Sweet Atlintown

As the days get darker, and the sensitive ones commit to feeling even more deeply for those who cannot, images of Atlin bring deep peace.

Thanks Jules

Permission Granted

by David Allen Sullivan

You do not have to choose the bruised peach
or misshapen pepper others pass over.
You don't have to bury
your grandmother's keys underneath
her camellia bush as the will states.

You don't need to write a poem about
your grandfather coughing up his lung
into that plastic tube—the machine's wheezing
almost masking the kvetching sisters
in their Brooklyn kitchen.

You can let the crows amaze your son
without your translation of their cries.
You can lie so long under this
summer shower your imprint
will be left when you rise.

You can be stupid and simple as a heifer.
Cook plum and apple turnovers in the nude.
Revel in the flight of birds without
dreaming of flight. Remember the taste of
raw dough in your mouth as you edged a pie.

Feel the skin on things vibrate. Attune
yourself. Close your eyes. Hum.
Each beat of the world's pulse demands
only that you feel it. No thoughts.
Just the single syllable: Yes ...

See the homeless woman following
the tunings of a dead composer?
She closes her eyes and sways
with the subways. Follow her down,
inside, where the singing resides.

Anne Cameron's Wisdom

"She told me about the Creator not a man and not a woman but both, it doesn't matter; and there is no name other than the Creator, the voice which must be obeyed - a good force, a good spirit, a good soul. The Creator made everything there is in this world and all other ones, made the birds and fish, the animals and the trees, the rocks, the flowers and us and made it all with love. And when everything was done and everything was made the Creator smiled. The Creator knew that nobody who'd ever be alive would know everything or have all the answers but everybody would have questions, so the Creator took a little bit of the best of everything and Creator made a rich river and that river is in you and in me and it's in that cedar tree and in that rock and it's in every grain of sand on this beach. A river of copper because copper is sacred, comes in five colors, that's one more color than magic. And all the holy people all the sacred people all the special people who have gifts are part of this river - the poets and the dancers, the healers, the painters, the storytellers and drummers and everyone who walks and talks and breathes in courage and in faith. And if you have love and faith and courage and trust and aren't afraid, you can find that river and go to it and drink truth from it and find some answers for yourself" Anne Cameron

The Days Are Getting Darker And Our Hearts Our Getting Warmer

                           Dacey and Mom

Thanks Janet

Reaching Out    

by Henri Nouwen

 

 

The difficult road is the road of conversion, the conversion from loneliness into solitude.  Instead of running away from our loneliness and trying to forget or deny it, we have to protect it and turn it into a fruitful solitude.  To live a spiritual life, we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.  This requires not only courage, but also a strong faith.  As hard as it is to believe that the dry, desolate desert can yield endless varieties of flowers, it is equally hard to imagine that our loneliness is hiding unknown beauty.  The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.   .

 

Cousin Devra

She left one week ago last Tuesday and returned on Thursday after a determined (and successful) effort to bring attention to the medical mistreatment and case of the imprisoned human rights hero Zhu Yufu.  For those who haven't read it, see:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinese-prison-officials-thwart-virginia-doctors-effort-to-visit-ailing-dissident/2013/10/12/a94c8a04-3313-11e3-9c68-1cf643210300_story.html 

Her article about the trip appeared in Friday's Wall Street Journal at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304561004579136761314880906.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion 

Finally, here is the most telling report on the impact of the trip, written by China Aid founder Bob Fu:   

Devra's mission has accomplished more than anyone hoped it would and its positive effects continue to grow.  Even though all wished that the Chinese government would have allowed her to visit Zhu Yufu, her visit opened the door to the entry into the case of a distinguished Chinese attorney ready to use all of his skills and standing to publicly battle for Zhu's release.  It has also given spirit to Zhu's family, who have left me many long messages with "Thank Devra" comments.  It has also meant very, very much to many many other Chinese prisoners of conscience and their families.  To date, millions of people in China and elsewhere are aware of what Devra did.  The Chinese microblog Weibo and VOA,RFA as well as similar radio programs from France and Germany have covered her conduct in China.  Chen Guangcheng and his wife told me on Wednesday that they have followed what Devra did very closely with thankfulness. The overseas Chinese dissident community has been greatly encouraged too. Finally, the visit has brought further attention in Washington to the need for greater US support of Internet firewall circumvention systems, so that hundreds of millions of people in China (and Iran, Vietnam, Syria, Cuba, North Korea and other closed societies) can freely and safely receive information that their regimes seek to isolate them from.

Devra's visit has become a great gift to many now seeking political, cultural and religious freedom in China -- it has taught them that they are not alone and has helped break the powerful lie told to them that their struggles count for nothing and go unnoticed.

Thank You Pema

“... We cannot be present and run our storylines at the same time. Impermanence is vivid in the present moment as are compassion, wonder, courage, and fear, Anyone who stands on the edge of the unknown, fully in the present, without reference point, experiences groundlessness. That's when our understanding goes deeper, when we find that the present moment is a pretty vulnerable place and that this can be completely unnerving and completely tender at the same time ...” Pema Chodron

Camino Santiago

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2159915/Walk-lifetime-Why-epic-Camino-trail-Spain-route-true-happiness.html