SACRED EARTH

once upon a time you dressed so fine
you threw the bums a dime in your prime
didn't you?

you used to laugh about everybody that was hangin out
now you don' talk so loud
now you don't seem so proud
about having to be scrounging your next meal

how does it feel?
how does it feel?
to be without a home like a complete unknown

like a rolling stone

dylan

when time reaches its end
it will have come around to the beginning
again
so, where did the Garden (Paradise) go
it receded into the unconscious
revealed, again, by expanding consciousness

heaven is measured (experienced) by our own depth of

consciousness

Aunt Sarah
"THE HANDMAID'S TALE"

"The mind of man is like a wall
that divides man from God"

Anonymous

FUELING THE FIRE OF REAL CHANGE
by Chris Hodges

Turn your back on Wall Street. Walk a few blocks up from the gleaming and soulless towers
of disintegrating capitalism to the shabby, brick Catholic Worker house at 55 E. Third St. Sit, as I did recently, in one of the chairs in the basement dining room with its cracked linoleum and steel utility tables.

"Works of mercy and contact with the destitute sustain the spark in the ashes," William Griffin, who has been with the Catholic Worker for 34 years and writes for the newspaper, told me. "It is with the poor and the indigent that you sense the imbalance and injustice. It is this imbalance that inspires action. Generations come in waves. One generation is inspired by these sparks, as Martin Luther King was during the civil rights movement. These fires often fall away and smolder until another generation.

The coals of radical social change smolder here among the poor, the homeless and the destitute. As the number of disenfranchised dramatically increase, our hope, our only hope, is to connect intimately with the daily injustices visited upon them. Out of this contact we can resurrect, from the ground up, a social ethic, a new movement. Hand out bowls of soup. Coax the homeless to shower. Make sure those who are mentally ill, cruelly cast out on city sidewalks, take their medications. Put your muscle behind organizing service workers. Go back into America's resegregated schools. Protest. Live simply. It is in the tangible, mundane and difficult work of forming groups and communities to care for others and defy authority that we will kindle the outrage and the moral vision to fight back. It is not Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who will save us. It is Dorothy Day.

Day, who died in 1980, founded the Catholic Worker in the midst of the Great Depression with Peter Maurin. The two Catholic anarchists published the first issue of the Catholic Worker newspaper in 1933. They handed out 2,500 copies in Union Square for a penny a paper. The price remains unchanged. Two Catholic Worker houses of hospitality in the Lower East Side soon followed. Day and Maurin preached a radical ethic that included an unwavering pacifism as well as a hatred of unfettered capitalism. They condemned private and state capitalism for its unjust distribution of wealth. They branded the profit motive as immoral. They were fervent supporters of the labor movement, the civil rights movement and all anti-war movements. They called on followers to take up lives of voluntary poverty. The Catholic Worker refused to identify itself as a not-for-profit organization and has never accepted grants. It does not pay taxes. It operates its soup kitchen in New York without a city permit. The food it provides the homeless is donated by people in the neighborhood. There are some 150 Catholic Worker houses around the country and abroad, although there is no central authority. Some houses are run by Buddhists, others by Presbyterians. Religious and denominational lines mean little.

Day cautioned that none of these radical stances, which she said came out of the Gospels, ensured temporal success. She wrote that sacrifice and suffering were an expected part of the religious life. Success as the world judges it should never be the final criterion for the religious and moral life. Spirituality, she said, was rooted in the constant struggle to fight for justice and be compassionate, especially to those in need. And that commitment was hard enough without worrying about its ultimate effect. One was saved in the end by faith, faith that acts of compassion and justice had intrinsic worth.

Many of the old stalwarts of the movement do not place their hopes in Barack Obama or the Democratic Party. They see their task as sustaining the embers of social and religious radicalism. They hope that this radical ethic can once again ignite a generation shunted aside by a bankrupt capitalism.

"If you lived through the civil rights movement as I did, you would want very much to vote for Obama," said Tom Cornell, who first came to the Worker in 1953, "but I don''t think I will be able to, given Obama's foreign policy and his failure to promote a health care system for all
Americans. I can't vote for someone who leaves an attack of Iran on the table."

Those within the Worker, however, worry that the looming economic dislocation will empower right-wing, nationalist movements and the apocalyptic fringe of the Christian right. This time around, they say, the country does not have the networks of labor unions, independent press, community groups and church and social organizations that supported them when Day and Maurin began the movement. They note that there are fewer and fewer young volunteers at the Worker. The two houses on the Lower East Side depend as much on men and women in their 50's and 60's as they do on recent college graduates.

