let kindness win

The days of quiet ignorance are slipping away. The days of believing your voice is not important are gone. The days of shielding yourself from pain with drugs and alcohol are a total waste. The days of anger over what is broken have only made things worse. There are ways to make things better.

The days of eyes wide open are upon us. The time for awakening the power of the human spirit is now. The days of compassion and respect have arrived. The moment of appreciation for this oh, so brief time on this beautiful Earth is happening. Where are you?

Because, you are desperately needed. Contrary to the pundits and the theories of the day, contrary to generations of enslavement of all types, contrary to ideologies who long for a heaven and miss the one we are living in, contrary to everything that has told you that you are a mistake, lacking worth, and must grovel for a drop of happiness that will eternally allude you – contrary to all of that BS, there is a simple truth.

You are alive and the life that pulses through you is a gift and you have the ability to resonate with the kindness of that gift – no matter what you have done, no matter what has been done to you.

This is the moment. Today is the day. Each of us needs to wake up to the simple reality that holds us as we live and manifest the wonder and the glory of the possibility that life holds – for everyone of us, for the Earth and for those yet to come. As my dear Native friends say – for the two legged, the four legged, the creeping ones, the ones that fly, for all our relations.

Now is the time.

Acrylic painting of turtle compliments of Nikole Verde

There is a story that I have grown to love. It has become a guiding principle for me. The gist is that there is a king who always tried to stump a member of his court known to be quick witted and not easily tricked. One day the king called to his friend, and laying a stick before him, said, “How can you make this stick shorter without touching it?”

The courtier thought for a moment, went outside and returned with another stick larger than the first. He laid it down next to the shorter stick of the king – thus making the king’s stick smaller without touching it.

It seems we are in a bit of a bind. All around us we see hardship, hatred, destruction and the devaluing of our humanity. This is the short stick.

This is, I think, the stick we are not meant to touch; but how to change it?

Lay a bigger stick. Lay the stick of kindness; lay the stick of peace. Instead of wringing our hands and recounting the fear filled moments we see, or raising our fist to display the anger we feel, perhaps it is our time to lay the bigger stick.

The way out is not always apparent. The ways we have tried have failed.

I am betting on the heart to win, even as the bookies are setting the odds against it. I am “waging love” as my friends in Detroit have proclaimed it.

I am fighting every day to upend my own dark thoughts. I am growing vigilant that my words and actions reflect all that I know is possible – and you know what? – it’s fun.

All my life people have said, “Peace is boring.” My response remains, “Then you have not yet met peace.”

There is no game built that can rival the game of the heart. There is no fan cheering louder for your victory than the cry of your soul to make peace. You want to change the world? Lay a bigger stick.

 

 

Photo compliments of MJ Novick

My Father had a magic hand. He used it most frequently at dinnertime. Often on meatless Friday meals when the common fare might be lima beans on toast or similar. By Friday my Mother had had enough of my antics and I had had enough of the compromise expected of children, so coming to the table of beans was a tipping point as my Father sat to my right and my Mother directly opposite me.

My Father worked a factory job, up and out by 4:30 am, five days a week. He was a man who cherished peace. My Mother craved hot peepers while she was carrying me – need I say more? In those days we were quite often at odds and sitting eye to eye at dinner was not one of our better moments.

When emotions would reach a tipping point, up came the hand. I don’t remember when it began. I don’t remember any words associated with it. But when the hand came to my face and passed in front of my eyes and moved down, slowly, never touching me, I would begin to smile.

It was as if he washed away my anger. It never failed. He was teaching me how transient were these emotions of frustration and derision, and by helping me change, he empowered me. He opened a door to a more compelling nature inside of me. That comforting place has remained my solace and my guide and continues to grow deeper as I tend to it.

Now there are lots of people willing to explain this all away with talk of energy, psychology, etc. But I can tell you it was, and is, quite simply Love.

 

 

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

I told you I was going now I will tell you what I saw at the Solidarity Shawl Marches in Honor of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women in Minneapolis and Duluth.

They came with photographs of missing or murdered dead sisters, aunts, mothers, children. They told of finding loved ones after years of search. They expressed gratitude in finding them and in bringing them home again – some to their graves. They told of the loved Ones they know nothing about except that they are gone. Of ships sailing from the harbors of Duluth taking young captives. Of domestic violence tearing families apart. Some came with tears. Some came with fight. All came with love.

I know about history and conquest and rape, gender genocide and sex trafficking. I know about man camps and police turning their backs. I know about self-serving perceptions and judgement of the value-less lives of women turned prostitute in order to survive.  And I know that if the lives lost were children and women from privilege this would not be the epidemic it has become.

