“quiet din”

“quiet din”

5-15-2017 174 words

I've traveled many long roads on my way to get to today,

and one thing I've learned in fighting this fretful fray,

There is only one speed on this highway of strife,

'full forward' is the only true speed in our life,

the main problem is when I think it's all about me,

I forget to listen to the bark of each sacred tree,

and cast my eyes to my short future to see where I've been,

and forgive myself for all the ways I've sown sorrow and sin,

but nothing is perfect, we do what we can,

to share our small joys around the flat frying pan,

and when we allow ourselves to reflect in the glass,

and take some small credit and come to terms with our ass,

and do what we will to appreciate the big gift,

and never allow our fair spirit to far drift,

and think we have the answer to the mystery we are in,

but thank Creator for each minute spent in this “quiet din”.

What is the All American Partie ?

Platform of the All American Partie - a Short List
     - A Utopian Platform of totally idealistic, unrealistic, and sensible goals.

1.  We are all in it together.

2.  There is no time left to argue, fuss, or fight.

3.  We must get Busy and hang together or as Ben Franklin said,
           "If we do not hang together, we will surely hang separately."

4.  We have too many enemies abroad to keep fighting amongst ourselves.
           If we do not pull our heads out of the sand, Russia and China will make
           sure there is no USA to bother them about human rights.

5.  If we do not hammer out some working agreements among all segments
      of our society, we will not have a country left, or right.

6.  What is great about this Nation is We Celebrate our Differences and We
         agree that everyone has a right to worship their own religion and to
         celebrate the Creator.

7.   Nothing stands between you and the Creator or between you and your
          choice of religious belief.

8.   The Founding Fathers wisely chose to keep government and religion
          separate, but that does not mean we cannot respect and even celebrate
          all  faith traditions.

9.   There is only one Human race on the planet.    In the USA we have proved
           we can all stand together for family values, religious values, and
            human  rights as embodied in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.

10.  Without a belief in anything sacred or holy about life, no nation can stand.
          A house divided against itself also cannot stand.

11.  Sexual orientation is a person's private business, but for children to
          develop  normally, they should have a mother and a father, as is
          evidenced  by the rest of the living creatures on the planet.

12.  Stop the war on Drugs and unclog the court system.  All drugs should be
         available to people who desire them.  If they cannot use them
         responsibly,   shame on them.  The drug cartels will fade away once
         deprived of all the inflated profits they now make and use to undermine
         society.

13.  Insure our watersheds are not fowled or polluted with fertilizers, oil, or
         chemicals.

14.  We need to get to renewables as quickly as possible, before we fowl our
          own nest any further, become embroiled in any other wars over oil, or
          raise the mean temperatures any higher.  Global climate change is real.

15.   Our real enemies are not terrorists, but our ancient fears of the unknown.  
           Civilization is based on integrity and trust.  Without cooperation and
           community, the human race itself will not survive.

16.   Nuclear power and other forms of concentrated and toxic power
           sources are not worth the inherent risks involved.  Nuclear plants and
           radioactive materials need to be decommissioned and removed as
           they reach the end of their useful life..

17.   If most of these goals are not embraced willingly, we are setting ourselves
           up for a totalitarian and Global new world order whose rule will be
           worse than anything we have now. 

18.   All biodegradables should be processed and plowed back into the soil,
             not put in our waterways.  ( see #13 )  Trees and cover crops need
             to be planted as widely as possible to retain the soil we have, retain
             moisture, and help to protect waterways.

19.    A nationwide system of municipal servers to provide secure public wifi
              coverage  throughout the country needs to be implemented, just as
             REA in the 1930's was used to install  electricity for most if not all
             Americans.   Public transit should be similarly equipped with wifi.

20.    Americans of all stripes, colors, and beliefs need to look at                  
              America......          and then look at the rest of the world, and decide
              whether to try to prefect this Union or to move to somewhere else.

