What are we doing here??

Tonight is the 40th Spiral Dance put on by the Reclaiming community, of which I am a part.  Thousands will gather to celebrate and honor the lives of the Beloved Dead during this time when, in many traditions, the veil is thin between the world of the living and the world of the dead.  We will be surrounded by altars for the directions, for the dead, for the living.  We will travel to the Isle of Apples, we will sing, and we will dance the spiral, looking into each others eyes as we share this moment of life.  It's a beautiful thing!

Do you ever ask yourself why you are here on Earth?  Do you ever ask yourself why here in this place where you are, and why now?

"Why" is a fun question because it has many layers.  The answers are many-layered too. 

What answers do you encounter, if any?

I've always been more interested in "How" and "What" because they are more functional questions, but "Why" is an invitation into one's own deep inner being, into the convoluted brain and all of the stories of who and what a person actually is.  We are human, we have bodies, we have minds and emotions, and we have awareness, but...what are we?  Does one's existence have meaning?  What is "meaning"?

Life as a human on Earth, in these times, depending on where one was born and into what kind of body, is a mixed bag of, well, everything.  There is joy, hopefully, and there is definitely suffering.  For some there is material plenty and for some there is not.  Some people experience a sense of purpose, direction, a path of being and doing that they embrace.  For some it is not so simple or easy.  We humans span the spectrum of possibilities.  And yet with all of that variety of experiences we have some things in common.  We all live in these bodies which have specific requirements.  We all have time...a little, a lot...but some time in which (most of us get to) breathe, feel, sense, think, exist. And in those moments or decades or whatever amount of time we have, we perceive ourselves in relationship with everything else in the lovely paradoxical dance of individualism and collectivism.

I invite myself and you to be conscious of all of this as we walk through the world.  Re-membering (making whole) our Selves and Each Other; that we are in this together as a whole lot of individuals, creating the world every day, every moment, through our actions, our emotions, our thoughts, and our awareness.

Wey Valley Radio

There's nothing like live radio, and there's nothing like community radio!  It was a real treat for me to get to visit Wey Valley Radio in Alton Hants, UK.  Community radio is a labor of love, wherever you find it, bringing live music, local news, and fostering that feeling of community connection that is so vital to humans.

Tobiah, my friend and host here in the UK, was invited to be on Acoustic Café Radio at Wey Valley Radio 101.1 FM.  Along with the wonderful Colette O'Leary on accordion, and with fellow musical guest on the show DiElle.  The songs reflected the loving hearts of the musicians.  It was very special. Host Brian Player facilitated a wonderful 2 hours of music and conversation.  You can listen to the recording here.

If you are looking for real music, real information, brought to you by non-corporate people, find your local community radio station, and if you can't find one, start one!

Tobiah and Colette

Brian

DiElle

I love working in radio, and as always, like to acknowledge the person who mentored me in radio, Greg Hooker, one of the best radio hosts, and a deeply decent human.

This afternoon at Meadow End...

Visiting friends Tobiah and Steven, looking forward to Tobiah's concert tomorrow at St. Georges Church in Trotten.  The concert celebrates Tobiah's new record Are We Angels, which I hope you will listen to, and even buy!  It will feed your heart and soul, I promise!

I'm sitting in the breakfast nook with a cup of tea, while Tob, Simon Callow, Colete O'Leary, and Rowan Piggott (soon to arrive) are rehearsing. Sarah Miles just came by to say hello; Academy Award winning actress and brilliant actor, a neighbor, she's been a guest on Paradigms.

This morning I read 3/4 of the new book Buffy Sainte-Marie The Authorized Biography by Andrea Warner and discovered that my favorite of her songs, Starwalker, is her favorite too.  I listened to it over and over driving across Canada in 2005 during my grief travels.  If you have a chance to listen to the song at the link above, do, and do read the book! Buffy is one of my great inspirations.  I had the honor of an interview with Buffy in 2009, and am hoping to talk with her again this year.

