peace- huh! what is it good for?

absolutely everything.  i haven’t been writing much lately because i have been doing much thinking.  processing- i suppose.  the more things change- the more they stay the same.  human nature.  i have also been reading about chinese buddhism- a book by master hsing yun ‘only a great rain‘- and i am convinced that the ancients were really on to something there.  this planet and this life is filled with chaos and hatred and negativity- and really, it’s only going to get worse as more and more folks suffer.  we have 6 billion people on a planet that can’t sustain that many and we are using up our resources like crazy.  we don’t have much time as a species.

but we can certainly make this life the best one we can- and i respect the buddhists premise that in seeking dharma towards our enlightenment- we must strive to help all other sentient beings get there too.  what a nice idea.  the truth is we need each other.  the buddhist believe everything is interconnected- and science has pretty much proven that idea over and over- and that one cannot exist without another.  john donne said as much when he said ‘no man is an island’- and as times become tougher and resources become scarcer- we will need each other as never before.

there is a gap in our skill sets over the last 100 years.  we have millions of people in this country who believe that feeding yourself involves driving to the grocery store and buying food to take home and cook.  they believe that getting a drink involves turning on your tap or buying water in plastic bottles.  our way of life isn’t sustainable and the few folks out there who know how to build a cook fire or catch rain for irrigation or which vegetable grows well in which season- well, their numbers are dwindling.  family farms are dwindling.  it’s getting to be very depressing to live right now- here  on this planet where everything seems to be going wrong at the same time.

but it doesn’t have to be.  a big part of what i learned working in human services- teamwork.  yep.  one person doesn’t- and shouldn’t- carry the weight for everyone all of the time.  while one person rests, another takes up the burden and we all work together.  president obama cannot do this alone and he is putting together a great team at the top to help guide america through these tough times.  but they can’t carry the insurmountable weight themselves.  we must look at each other with new eyes.  we must see that we are all americans and all fellow inhabitants of planet earth and we must work together to carry the burden.  look at what people accomplished by sharing the load- the great pyramids; grains to feed the whole world; the internet- but we must reach down deep inside for our inner strength.  we must remain positive and strong- we cannot afford to allow fear and insecurity take hold again as we did collectively after 9/11.

we are made of stronger stuff.  we are made of tougher stuff- and quite frankly, there are billions of people on this planet who lived through worse times than we.  when you feel sorry for yourself, or get depressed- remember that there is always someone somewhere worse off than you.  it helps reset the perspective button.

from my google reader:

please keep stoking the embers of positivity

Sphere: Related Content

good writing and pleasant suprises

i read belledame and angry black woman regularly- not so much shakesville.  so, i was pleasantly surprised at the post at fetch me my axe that highlighted a letter of solidarity for feminists of all shades from that blog.  i didn’t see any mention of non hetero feminists- and that is a problem.  take a peek yourself- belledame has the links in the post.

Sphere: Related Content

back from the longest walk

spadoman has returned from the longest walk as he has a bad case of bronchitis, but he is on the mend and posted over at his place today. he will be sharing some of his experiences along but i jumped the gun and decided to post his latest here today. welcome back my friend! betmo

I’ll start at the beginning. The trip itself is over for now. I am home. I had to come home. I got sick with bronchitis and wasn’t having any luck healing while working and on the road. I guess that’s the end, not the beginning, but when I left Ashland on January 27th, I didn’t have any idea of what was about to happen on The Longest Walk.

The trip itself had a few segments. When I left I traveled South towards New Mexico and Arizona across the midsection of America. I pulled into Flagstaff Arizona a day after a 17 inch snowfall. I went a little further South to Sedona where I stopped in at my brother’s place. My brother and his wife were gone on a cruise. My sister was staying with my Mother at my brother’s place. I stayed a few days and visited with Mom.

On February 4th, a Sunday, I took off and headed West. I was going to veer to the Northwest and Tahatchapi pass, but weather had moved in and the reports said that the pass was closed due to snow. I went straight West into the Northern edge of Los Angeles and took The Grapevine North on I-5.

I thought it strange that there was no traffic going South and there was no cars or other traffic behind me. I was the last car headed North. they had closed the pass behind me. I passed a long line of semi trucks that were slowly creeping across the San Gabriel Mountains and pulled into a rest area for a snooze.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

‘the road i must travel’

[youtube]yrBfPLUm5so[/youtube]

h/t to quaker dave at les enrages

blog power

i have been thinking quite a bit about blogging lately. i haven’t blogged as much as usual because i have been sick, so i guess it opened up the ole’ cranial waves to thinking instead of typing without thinking there are millions of blogs out there. literally. any blogger with their salt knows this- because we all sign up with technorati and that’s where we start- rank 2,389,343- or something like that anyhoo- i have been blogging personally for over 2 years now and so i guess i am old hat. most of us had no idea what we were doing or what we should write about- but we found our voice. it isn’t easy to sit down at the keyboard every single day and beat out eye opening, informative posts consistently- so i don’t even try but there are many who do. what has amazed me is the online collaboration between bloggers who have never set eyes on each other in ‘real life’ and the group blogs and forums that spring up around those collaborations. a brotherhood and sisterhood of folks blogging for a cause. folks from around the globe blogging together and reaching out and getting to know each other and each other’s culture. it has been an amazing experience for me- and eye opening as well. from soldier’s blogs in iraq to bloggers from iraq, gaza, malaysia- with the click of a mouse, we can see pictures and read real stories from real people. we can commiserate and share stories about politics, religion and other points of view. never has the world seemed smaller. it highlights the differences in cultures for sure, but what i have noticed is how alike we all are. we are all human beings with families who love and hate; get annoyed with each other; want garbage removal and running water- care where our food comes from. there are left leaning folks in other countries just as there are right wing folks- and the bottom line is- we are all people underneath the culture.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content