant, elements,all life in its multitude of forms, an unrelenting diversity, none of us the same--allow only one doorway to that magnificence?

God didn't create religions. Religions were created by humans, albeit inspired humans. They are human structures to make sense of the spiritual story here, a place for people to come together to worship. They can inspire people to work together for good, or they can promote hatefulness against anyone who is not like them--other religions, races, cultures, women.... 

We were each planted with light. We must tend it so it doesn't go out. We must take care of our own houses, and share with those in need, rather than destroying the houses of others or forcibly occupying them with words or stones. 

Each word is either a missile of hurt, or a missive of light.

Via Tulsa Airport--Winter Morning

The star people are opening up many doors to time in this season of enormous shift.

Time was always a fluid being.

Each kind of time is a state of mind.

Fear blocks doorways.

Joy opens them.

Music is one of the best teachers of time.  It's all about the rhythm.

Ride it! Create with it! In all things---

If You Look from the Moon, We All Look the Same

This morning I open my eyes in my home state, which overwhelmingly voted for Romney. I can feel the din of disappointment here. America is a multi-cultural, multi-racial country. Romney ran a Christian right-white campaign. He made no attempts to be inclusive, as did Obama. The people voted. I am relieved and even feel celebratory. Now we must all work for inclusion of every voice. Each of us has equal value, the rich and the poor, the indigenous tribal belief person and the right-white Christian, the "straight" and the gay/or other expression of love for humanity,. If you look from the moon or beyond, we are earth. If you look from the eyes of the Creator, we are exquisite Creation. Mvto.