You know how sometimes you encounter someone and you connect deeply with ease?  That's how this friendship is. Tobiah and I have been friends via internet and phone since she was first on Paradigms in 2010, introduced by Will McCoy, The Rhythm Rancher, who is himself an amazing musician and was a guest on Paradigms in 2010.  Well, we finally met in person 2 days ago at Heathrow when she and Steven picked me up.  When Tobiah released her new album and scheduled this concert we both decided it was time for me to visit, and so, here I am. 

I am listening to the rehearsal, and as much as I want to sing along I am keeping quiet.  I know these songs and love them.  I've listened to them all countless times, but to hear them being sung in the next room...well you can't beat that with a stick!

Music is the healer, music is the healing...if we listen to beautiful music with messages of love and care and tenderness, it can help heal our wounds. Even the most broken damaged person who has committed the most despicable acts can find healing if the seek it.

Random musings in early 2019...

Some people find treasures when they go to the sea; jewelry, shells, sponges...all in the sand.  It’s a talent.

When I go to the sea I find moments of transcendence.  The water on the sand.  The light in the water.  The sound that never stops and is always soothing.  The sensation of ebb and flow that comes and goes after immersion. The smell.  The sensations of water and sun on skin. These are my treasures.

-----

I like material comfort as much as the next person.  I appreciate beauty with an aesthetic that has been developed with intention. But the physical world is not what my sights are ultimately set upon.  

The images of the cosmos that we have, thanks to the technology we call science, has provided us with an easy conceptualization of what is beyond Earth’s thin layer of atmosphere. I focus on these images in my mind, often, and as part of describing to myself and contemplating where and what I am in a meditative experience.  I see myself sitting or whatever, the room, the building, the locale...always moving out (up?) seeing concentric spheres of geography, if you will, until I see the planet, the solar system, the galaxy...and out and out...all that great NASA Star Trek imagery informing images of space and the cosmos.  I find comfort in this.

Then gradually coming back, eventually returning my awareness to this body in this place.

-----

In the morning when I awaken I am still and peaceful...for a moment.  Then I feel tension rising in my body and my mind remembers where I am and what is in front of me and then I feel anxious, and a desire to burrow back into sleep and dreams, and stillness and peace.  No such luck though. I know that I will get up, so I do...and the anxiety diminishes as I move into activity. But always this sense of...like I am wearing a garment that is just a little too small.

Leaving 2018 behind

This has been a tiring year.  Every day more nonsense and nazification in Washington DC. It has been an ongoing exercise in coping with lies, cruelty, and destructiveness.  It's tiresome.

Every week I produce 90 minutes of original audio content.  It's good stuff, I respect the material, however it means always being on a production schedule with all that entails and that's tiring too.

One of the challenges I accepted during 2018 was to be less a bearer of bad news, and to be more a bearer of positivity.  That worked out pretty well. 

The work I do, the audio programs, are intended to inspire, and they do, from what people tell me.  I'm glad they do.  That's definitely part of my deal here on Earth, to offer good stuff to the world.  I chose this, I love it, and I'm glad I'm doing it.

Underneath all of that, deep down, all there is inside me is love of nature and animals, and a feeling of the primordial Earth...that's really all. The rest is fleeting.

Approaching Solstice...

This year the darkness is really calling me.  Since the end of October, Samhain, I've felt the pull.  The dreamtime calls.  Even the waking dreamtime is vivid, both with reflection and re-vision-ing.

I find myself going over residue from events, relationships, experiences, and gently massaging that stuff as it dissipates, kind of like when something is sticky and hardened on the floor, it takes some time and attention to get it cleaned up, and that act of cleaning can be very zen.

I read an article recently about how certain Buddhist monks end their lives by basically dissolving into light, (I am shorthanding this) and that the way this is done is to think nothing but loving thoughts for the rest of one's life.  I jokingly have said that "Oh well, that's not me!" but the truth is, while I do not only have loving thoughts, I mostly have loving thoughts, and sometimes thoughts that seem not loving are, in fact, motivated by love.  Political anger, for instance, is motivated by the love of justice.

