Love day

I think it's a great thing, having a day where everyone (in the US, in the world?) is thinking about love.

I wrote about holding space for peace on my other blog...with the bottom line being "Love is the Answer."

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr said:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

 So Happy Valentine's day...which has nothing to do with romance, but with the difficult process of loving one's enemies...or those who have offended us! Try politicians, for instance. Well, you can just start (like I'm doing) with loving those awful parts of yourself. (I'm working on myself, not you!)

What has Barbara created lately?

I originally had a negative reaction to the variegated red glaze. I don't know quite how it happened, but with the breaking of it over the raised parts of the sculptural sides, I'm satisfied now.

I hope someone wants to give this to someone they love.  That's why I made it. To let the universe find whoever should use it for just a token of love.

Don't worry, I've been back since the second week of Oct, and working daily in the studio at Black Mountain Center for the Arts.

Love on a sphere

How to love when dealing with outrage.

Euphoria.
A feeling I seldom experience these days.
Maybe because of less drugs, sex and rock and roll?

But then there were the Women's Marches.  And weekend workshops. And other protest gatherings, of which I've been a part.

Central Park 1890s

I'm not into mobs of people usually, even disdaining a crowded sports stadium as a frightening experience that causes high anxiety for me.

But when people come together in a spirit of intense love, to remove a wrong having been, or about to be committed by others who have given every intention to do so, those gatherings really revive something in me.

Last night I was trying to explain why those experiences hold me fast when confronted by the scary and ridiculous political shenanigans that repeat themselves throughout the ages of our young republic.  Yes, these are not the first times party politics have been played out with shock and awe.

But the steadfastness of those protestors...that's what I'm trying to talk about.

It made me feel something that doesn't happen at other times in my life.  A group of well-intentioned people that causes a spiritual surge of love.  I swear there's an atmospheric shift when these happen. At least on heart levels...

I remember meeting someone I hadn't seen for years at our local Women's March.  She and I both commented upon our pleasure that this was an event full of love, which we'd been skeptically anticipating.  That caused us to share a joy that was somewhat a surprise.

So when I was talking with someone who didn't have that groundswell experience of shared love in community, I tried to explain how that became part of my foundation to deal with all the little tacky experiences that I continue to share on FB.  It isn't to cause any increase in people's level of anxiety.  It is to share facts, and to increase actions when they are possible.  Sure there are some scary things happening...but many of my friends on FB also have the experience behind them of knowing they are not alone...there are millions of us who can link arms (if we choose) for all the causes that need a unified action.  And action is the name of the game...at least in ways of Resistance!

I particularly liked a post which I shared, an urge to stay focused upon the strengths we have together.  I'll share a quote from it, and hope this link will stay available for a while. "How to Get out of the Cycle of Outrage in a Trump World." by Arianna Huffington.

"So we need to go back to the truth that helped the country recover after 9/11: if we are consumed by fear, the terrorists win. If we live in a perpetual state of outrage, Trump wins. Because when we become depleted and exhausted, and sapped of our energy, we’re not as resourceful, creative, or effective. The goal of any true resistance is to affect outcomes, not just to vent. And the only way to affect outcomes and thrive in our lives, is to find the eye in the hurricane, and act from that place of inner strength."

We each have an inherent center of power.  It is innate.  We are born with it.  When we learn to accept and honor it, we find our own strength and power source.  We may name it anything we like, and we often may believe it is connected to an external being, another source bigger than ourselves.  That is fine, and it gives us something to fall back on when we doubt ourselves.

But I have learned part of the outer external being that gives me my reflection of energy, is seeing the inner strength in other people who act from their own source of love.

And that is a surprise, because I'm an introvert, and usually get my own "recharge" from time alone, from being in nature, from meditation and contemplation.  What is this new stuff?  There is energy shared among people? I am so happy to find this.

Of course it can go wrong as well as very right.  I must have my own system of guards and guardians while tapping into the shared love-fest.  No this isn't a sexual energy (at least at my age I haven't found that kind of energy happening in crowds.) It's compassionate love.

This sense of caring among people is very powerful.  It is a real base of love, or Love with a capital letter.  OK, I'm an ex-hippy freak, so perhaps I'm harkening back to the days when we did say "Make Love, Not War."  And there were flower-children around at the time I was having my own children.

But today, in 2017, with Trumpian repeats of strangeness, and with politics run amuck yet again (look at the post-Civil War years in case you don't think we've done this before, or the pre-WW II isolationist years) I am able to walk around in a cautious optimism.

No matter how bad it gets, I know myself as myself.  And I know most of my neighbors will aid each other, and that's beyond politics.

Today's Quote was already given above.

Love and marriage

True Love or what?  I  remember saying to a friend, that's the man I'm going to marry.
Turned out not to be true however...I think he had other ideas.

Thanks to Garrison Keilor's Writer's Almanac, I am copying this poem from a few days ago.

Love at First Sight
by Jennifer Maier

You always hear about it—
a waitress serves a man two eggs
over easy and she says to the cashier,
That is the man I’m going to marry,
and she does. Or a man spies a woman
at a baseball game; she is blond
and wearing a blue headband,
and, being a man, he doesn’t say this
or even think it, but his heart is a homing bird
winging to her perch, and next thing you know
they’re building birdhouses in the garage.
How do they know, these auspicious lovers?
They are like passengers on a yellow
bus painted with the dreams
of innumerable lifetimes, a packet
of sepia postcards in their pocket.
And who’s to say they haven’t traveled
backward for centuries through borderless
lands, only to arrive at this roadside attraction
where Chance meets Necessity and says,
What time do you get off?

