In meditation the world is shown to me; people, places, auras, hearts, minds, life, lives. Hearts are opening all around the planet, connecting. I see faces of people I will never meet and I love them. I see faces of people I do not like and I love them. We are awakening. It is a gradual process, and individuals are proceeding each at their own pace, but it is happening. This is not an idea or an event, it is a process and an experience. I don't think you can make yourself feel this, I think you can however notice, be observant, internally as well as externally. Increased awareness inspires change. Momentum builds upon itself. A small stream joining a bigger faster stream itself accelerates. Notice the ways you feel connected with others, near, far, known, unknown; notice how you experience that.

Tonight on Paradigms at 8 PM Eastern on WBKM and at Paradigms...very exciting! Actress and author Sarah Miles talking about her life, her new book "Boy and the Beez" and about The Crop Circle Challenge. Really great. Also Illac Diaz, another one of the winners of the 2012 Curry-Stone Design Prize. Check out his website Liter of Light to see some VERY cool stuff! Lots of great music as always...I hope you will tune in!

This week's episode of Paradigms is very close to my heart. Guests are Bess Klassen-Landis; a musician who like myself is a homicide survivor, and Holly Pickett photojournalist extraordinaire. Two amazing women. Tune in Sunday October 7, 2012 at 8 PM Eastern on WBKM.org or at Paradigms.bz or in iTunes!

Hello faithful blog readers. I haven't posted anything personal in a while. Now it's 2 days to Equinox, September 2012. The feeling of impending event grows steadily. I'm excited! Our national/global habits, unsustainable and therefore with expiration dates, are moving towards the inevitable. What that looks like and when I don't know, but change is certain, and so I am excited.

There is a homicide survivors support group I have attended a couple of times. I found it very helpful. I was in an email conversation recently with the woman who facilitates it and she offered words that best describe what I have been working with this summer.

"I just finished my Masters in Applied Positive Psychology and did my thesis on ways in which victims can flourish in the aftermath of the crime. The conclusion I came to is that it is important for victims to “break up” with the offender in their case in order to flourish. In your case there wasn’t a specific offender to “break up” with, which causes unique sets of challenges. I think that the process of disengagement is so important..." -Amy Holloway 2012

This year I broke up with the killer. I wrested my attention away from that person's ill deed, and refocused on my life, the people around me, the world in present time. Deep breath.

Here is a snapshot of my life these days.

I teach online and really love the material, the students, and the school. That's a lot! It's a good feeling to know I make a difference through teaching.

I'm producing two radio shows a week, Paradigms on WBKM and, under an alter ego, Scrying Time on WGDR. The radio work is always challenging and fun. I continue to get fairly little feedback from Paradigms (hint hint...tell me how you like the show and what you want to hear on it!) but I love it. Last Sunday Holly Near was on. I am listening to her new CD as I write this. Music is magic and real inspired music like this is uplifting and, well, inspiring. I want everyone to listen to this music so you can feel this!

I'm working with a friend on a spoken word production and learning things I never imagined; what it takes to build a performance piece, to make it real, to allow myself to be directed by someone else, someone who knows things I don't know.

I'm living in this funky run-down farmhouse with housemates, dog, cat, chickens. I am exploring a couple of possibilities for an upgrade off the paved roads with better garden space, but this place is good in the meantime.

My body, this body, this collection of molecules, is working pretty well! With huge thanks to Dr. Louisa Silva, the only acupuncturist I will allow to needle me at this point in my life because she is THE BEST, I have very little pain and really good mobility in my spine.

Good fortune and wise choices have brought me into community with many people, all around the world. We argue about, teach each other and discover theology and thealogy, power and hierarchy issues, and we celebrate life and magic, and generally behave like a big far flung family. It's not always comfortable but it is worth it. That's Reclaiming.

So, as we continue to be in motion on our inexorable path, as we carry on, I greet you and the rest of the world with love.

Singer, songwriter, activist Holly Near returns to Paradigms Sunday September 16 to discuss her new double-CD album "Peace Becomes You" and to talk about life. The CD is a collection of 23 songs including original compositions by Holly, as well as songs by Cris Williamson, Ferron, Lerner & Loewe, Irving Berlin, and more. Holly is accompanied by an excellent band and has never been in better voice.

I am very excited about this show! I hope you will tune in.

Paradigms 8 PM Eastern streaming at WBKM also available at http://paradigms.bz and in iTunes as a podcast.

Ahamed Sa'id,"The Prince of Kassala" is an ethnic Beja musician who has teamed up with Miguel Merino to form Otaak Band bringing together traditional Beja music with the Blues on a new CD called Bejawiya. Aaron Jakes who plays sax is also interviewed, as well as returning guest Omdas Melad Qamhat Maahes Sa Uriel.

For the second half of tonight's show Joaquin Pacheco and David Ortega from A Place Called Home join Paradigms for the first in a series of interviews with some of the young people making music at APCH.

Paradigms 8 PM Eastern streaming at http://wbkm.org also available at http://paradigms.bz and in iTunes as a podcast.

Tune in to WBKM at 8 PM ET for the start of Paradigms Season 4!

Well, I was going to go to Baltimore to cover the Green Party Convention for Paradigms. That didn't pan out. Then I was going to cover it remotely using the live feed from the convention. That also didn't work out. All that being said, I want you all to know that the Green Party of the US held it's nominating convention in Baltimore this past week and Dr. Jill Stein was selected to run as the Green Party Nominee for President of the United States.

