On the metaphysical side of things...

There have been times in my life when, through meditation or ritual or just for no apparent reason at all, I have experienced what Ganesh Rajagopalan calls "the other dimension," a different reality.  I have been in a place where everything is made of light.  I have been in a place where time was nonexistent.  That may sound strange to some, others may relate.  The point is, though, that in my "regular" life, neither of those qualities are prevalent if they are present at all. So being in "regular" life, the world can seem very dense, and slow, and dull.  That doesn't mean I don't experience beauty and inspiration, I do, but it's all pale compared to being light in a place that is all light.  "Regular" life can be depressing when remembering these other experiences.

When I was in my late teens I was living in San Anselmo, California, renting a room in a house.  The guy whose house it was, in his mid 30's, told me he'd had an experience 10 years earlier, a spiritual awakening, and since then he'd been waiting for it to happen again.  He had a job, but he did that job and he waited.  That seemed really sad to me at the time, it still does.  I don't see myself as waiting.  I do see myself sometimes as trapped in a place that is slow and thick and dull, not joyful or ecstatic, but tolerable, and sometimes just barely so. I know others who have similar experience.  Today I am thinking that part of the task is to learn to live in the slow thick dense dullness without being diminished by it.

Politics this week...

Part of the strategy of fascists, not just the Republicans in the US but Hitler, Mussolini, Ceaușescu and others, is to overwhelm their opposition with propaganda declaring their victory and greatness, even when they are not great and are not victorious. That is what the Republicans did this week at their convention. Lots of fanfare, lots of self-congratulatory speeches, behaving as if they have already won. They haven't.

It is critical that we not buy into their narrative. The DNC is coming up. It looks more and more like Biden will not run. Whether it's Biden or not we must stay focused on anti fascism, on exposing the Republicans disastrous plans for the US. If Biden is going to step down, or be deposed, the focus has to be on who can run and win, not on hand wringing or circular firing squad or any of that.

It is not a foregone conclusion that Trump will win, far from it!

Travelin'

I've been traveling again. In December, I learned that I can't get residency in Jamaica until I'm retired and have a pension, and that's a few years off, so I am in transition. Dear friends welcomed me in Portland for four months, wow, and then I went on a hiking trip in Ireland and visiting friends in England, and now I am visiting my brother in Hawaii. I am essentially homeless, but not destitute, and not without friends and family and resources, so I am very fortunate.

All this has led me to reflect on ideas like home, permanence, and impermanence (again), and the effect of uncertainty on my equanimity. It kind of does a number on it. Which offers me this opportunity to see that, and not allow myself to get sucked into a panic about my future. I don't know what's going to happen, but the reality is even when we have lives that feel very settled and we think we know what to expect next, anything can happen, and does. So really this is just me getting to be pretty real about it.

There are so many people in the world who have no home, who have no place where they feel welcome, where there is violence at their backs and uncertainty and likely hostility in front of them. This is a difficult time. There are so many humans and there's so much greed-driven war and other exploitive and brutal forces being foisted upon regular folks. Not to mention the crazy ideological extremism that we see coming out of the Abrahamic religions all around the world.

I got to visit a really fantastic food forest earlier this week, just beautiful. 6 acres of fruit trees, and flowering plants just all kinds of stuff, all organic, all Permaculture gloriousness!

Today...

Injustice and cruelty do not just happen, they are the result of choices made by people. When someone cuts a plume on a graduation cap, or drops a bomb on a house with people in it, shoots up a school, or uses a deadly pandemic for personal political gain, etc etc etc these are choices made by people, they are not accidents, they are not random acts.

We are each responsible for our choices. That means we must each fess up to ourselves about the damage we cause, and we all do. Drive a car, fly in a plane, use anything plastic...that is causing harm. Pollute to create electricity...that is causing harm.

When I was younger I wanted to live off the grid, grow all my own food, the whole nine yards. Now I am older, I don't grow any of my own food these days, I work online...I'm shaking my head.

This human existence, the ways that we live, the ways that I live, so many points of imbalance. It pains me and I know many feel this way, yet this is what we perpetuate.

I have no solution. I'm writing this, naming this, as part of my own processing, my response to this mornings information, and yesterdays, and anticipating tomorrow's.

Kindness is also a choice. Honesty is also a choice. Compassion is also a choice. Creativity, curiousity, respect...

Have a great day! ❤️