I'm looking at this revisiting of past remnants as part of this business of being a more loving person.  Imagine (I'm sure you can!) having some emotional residue left from a relationship you had as a teenager...a friend, a peer, not necessarily a partner even...and just shining love on that situation and watch as the residue floats away.

Perhaps we humans are not as far from being our best as the worst among us make it seem.

Love and Hate in Brooklyn

People ask me "how are you?" and my answer lately is...I am both horrified and ecstatic. I am horrified to see the rising fascism around the world, including here in the US. I am also moved deeply by the responses to the horror. There is WAY more love than there is hate. There are WAY more people who want a peaceful society than there are who want violence and bigotry.

My own response to all this pendulates between rage and fear, and complete trust in the universe...and everything in between.

One thing I am choosing to act upon is the belief that I cannot fix the whole, me must do that collectively...but individually I can continue to do what I do which is to bring messages of inspiration and empowerment to people.

A very close friend just emailed me. The synagogue in his neighborhood in Brooklyn NY just experienced a racist graffiti attack, and the neighborhood is rallying with love and support. I am horrified that my friends children live near someone who is so hateful, and I am filled with love for my friend and his community.

The Enchanted Island

It's hard to believe I have not posted here in nearly a year!  There will be more posts soon, but today I just want to share something with you.

The Enchanted Island is a story my mother read aloud to my brothers and me 55 years ago.  She knew it from a book she had as a child, one of The Bookhouse Books.

This story is suitable for all ages.  You'll love it, if you have kids they'll love it.

Winter Solstice - Yule - 2017

Last night I attended a Solstice ritual led by Starhawk. It was just what I needed!

2017 has been rough in so many ways but for me, primarily, it’s been seeing the ugliness of nazism and white supremacy crawling out of hiding to poison the world. It’s been disappointing beyond measure, and I have been so angry! I have never in my life been so angry, or felt so punitive, so revengeful. It’s not been a fun ride.

The ritual did what rituals do...focus attention and energy, and help move some of that energy. Tonight will be the longest night, and then the days will start to lengthen again as the wheel turns. The long night is a great time to let go into the darkness of whatever one needs to release, and to welcome the return of the sun.

My own experience during the ritual led me to this...may 2018 be a year of justice! May we seek it and find it, create it and celebrate it, discuss it and share it. May 2018 be a year of justice for all!

Justice in this world is a tall order, but the reality is, it can only exist if we manifest it. From Palestine to Myanmar, from Washington DC to Moscow, from every heart to every other heart, in every mind, may Justice prevail. May Justice permeate our intentions and our deeds.

love,

Baruch

Deer Crossing

This morning I was watching the river that flows by the place where I live, and on the other side of the river I saw a family of deer, buck doe and fawn.  The doe went first into the river to cross it, then the buck, then the fawn.  The doe crossed, the buck crossed, but the fawn was caught in the current and nearly drowned, and ended up turning back and barely making it out of the river.  I watched with trepidation.  I hoped the fawn would make it across safely, but it didn't.  It got out of the river and walked along the bank until it was out of sight.

Right before this happened a friend and I had been talking about how nature doesn't intend harm even in it's roughness, while humans can actually intend to cause suffering in others.

My stomach lurched when I thought the fawn was going to drown...watching a baby die, not exactly a good time, but it didn't die while I was watching.  I wonder if/how it will be reunited with it's family?

Spring!

It snowed this morning, and I just saw my first mosquito of the year.

It's been a wild ride since my last post; the inauguration and all that has happened since, have brought up so many thoughts and feelings, watching the US' descent into more madness than I have ever seen here before; the much needed hard slap out of complacency that I am so grateful for.

I won't dwell on the political situation, we are all well aware of the rise of naked fascism heralded in by the man with the orange hair and his truly evil henchmen.  I will say, however, that watching his presidency flounder and fail so quickly is gratifying beyond words.  We are far from out of the woods.  There is a LOT of work to do on many fronts, not least of which is that there are members of the administration whose depravity is loud and clear, and these people must go, and will.