As much as US elections are pretty much theater at this point, if you do choose to vote, a vote for Dr. Stein is spit in the eye to the republicans and democrats who so richly deserve to be spat upon. They will steal votes from her but they will know that our numbers are growing, and soon, planet willing, their days of dominance will be coming to an end.

Dr. Stein, good on ya!

http://jillstein.org

Life is interesting, no doubt.

Maybe not everyone, but certainly a lot of humans have to face the choice of whether they want to live or die many times in life…some people are not given a choice but what I mean is, for instance, say someone murders your mother, you might go through some deep psychological stuff about staying in this world and it might take a lot of time and experiences to navigate that.

I'm a pretty physical person, by which I mean I experience life through my body, including emotions and psychological stuff etc. I have a sense, today, having had a positive outcome from yesterday's upper endoscopy, that I have come through something; the threat of cancer represented my ambivalence about staying alive. Now that it seems that I do not have cancer I feel immense relief and excitement about going forward with life. It feels good to feel good!

Sunday May 13 Paradigms is very happy to bring you a live acoustic set with Todd Thibaud! 8 PM Eastern on WBKM!

Tune in, don't miss this wonderful talented heartfelt musician.

The chair of the House Ag Committee in the VT Legislature is caving in to Monsanto, and refusing to bring the GMO Labeling Law to the House for a vote.

802-828-2228 Rep. Carolyn W. Partridge, Chair House Ag Committee

Let her know that it is her job to serve the people of Vermont, not Monsanto. The bill is H.722

Sunday April 15 2012 Paradigms:

The Vermont Legislature is considering passing a law requiring all GMO foods to be labeled as such. 16 other states are in a similar process. The Bio-tech industry is threatening to sue Vermont if they pass this law. April 12, 2012 there was a rally at the Vermont State House. Paradigms was there! Tune in to hear the rally including people in the crowd and speakers.

8 PM Eastern http://wbkm.org and http://paradigms.bz

Coming up on Paradigms, two "David & Goliath" stories, one which worked out well and one which is in process.

Vermont's own Rock Art Brewery prevailed when Hansen's Natural stopped their trademark infringement complaint over the name of a beer, The Vermonster. Matt Nadeau of Rock Art is on the show this week.

Bo Muller-Moore, the Eat More Kale guy, is currently being targeted by Chik Fil A. Bo is on the show discussing what's happening.

Great music as always including a new tune from Bobby Treasure! Sunday April 8, 2012 at 8 PM Eastern on WBKM and at Paradigms.

Paradigms tonight!

Jim Lantz is a filmmaker and playwrite whose play "The Bus" debuted in Burlington, VT and made it to Off-Broadway in NYC. Jim is now working on a film, A Defiant Dude, with Bo Muller-Moore, the Eat More Kale guy.
Ryan Harb returns to Paradigms a year after his initial visit to tell us about what's happened with the UMASS Amherst Permaculture Project; some very exciting stuff!

8 PM Eastern http://wbkm.org and http://paradigms.bz

Tell all your friends!

Equinox Eve, March 20, 2012. Outside tonight, a moonless sky bright with planets and stars. The even of the vernal equinox, Ostara, 2012, and record breaking heat across the continent.

Being outside under the stars is for me one way of going to church. It is a tangible experience because my senses inform me of the star field and the sphere I am on, and of the enormity of the supposedly spherical expanding universe. All those stars, even just the ones I can see, shedding light on me, literally particles from those stars permeating my body, sending photons into my eyes, so looking at the night sky is for me to experience connection at the deepest.

Blessed Equinox to all!

love,
Baruch

Malik Rahim of New Orleans, co-founder of Common Ground Relief and Common Ground Health Clinic, is the guest on Paradigms tonight, discussing what's happening on the Gulf Coast, in New Orleans, the Occupy movement and more. Great music as always. 8 PM Eastern WBKM and Paradigms.

2012 sure has started out with a lot of oomph in my life! Things with Paradigms are going well. Teaching is going well. The global revolution is progressing. And, I found a great piece of land and I have put down a deposit on it. Now I need to raise the rest of the down payment!

I've put together a narrative and a short video of the land that you can check out here.

The most exciting thing about this project is that I am not doing it alone. Old friends and some new ones are "on on it" with me which is way more fun than doing it alone.

I hope you will check out the link and if you feel so moved, make a contribution. I would also be very grateful if you shared this email, or the link, with people you think would be interested in the project.

Even if you are not in a position to contribute monetarily, love and support are greatly appreciated!

Here is a preview of the next three episodes of Paradigms!

Jan 15 the makers of the film "1/2 Revolution"

Jan 22 Presidential Candidate Dr. Jill Stein and Victoria Collier from VoteScam

Jan 29 Jazz and Gospel singer extraordinaire Moonlight Davis and a truly amazing urban naturalist Nance Klehm

8 PM Sundays on WBKM and at the Paradigms website.

Welcome to 2012! Here we are...so much going on, from the sublime to the horrendous.

I found a beautiful piece of land with a funky building I can fix up on it...for sale! I can afford the monthly payments, I just need to raise down payment money. Loans, gifts, investments...interested? I need to raise a total of $26k pretty much ASAP.

If you are interested, or have ideas, give me a holler! baruch@mcn.org