I knew about lives lost. Now I am witness to the love and honoring of those lives by the Ones left behind. I shared in their grief and in their laughter. I watched fathers holding their sons’ hands and young daughters being raised in dignity and surrounded by love. I saw generations holding out for the best for their families and for their people and I recognized again how similar we all are. And I know that if the lost were children and women from privileged neighborhoods in an affluent “white world” this would not be the epidemic it has become.

And I say to myself, “Your silence is betrayal”. And I say to myself, “What more can I do?”

The violence would end if each of us understood the preciousness of every life – including our own.

When our humanity becomes sacred to us, it will end. When we understand our silence as betrayal it will end.

Because it is someone’s son or daughter who is inflicting this violence. It is someone’s shame and ignorance that tears into the flesh of another.

The first step is admitting it. The second step requires turning shame into love.

End the silence. Find the love. In whatever way you can make it end.

 

http://www.miwsac.org

 

Can you hear it? The cry is deafening. The wailing began countless years ago and there has been no let up. It is the cries and whispers of women and girl and boy children who are being abused, sex trafficked and far too often murdered as an act of pleasure.

Sickening isn’t it? Happens far away right? The gang rapes in India, Syria’s tortured citizens, 10,000 missing children of Europe’s refugees, and Canada’s missing and murdered indigenous. But wait. Sex trafficking at the super bowl?

Let’s be bold and honest. It is happening everywhere. Abused people abusing people. Abusing children. Pretending it is not happening will not make it go away. Hiding in shame or repressed guilt will not make it go away. Blaming the victims will not make it go away. Free yourself of judgement, feel your humanity and you will know how absolutely abhorrent this has been.

For the last few years I have added my voice and my feet to the One Billion Rising to stop violence against women http://www.onebillionrising.org/

This year I am standing and walking with my Native sisters as they mourn and honor their lost loved ones in dignity. https://www.facebook.com/events/900520920038294/

In this moment of honoring, of not forgetting, of praying for, of anguished cries and broken dreams… with each step taken we are growing stronger. Lives will not be forgotten or lost in vain. Together, in whatever way we can, we will say “No more”. The time has come. It is not too late.

Listen. Can you feel it? The sound of drums and cries of warrior women and men. Rainbow colors. All our relations. We must not forget. We must help the abused to heal and we must stand vigilant, silent no more, to the end of this nightmare.

Talk to each other. Talk to your daughters. Talk to your sons. Light a candle. Beat a drum. Remember the missing and murdered. And ask for the healing of the abused who abuse.

Whatever you do, be part of the change. You are needed.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/19/minnesota-native-american-women-trafficking-police

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/30/fears-for-missing-child-refugees

http://www.1011now.com/content/news/Super-Bowl-sex-trafficking-sting-nets-over-500-sex-buyers-30-pimps-368222811.html

Sands of Silence – a documentary http://www.sandsofsilence.org/

An intimate story about an endemic problem, Sands of Silence celebrates the triumph of the spirit with a call to action to break the chains of sexual exploitation worldwide.

There is a war that rages within us. The divisions that we see are a result of that war. There is a peace within us. The beauty that we see is a reflection of that peace. We spend far too much time dissecting and not enough time reflecting. You cannot strategize peace. You have to feel it.

You can strive for clarity in your own being. You can pay attention and when you are called to act, you can do so with integrity.

We hear of the 99%, the 10%, and the 1% – dissecting and diminishing our humanity into convenient, bite sized, distorted truths. We are invited to condemn another’s religion, skin, clothes, food preference, politics, sexual what-evers and on and on…and all too often we do. Dissecting.

That is not to say “Do not stand up to injustice or ignorance.” On the contrary, anything that robs you of your humanity is not your friend. Challenge it.  Change it.

You can strive for clarity in your own being. You can pay attention and when you are called to act, you can do so with integrity.

I believe in the 100% and that includes all life – animate and inanimate. If we act without consideration of all our relations* we are doomed to recycle our mistakes. There is a way out.

You can strive for clarity in your own being. You can pay attention and when you are called to act, you can do so with integrity.

Reflect.

 

 

*”all our relations” embodies indigenous understanding of the total and inescapable interconnectedness of all life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCQ84zM7x5U “All My Relations” Lyrics By: Pura Fe and sang by Ulali. Transforming the war song, once an Irish drinking song, to a song of power and inclusion.