Hanging by a Thread

Hanging by a Thread              5-11-2017         771 small words

                        or I keep putting it out there, but no one's picking it up

Oh, My Brothers, Oh My Sisters, How much we take for granted !

What a foolish creature is Man ! To see only with our eyes

the surface of our world and think we know this reality,

because we can touch it and measure it,

because we can feel the hard and soft texture of it,

and we can feel the weight of the physical objects around us,

as we go about our day….always thinking what we see and can prove,

is the sum total of reality, 

BUT what we do not see and what our very sensitive senses cannot detect is actually the greater part:

the dark matter of our souls, the intangible truth of what we feel,

the part of ourselves that we cannot measure or quantify,

because it is the Spirit of Life; 

and there is no test that can put a number on Your divine Spirit,

and there is no laboratory which can measure your desire or your yearning,

for those who vainly think that Science can provide the only answers we need,

 please take another look, and please tell me what was in your Mother's heart when she birthed you,

when she lovingly caressed and calmed your cries, when only her touch would soothe your raging need to know you were loved and safe,

and this loud, sharp world of cold thought could be softened

by the the precious gift, the benediction of knowing care was involved.

And not knowing care makes us terror filled, and nervous, and puts us out of synch with the music,  the harmony that underlies all things, 

the invisible part of the electro-magnetic spectrum of Divine energy

that was planted long ago and hard-wired in our circuitry to feel love,

and to want to feel love, and yes to give love and kindness, and let our

sisters and brothers know, we are with them in our Spirits, 

in our desire to join in a greater truth, to bond covalently with life,

in the true connection that joins all of us back to our dark origins,

at the beginning of our Time on Planet Earth, back beyond the capacity

of our memories to remember because it is too long ago, 
and there are no memory banks large enough to store all that data, 
except for short memories stored in our long DNA, twisted and folded and wound round our cells,

the cells of our lives scribed by an intention beyond our conscious thought,

and only in our dreams, the ultimate realm of our most real feelings and knowings, 
do we weave our Technicolor desires into a cohesive whole and make sense of our primeval knowledge that there is a lighted world beyond our everyday perceptions;   what is real is what we feel,  
but what is real is also the priceless gift that we are imbued with Spirit as well as flesh, and maybe-

Spirit is the greater part, 
because you cannot separate out the Word from the story, the intention from your tale, and your story, your tale is woven with the story of all life and you are not separate from all the life which flows around you, 

One Life, One Spirit, one dream as light as a mote of dust,

the nuclear density infinitely small and infinitely large, 

and by any real measurement of Man, ultimately immeasurable by our senses, 
by whatever we can detect on the surface,
 and only palpable to our sense of wonder when we stop analyzing the Gift, 
 stop cutting it into ever smaller pieces, 
and announcing with our paltry rationality, we have 'discovered' a new particle of matter, 
which will explain our true heritage, 
and will explain our true Origin, 
and will explain the quantity of Time in the Universe, 
and all the time we miss the important thing: 
we are here to love each other and care for the precious and priceless gift given to us, to revere the Spirit of something without a name, to hold it in awe, 
and to 'see' “It”, not as material and prove-able, but as weighty as the mass of the darkest black hole, everything part of a longing to connect with the greater part, the greater truth:

we are joined in a mystery and on a spiritual journey, and how we treat each other while we have the opportunity to touch and feel the physical is a test of our true wisdom, and tells the story of how we weave the thread of our meaning.

What We Need

What We Need 5-6-17 183 words

I do not need your anger, I do not need your blame,

I do not need accusations intended to drive me totally insane,

I already have my demons alive and living well

inside all my worst fears in my personal living hell

all the hurts held so tight inside my little childlike brain,

carried from the distant times when monsters ruled the Cane,

carried from an ancient place farther than the farthest shore,

as surely as Adam left the garden to go back nevermore,

who can measure my memories buried so deep in my twisted dna,

or whether I have to flee or fight, to live another day,

all my stored up terror from eluding all my foes,

all my rage and violence that ended with brutal blows,

so save me from your ceaseless scowl and all of your disdain,

try to find a quieter place free from fear and pain,

where we can find some sweetness and remember why we're here,

where we can remember all the reasons we once found our love so dear.

