Baruch's Blog

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.