Last Sunday in January

This photograph is a pair of Tlinget Indians from Alaska. The picture was on a poster from a traveling native basket collection that made it's way to Humboldt State University one year, and I fell in love with it. The Tlingets are well known for their totem poles and drums, as well.
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After reading Enchanted Oaks blog today and noticing that I'm not hearing much about some major things happening in the world, it got me to thinking about war and poverty and a number of the things that we like to shuffle off to the back of our minds most of the time. We have to do this, I think, to survive the helplessness we feel. There is such a surplus of catastrophe out there...I don't have television, and I don't buy newspapers. I read Mother Jones magazine and that is enough to make me scream. I get news off the internet, so it isn't like I'm tuned out to all that's happening. I get newsletters and emails from different not-so-mainstream news sources. I am informed. I try to be open minded about things , but it is depressingly clear to me that the state of the world leaves much to be desired. And I have to say that starvation is one of the things that knocks me off center more than anything. I don't understand how it can be happening and the politics of it all just overwhelm me.

Sometimes I feel like I am some kind of goofy Pollyanna who thinks that everything is all rainbows and sunshine, and I probably sound like that. But it hurts my heart, this stuff that goes on. In some primal, psychic manner...I sometimes feel the pain of the world. Of the Mother Earth. Of hungry children. Of war torn countries. I don't know if that empathy is my esoteric connection to all living things or my imagination. I don't know if I can do anything positive to help change things or not. I don't know if there are souls who choose their paths in this lifetime and I need to stay out of their way while they work their way through to the solutions, or I am supposed to be an activist, fighting to make change apparent.


There is a Red Cedar Circle prayer that I like, that goes like this:

SiSiWiSS Prayer

Ati si si kweeaht
We honor the sacred that is beyond words.


Ati si si sayeeah
We honor the sacred Love.

Ati si si saye-elh
We honor the sacred natural world.

Ati si si kweeaht
We honor the sacred that is beyond words.





Whatever I do, I must honor the sacred. If there is indeed a grand cosmic plan afoot, could it encompass my spiritual connection and growth as well as the plights of citizens around the world.? Could it all be interwoven? Could it be part of an awakening of all people to the hum of the connectedness? That the time for separateness is going now? Am I, (small, here on my little plot of land) a piece of the puzzle every bit as important to the whole as say, governments, or churches, or schools? Is my heart on the same grid as the collective consciousness that strives to make the world a better place? When I plant a garden, tend the earth, feed my soul...share the bounty with others not fortunate enough to have the ability or place or time to do so themselves...does my one small act of kindness make a difference in the cosmic vibration? And is that difference palpable?

I have to believe it is, it does. One small person, doing one small thing. None of us have to feel helpless in the face of this world we live in. We can start by honoring the sacred, changing the vibration of the Universe with our gratitude, our prayers, our compassion. This all sounds rather new agey, but in my soul I know it's right. On a small scale, I look for the good in the people around me. I want to believe that all of us are innocent, sensitive, honest and good. That love is at our core. And I know some people do things that don't prove this out, but is it because people are generally bad? No, I think it's that these people are lost. They are the walking wounded and there is some filter of fear that colors their entire perception of the world. And I'm not talking about just killers or rapists. I'm talking as well about the Maddoxs and the Enrons of the world. Corporate thieves. Warmongers. Bullies. Egocentric monstrosities.


Whew. lol Not sure where all this came from, except that I had some very heavy conversation about some things today, and it has set me thinking all day about life and how it is so different for so many. What is enough? What do we really need to be okay? I don't know if there is a pat answer to this. I know that I have to be where my feet are and try to live simply and be joyful. To learn to trust, when about me all is in chaos. To find my place in the world. To understand the true nature of wealth, and of happiness, and of love. To redefine prosperity and abundance.


And now, to sleep...perchance to dream...



Namaste.