"Love at First Sight" by Jennifer Maier from Dark Alphabet. © Southern Illinois University Press, 2006.


Did you ever think that that was your true love when you first saw or met him/her?
I may have missed out on that one man, but I think I did make a good decision about the one I finally did marry.  Unfortunately that didn't mean I could live with him.  And apparently that happened several times in my life.

Big congrats to those who persevere through years and years of marriage!

But falling in love is something completely different, I think.

Sad, angry, loving thoughts

I love being whimsical. When it seems appropriate.
I hate the violence that happened in the last few days here in the US. 

First 2 young black men were killed by police.
Alton Sterling, see the video here.
Philando Castile's girlfriend made a video just after he was shot.

Then I woke up Friday morning to find the violence in Dallas, TX had killed police officers during a demonstration. (Report on my TV today HERE)

There is no side which is totally right, and no side which is totally wrong.

The violence is the problem.  You can't solve anything with violence.  In spite of how we've trained our children through TV and games with guns...no violence brings peace, ever.

Guns are the problem.  They kill so easily.  They are already in the hands of many people who will kill someone else.  I wish this weren't true. But our laws have been handicapped by the second amendment, which never considered the amount of power our current guns would have. The law will eventually catch up with reality, but sadly, many more people will bleed before it happens.

What is the answer?

Love.  That may sound so trite. But after many hours of thoughtful consideration, and listening to people who have also spent much of their lives doing the same, I truly believe this.

Compassion is needed not only for victims, and their families, but for those who actually resorted to violence in their delusional thinking to attempt to take violent action for solutions. 

Justice should still continue to be carried out, I certainly think, even more diligently than ever.

Forgiveness may be a goal of love.  I believe when this is the goal, to come to a place of love towards those who use violence or any action of victimization, there is eventually going to be a path to peace. It isn't a "just decide to forgive the man who killed someone" kind of thing. It's just something to start considering first, then maybe to think about how that would feel.

So I pray for love to help me understand the bigoted police officers who act without due process.

I wish that bigotry could just be educated away, with lots of training. But it is fed by fear, and many public persons yell about fears and fuel the fire of bigotry.  I am trying to find love in my heart so that they won't feel as afraid, so they will yell about the wonderful lives of such diversity that we have welcomed into our country, that our differences make us stronger.

I feel deep compassion towards the "black lives matter" activists. These people have walked around in black skin since birth, and I have no idea what that really feels like.  I only know the feelings of having walked around in a white female body since birth, and what that triggers in my feelings when walking a street at night, or when confronted by a crowd of bullies or males who are teasing each other to be aggressive towards my kind.

Please listen to this idea.

 Love one another. Start your action going towards love, not hate.  More hate isn't going to really help.  If you feel powerless, be angry instead. And take action towards love.

Some people who know more than I do:

The Dali Lama:

I consider we are all the same as human beings, mentally, emotionally and physically.  In order to ensure a more peaceful world and a healthier environment we sometimes point a finger at others saying they should do this or that.  But change must start with us as individuals.  If one individual becomes more compassionate it will influence others and so we will change the world.

Nelson Mandela:

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.  People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Kurt Vonegut

Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let bitterness steal your sweetness.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

President Jimmy Carter:

What is needed now, more than ever, is leadership that steers us away from fear and fosters greater confidence in the inherent goodness and ingenuity of humanity.

Memorial Day Wishes

A sad day, to honor fallen heroes, to remember all those wars fought which may have not had a victor, but the sides grew tired of dying and decided to make a peace of sorts.

This is a day of remembrance for me. Of all those I've loved and lost.  Never lost anyone to a war, thank goodness.  But I knew many naive young men who learned how to make war.  And I've lost many people and animals who knew how to love.

My winter view

I hope someday there will be no more wars. That is my wish.

My summer view from my nest

A friend in need

I've been invited many places, when I had little to contribute.  One was to sing with the choirs that Annelinde Metzner leads...yes, I've been in two of them, which are still active under her direction.

I also have enjoyed her music about the Divine Feminine, as well as her prolific sweet poetry.

Now she is dealing with medical needs, and I was the first person to step up and make a contribution to help her.  My donation might not be the biggest one she's received, but it is certainly full of heart-felt love.

For more information about the Fund raising efforts for Linda's medical needs just click the underlined link.  This is also a great short biography of her work.



Linda is in the center of this photo, with Rebecca Williams on left, and Kim Hughes on right.

For a slice of her wonderful poety, check this link to her blog.

I love the idea that charity begins at home...why send a check to help  people on the other side of the globe when we can reach out and help each other right here at home?

Happy Love Day

Imagine that...a holiday which celebrates the highest emotion that humans have for each other!

So it has become co-opted by Madison Avenue to create lots of things that can be bought and given.  The main thing is that giving is a good thing, whether something (card, flowers, candy) is purchased or perhaps hand made.

I am pleased that love is still free.

Here's a little for you.  )))))))o(((((((