But even with all of that horror, and the emboldening of the knuckledraggers committing their hateful acts of violence in the name of racist sexist xenophobic ignorance and cruelty, I know that they are already losing.  This country is a lot bigger than Germany, with a lot more people and a lot more momentum building daily in resistance to fascism.  As I said we have a lot of work in front of us but people are stepping up!

I have a bit of a reputation for seeing and naming the downside of things, but really I am an optimist.  I know, some of you reading this may be laughing and shaking your heads, but it's true.  I am also a realist and I see things, so I say what I see...and right now I see people of all ages, colors, religions, economic standings, mobilizing, participating, refusing to go along with the fascist tide.  It's encouraging, heartening, and it's real.  This attempt to turn the US into a nazi state is failing.  We are hearing the death knell of old white patriarchy.  It isn't going quietly, but it is going.

So take heart, be strong, make contact with others who share your wishes for beautiful life to defeat the ugliness of the death eaters, and if you need to scream and vent out your pain and anger, do it! You are not alone.  We are not alone in this, we have each other, no matter how hard the political machine tries to tell you that you're isolated, it's just another of their lies. Dream your dreams of love and life because that's part of how we make them come true!

Deep winter pre-inaugural...

In 6 days, barring unforeseen events, Donald Trump will become president of the United States.

Fear is not a big thing for me, I tend not to be afraid of much, and when I am I face it and move through it.  Trump terrifies me.  I envision night time raids, and gangs of violent nazis on the streets.  Some of it has already happened, with gangs of Trump supporters, in cities, brutalizing gay people, women, and people of color. Whether it's my own Jewish heritage, or past life stuff...whatever...this hateful violent groupthink is scary and appalling.

A few nights ago I dreamt an amazing dream.  In the dream I was presented with scenarios of human emotion and drama, and each time a scenario was presented for me to react to or engage with, I remembered that I was dreaming, and that I didn't have to do anything I didn't choose, so I didn't.  "Next!"  Scenario after scenario came and went. I woke up a few times during the night, remembering the dream and feeling elated, and then went back to the dream again, to more scenarios and choices.

The current situation, with an avowed fascist about to ascend to the presidency (we've had fascist presidents before but none as blatantly so as this one), is certainly a human scenario with enormous potential for drama.  Since the election we have already seen both an increase in hate crimes by Trump supporters, and an increase in response to hate crimes.  Towns across the country are proclaiming "Not in our town!" with regards to prejudice, hatefulness, bigotry and violence.  As the Republicans in Congress proceed with their agenda to deny rights and resources to the people while enriching themselves, communities are rallying in support of Planned Parenthood, Black Lives Matter, LGBT causes, and more.  It's encouraging to see that the majority of people in this country are NOT fascists, do NOT support Trump and the republicans, and more and more people are becoming activated.

It makes sense, actually, that as we are poisoning the biosphere at an ever increasing rate, fear will drive people to more and more extremes, the Trump election being a case in point. Each of us has the opportunity to examine our relationship with our feelings and reactions, and to make the best choices we can.  It seems to me that the more extreme our reactions and responses, the more we will be "fanning the flames" of the human drama. Is that the healthy choice?

It has always seemed to me that my job as a human here and now is to witness and to reflect back what I am seeing.  Through my radio show I have endeavored to reflect back inspiration and compassion, and I think I've succeeded at least to some extent. It's still my job to witness and reflect back, but something has changed, is changing, in that and I am not sure what it is yet.  It will become evident in short order, I think. Stay tuned!

This blog entry is intended to support you, the reader, in seeing your choices and what role you choose to play in this next scene form the human play.  Shakespeare said it well in his play "As You Like It"

      "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players..."

The thing is, we get to write our own parts.

Paradigms is taking this week off...no episode, but there will be a new episode airing on January 22.