And this recent interview by Prem Rawat www.TPRF.org on how to stop the divide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_eqdDtDnJ8&sns=fb

 

Photo compliments of NOHO

We have honed the skills of business and war. Now let us hone the skills of community and living in peace. We are finding one another. Time to celebrate.

I had the opportunity to share my world with co-hosts of Love (and Revolution) Radio, Rivera Sun and Sherri Mitchell. I had a blast and hope you will enjoy the podcast and the work of these two very wonderful human beings.

Sherri Mitchell (Penobscot) is an Indigenous rights attorney, writer and activist who melds traditional life-way teachings into spirit-based movements. Follow her at Sherri Mitchell – Wena’gamu’gwasit

Rivera Sun is a novelist, and nonviolent mischief-maker. She is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection,Billionaire Buddha and Steam Drills, Treadmills, and Shooting Stars. She is also the social media coordinator and nonviolence trainer for Campaign Nonviolence and Pace e Bene. Her essays on social justice movements are syndicated on by PeaceVoice, and appear in Truthout and Popular Resistance. www.riverasun.com

http://occupyradio.podomatic.com/

“These are the times to grow our souls. Each of us is called upon to embrace the conviction that despite the powers and principalities bent on commodifying all our human relationships, we have the power within us to create the world anew.”

 

 

Your doubt will never become my reality.

Your fear will never destroy my dream.

Your facts and reason will never topple my knowing.

Peace is possible.

 

 

 

photo compliments of MJ Novick

 

People are challenging the principles of nonviolence. They tell us nonviolence has failed. And at first glance it would be easy to agree.

It could be easy to believe that our nature is violent. Yet if that were true how were Gandhi, Mandela and King able to find their way out of violence?

I am of the firm belief that if one of us can do this we can all do it. If one of us can move to a higher vision of humanity then that is all the verification we need to try.

Nonviolence has not failed. We have failed nonviolence. We have been satisfied by saying, “There it is done,” rather than saying, “Now I must do it.”

One of the greatest deterrents to nonviolence is our need for a leader. The path to nonviolence is not an external one. It is an internal journey that does not require the influence nor the prodding of another. No one can walk for us. No one can carry us. We have failed nonviolence because we have not taken our own steps or satisfied our own soul’s search for peace. We have failed to unshackle ourselves from the compromises that make us less human.

We do not need to be rescued. We need to wake up.

The game is afoot. If we allow people to say, nonviolence is dead, then we will surely die with it. It will take great courage and clarity to navigate the waters of ignorance that we have allowed. The darkness is no longer elusive and hiding in shadows, it is readily found in our politics, in our religions, in our businesses, in our homes. Yes, in every aspect of our lives.

Perhaps it is titillating to play with fear, to be the bully, to court revenge. Perhaps centuries of greed have taken its toll on humankind.

Yet for those with the eyes to see, if not now, then when will we stand before the darkness of our nature and say unhand me.

We have failed nonviolence. But it is never too late. The path is within us and we can chose to walk it.

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Mandela

 

 

Photo compliments of Noho

In this (r)evolutionary* moment, we don’t need another hero. The path has been cut. The conviction has been demonstrated. Clarity has touched us long enough to breathe Life back into us. We know what freedom feels like even in a prison cell. We know that what is true and good is true and good for all humanity. We know that every time a person is abused, left to starve, forced from their land, traded as slaves, it is our own humanity that is lost. We know this. And yet we avert our eyes and wait for another Martin. This is not a moment to celebrate the man and forget what he gave.

In doing so we demonstrate that while we may have heard the words we have not felt the passion. It is not an easy walk, being true to oneself. It is not an easy walk to stand up to injustice as others turn away. It is not an easy walk, knowing that hate is almost as powerful as love and waiting. Almost.

I did not know Martin. I know him now. I know him because I have begun to understand the effort that it takes to be true to yourself. There is no time to waste, there are no more Martin’s to lose. We can awaken to the reality of the fire in our hearts. We can find and hold tightly to the cord of love that runs through every living breathing human being. We must not believe but instead we must know that the “arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”**

Stop obsessing about time. Where there is Love there is no time. We have now. The torch has been passed. We are alive and to claim our humanity we must shed the personal doubt that we can do this. Because we can.

If we can dream a man on the moon and see it happen, we can envision peace and make it so.

Don’t sleep through this precious Life. In “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution”*** Dr. Martin Luther King invited us to a higher humanity. Accept the invitation.

We are more powerful than we know. Thank you Dr. King.

 

*http://graceleeboggs.com/

**http://optimisticquotes.org/the-arc-of-the-moral-universe/

***http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/BlackHistoryMonth/MLK/CommAddress.html