how not to be Soulful and Black

To the Desperate Young Man Who Stole My Tools

at the Westchester parking lot on Wednesday afternoon, Feb 8^th

Or how not to be Soulful and Black

So many things that I could say to you, my young killa, but then,

you would not know what I was talking about,

first of all, me being some random white worker, with a 'police lives matter'

sticker in my window, and I have not found a “Black lives matter” sticker yet,

and you being a self-described black 'man',

I know you are black because you used the phone you also stole from me,

to go on Youtube and watch videos only a young black man would watch,

and I can see the tracks of your tears and the tracks of your fears,

and I feel bad for you because you have already put yourself in a jail

of your own making….

And when you are caught someday and put in a real jail,

you will still be blaming others for what you have created in your own mind,

And you would not know or care that I marched after King showed us the light,

and traveled my own dark path on the way

to loving each person for who they were, and not what color their skin was, and more importantly, loving myself.

And you would not know a lot of things because you are young and I am old,

And I have maybe made more mistakes than you have already,

and have forgotten more than you will ever know about a lot of things,

And I know exactly what it is like, to feel desperate and alone and fearful,

-all mistakes in my thinking,

but I do not know what it is to be black, but I have had a taste,

but the big difference between us now is:

my heart and mind and spirit are free and you are holding yourself in chains,

the chains of your confusion, your fears, and your anger-

for all the reasons we all have-

because there is plenty of blame to go around and no one is perfect,

and Man's world is very far from perfect, and it is hard to see past our pain,

and I have broken those chains for myself and I do not spend a minute of my life and my precious time on God's Green Earth feeling angry and hostile,

or feeling afraid, for all of us are the same and we all pull our pants on one leg at a time and we all share the same fate and yes the same journey,

and we will all go to the same place after this life.

And you know nothing of this and spend your time being angry,

and thinking of all the ways you can get over,

and avenge yourself for the injustices and the confusion of Man's world,

and being young, you are full of the thoughts of your mind,

and know nothing of seeing life with your heart,

and seeing the good in yourself and in others around you,

and you do not see the golden gift of life that the Creator has given you,

and you hold no gratitude in your spirit

for your spirit is darker than your skin and you are a 'black' man without Soul,

and you do not yet see we are brothers from different mothers,

and all of us spring from the Creator and get to chose how we will live,

either in fear and desperation, or in hope and peace.

So I write these words to express what is in my heart,

because that is my secret to being free in my spirit and not wasting my time,

or allowing my mind or emotions to cloud what is real in life:

and I can buy more tools and work my trade with pride, and

you will still have no real pride in your right to be on the planet,

with two good legs and two good hands to get what you want,

to be a part of something bigger than just about what 'you' want,

and the only thing that is soulful and black about you is your skin.

And I pray you will wake up and take your rightful place in God's world,

and feel some real pride in your power to chose what is right,

and not be caught up in the old game of small-minded men,

of thinking of getting even and how you can 'get over' on those

keeping you down, when the only person really keeping you down is you.

Prayer of Pride

Prayer of Pride    - or -      Coming into Birth

440 words

have I not wrestled mightily with You, Oh Lord, Oh Great Spirit,

in my pride of my strength, thinking that I could demonstrate to You,

how strong I am, and how earnestly I have searched for Your Truth,

what I forgot was:

You already know what You have created,

You were always with me, guiding me to Your Path,

silently guiding me in Your gentle ways, teasing me forward,

And I forgot You have written me in Your golden book of Life,

You called forth my name singing Your constant Song of Love,

And You watched over me as I was born, just as You blessed my Mother,

and gave her Your calm wisdom,

and her eyes were open as she birthed me as the sun came up,

and I was her first born and it happened on a Sunday and I was holy….

because it is a miracle that life is reborn from generation to generation,

just part of Your Constant Miracle to renew us, for we are Your Melody,

we are a part of the symphony of all Life You have brought forth,

on this great and tiny world, each part a note of music,

a time signature in an unending tune,

a golden gong resonating through the silence of space,

a small and great shout of joy as You celebrate Spirit being aware of itself,

being aware that only Your Spirit animates this Universe,

Your breath in our bodies, Your sacred water and blood coursing through us,

now rushing now gathering in sacred places, but always in motion, never still

as You swirl Your currents of Air and Fire and Earth and Water around us,

and through us, anointing us and bathing us with Your Glory,

carrying us buoyantly suspended in Your rollicking Sea of Spirit and Longing

a wave of divine energy breaking on the shore, cresting and falling,

gathering strength and spending itself over and over,

until with our final crashing breath, we return to Your dark matrix,

return again to the invisible part of the electro-magnetic spectrum,

Your Infinite Energy pulsing through the orbits of planets and stars,

dying and being born in the dark and light dance of Your Constant Creation,

and all this I sense, being born into a world of warmth and light,

a world of noise and tumult, a journey traveled by feel and touch,

like a blind man, the tactile world bends to the pressure of my strong hands,

and also to the pressure of my longing to be joined with You, Lord.

HOW TO SURVIVE IN AN AFFLICTED WORLD – part 1

HOW TO SURVIVE IN AN AFFLICTED WORLD – part 1

or

How to Cause your enemies the maximum difficulty

There is one sure way to maintain your focus and to cause consternation among your foes. That way is to not let them ruffle your feathers.

For you see, that is part of their plan. They want to keep you in a perpetual state of upset, and they derive 'great' satisfaction from seeing you disturbed.

One Republican stated he was drinking 'the cup of tears' of the liberals and progressives with 'great' relish.

When you really understand their game plan is to distract you and try to force you to be reactive to all the false flags they throw up, you can avoid falling into their snare. It is a cynical and calculated game they are playing because they are stuck in a sick narrative. They are playing a mean game and a mean- spirited one. They just want to wear you out. Don't let them do that.

The more upset you become, the less able you are to use all of your focus and attention to work against the forces of division, the forces of greed and self-interest, the forces of hate and intolerance, and the age-old technique of divide and conquer.

If you want to maintain your maximum effectiveness, and your peace of mind, which allows you to utilize 100% of your capabilities, do not allow

yourself to be distracted or worn out or your spirit to be troubled.

Whether it is the mighty poobah who is now 'our' President or small and dangerous demagogues like the calculating Putin of KGB and Russian notoriety, the techniques are always the same. Lies, damned lies, and statistics are all used to good effect.

I have also read that their technique is like “throwing a dead cat on the table”. It effectively short-circuits any attempt at sincere dialogue.

They figure to exhaust you with the minutia of their supposed upsets, but keep in mind, it is all part of a hidden agenda to wear you out, distract you from the big picture, and spoil the calmness of your focus.

In “the art of the deal”, Trump writes, “I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after” and “when you go into a negotiation, you must begin from a position of unassailable strength. “

In the negotiations for the Menie Estate in Scotland, Trump wore Tom Griffin down by making one outlandish demand after another and bargaining hard on even the most trivial issues of disagreement. He never quit fighting.

- taken from Dan McAdams long article - “The Mind of Donald Trump” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc/2016/06/

So, in the face of this belligerence and deliberate aggression, how do you maintain your focus and the calmness of your spirit? I would suggest that this is a huge opportunity to refine your core beliefs. Trump and his minions have provided a huge gift to the rest of us. Everything is now on the table.

We win when we maintain the bulwark of our beliefs, when we stay humble, and when we look for Greatness only in what has always provided inspiration to humans: a belief in the sacredness of life, a belief there is a holiness to this world which is beyond price and beyond the efforts of would-be tyrants to sully. We are great when we bow our heads and admit there is something far greater than ourselves, by whatever name you give it. Some call it the Creator, some call it God; by whatever you deem to be holy and beyond “deals”, place your faith there. Look to the fact you are an integral part of this 'Holiness', you have an absolute right to be here, you are part of the life of this planet, and the perfection of the natural world. Allow your spirit to remain in your 'quiet place' of peace and acceptance, and your heart to find solace in gratitude and awe of the real beauty that surrounds you constantly.

This is the only way to defeat the forces of darkness and chaos. You defeat

evil when you chose 'the good', and keep your focus on what is real and true.

The Usefulness of a Cup is in it's Emptiness

The Usefulness of a Cup is in it's Emptiness or stealing a march on the zen Buddhists

                                            Jan 5^th, 2016 400 little words

There's many a slip between cup and lip, you may have heard it said,

what we forget is no one gets the final word even after we make our bed,

we forget the simple facts of life because we fail to see,

we cannot match what the Creator made when the world first came to be,

we want to think that we can do what God has already done,

- create a world of full of life and wonder and power it with the sun,

we think we are way more clever than the plan that is already made,

but it is only our own arrogance that keeps us down in the shade,

in this world not of our making, in this life that thrives under God's sky,

we are blissfully ignorant of all our gifts and the many reasons why,

we were tasked to fly love's banner, and to keep the water pure,

and we deny the truth of all we know preferring just to endure,

all the ways we delude ourselves and buy the company line,

that if we listen to our smug leaders, everything will surely be fine,

but in our hearts we know the truth, that none of us have all the answers,

we need to listen to our sisters and to know we are just the dancers,

in the parade that started long ago beyond the reach of what we comprehend,

there is a melody in our heads and hearts that carries all we intend,

and wraps us up in a finer fabric than our logic can unfurl,

though we live oblivious to the gift and dumb to the seashore's pearl,

there's always more than we can do or that the livelong day allows,

our reach always exceeds our grasp after our words and our wows,

whatever we think, it's more than that, and yet be our spirits nimble,

the sum total of all we know would not fill a tiny thimble,

fingertips can feel to grip the handle of a cup,

take care to exercise all your senses when you often sup,

thank the Good Lord and pray our Creator will still take us back

after we get more humble and include a place for all we often lack.

Ode to Scouts or celebrating a simple Boy Scout canoe trip

Ode to the Boy Scouts of America

originally written 3rd of August, 2016 to commemorate a camping and canoe
trip made by a local Virginia Boy Scout Troop (159) to New York State
 "May God Bless Our Uncommon Journey"









Star made, earth born, we fly this cosmos unadorned,
eyes glassed, peering for clues, checking signposts we have used,
adrift but tethered to this silky sea, wordless, and still on one knee,
we kneel and bow before the flow, at chiming silence, and what little we
know,

Everything ends and begins again, and circles ring a fertile glen,
petals fall and bicycle around, with heavenly aura this earth abounds,
our bodies cast in a mold of clay, our forms glow with a gold array
what precious life surrounds our niche, no matter how our frames exist,

free of time, tide, and chainemail too, even if there's zika or the flu,
we fly a flag, a banner held high, a liquid longing to be green and blew,
by brisk breezes blowing cloud oer earth, until we find our proper berth,
we ride the throne of all we feel, once we taste that hearty greul,

of wandering unfettered, save some gear, a bit of line, but free of fear,
of what is wild, unwired, and true, flowing craft propelled by how we hew,
our watery paradise of delight, buzzing life, unseen spirits join our might,
hail to all blithe spirits and brave scouts, eager for their uncaged bouts,

with a Creation not made by Man, unsullied by motor's din or ethernet wan,
so take some pleasure among the geese, on this fine earth and lake's placid
peace,
there is more to life than we can pan, especially if you're trying to tan,
and season your soul with God's great spice, and trying to paddle j-strokes
real nice.

So I doff my little cap off my five cent buffalo head,
and thank God for scouts with more sense than dread,
who know that Creation is meant to be seen and felt,
and look for what is precious in pool and velvet veldt.