Our society is more brutal than it was, said Martha Hennessy, Day's granddaughter. "The heartlessness was introduced by Reagan. Clinton put it into place. The ruthlessness is backed up by technology. Americans have retreated into collective narcissism. They are disconnected from themselves and others. If we face economic collapse there are many factors that could see the wrong response. Their are more elements of fascism in place than there were in the 1930's. We not only lack community, we lack information."

I do not know if our hope lies with the Catholic Worker. Institutions, even good ones, ossify. They can become trapped in the deification of their own past and rigid canonization of the views of those who began the movements. But as our society begins to feel the disastrous ripple effects from the looting of our financial system, the unraveling of our empire and the accelerated rape of the working and middle class by our corporate state, hope will come only through direct contact with the destitute. The ethic born out of this contact will be grounded in the real and the possible. This ethic will, because it forces us to witness suffering and pain, be uncompromising in its commitment to the sanctity of life.

"There are several families with us, destitute families, destitute to an unbelievable extent and there, too, is nothing to do but love." "Day wrote of those she had taken into the Catholic Worker House. "What I mean is that there is no chance of rehabilitation, no chance, so far as we see, of changing them; certainly no chance of adjusting them to this abominable world about them-and who wants them adjusted anyway:

"What we would like to do is change the world-make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And to a certain extent, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute-the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words-we can to a certain extent change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world."

Chris Hedges, in COMMON DREAMS, September 30, 2008

MARTIAL LAW

change?

all we are saying is give peace a chance
all we are saying is give peace a chance

BEATLES

...a joy so deep and pervasive
that it transforms your experience of life

No matter what the injustice
what the oppression
in crying out to God
we breathe in Righteousness

out of the darken depths of consciousness
emerges a thirsting desire for Light
only thru Light
can the inherent destiny of consciousness
become manifest

if you want to be at peace
if you want to feel the love of god
in your heart
if you want to savor the present moment
then just let go of all the constraints
you have put upon yourself

minutes (linear time) can be expanded
into Sacred Moments
depending on our degree of consciousness
the object is the Eternal Moment

when you walk my way
obstructions fall away
when you walk my way
limitations dissolve
when you walk my way
i feel a joyful abandon

walk in a sacred way
the way of love

that i may abide with you knowing the fullness thereof

beyond the constraints of time
its secrets revealed
unveiled
there is a silver thread
connecting us all to the Eternal
to each other, to the Earth
it is a tapestry woven of Time

if i had never taken chances
if i had never made mistakes
i would not appreciate life
as i do

everyone in my life, as well as life itself

has become more dear, the value of life

more clear

by the winding path, i have followed

from a deep guttural-grief
gathered in primal depths
a union sublime emerges
an involuntary response to which
there is no conscious control
echoes of distant truths
permeate our being
eliciting disparate aspects
merging them into harmonic balance

the imprint of archetypal processes

Once I moved around like the wind
and now I surrender. That is all.


Geronimo

On this hallowed ground

Comancheria
The People roamed, wild and free
every hill, every hollow, Spirit-filled
but now, we are the hollow people
intruders, callous and crude

lacking the substance of its Native People

i

safe in my cave within
the moment magically unfolds
lost, it engulfs me
helpless, hapless to its power
all vestiges of ego dissolve
warm and snug within its reaches
i breathe, or better yet, it breathes me

letting go, i am captive to the moment

live from a deep well within
truly, what is substantive
if not spirit

should we catch a glimpse
of our eternal soul, that spark of light
the flame of which is inbred, encoded
with the need to re-unite
we so find our twin, who defines our Journey Home

when two, so suited, make love
they experience divine union
each gives the other the experience
of soul's completion

a physical sensation of spiritual union

and we two shared such a divine union, if only for a moment

lost dreams...
its time to pursue that of which we have lost sight
dreams are doorways to Truth
doorways to a Higher Reality
lost dreams should be reclaimed

its time to exert ownership over our lives

evolution is the present chasing the future
a future that exists outside of time
and in that which we call heaven, is the fulfillment of time
but in the present it is an unfolding, a process moving toward perfection

evolution is just a way of seeing heaven
thru the eyes of the present

Heaven...
heaven lies beyond space and time
outside the framework of mortal mind
heaven is superior to the limitations of the transitory
heaven is the harmonious working together of all that is beautiful:

When each thing receives its true nature and destiny
and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony

I CHING

I'm no holy man
nor, earthly king
but I look within
for the Peace with-out
I look within
for the riches of Soul
I look within
for the love which I desperately seek

When our eyes fixate on a moment in time
an injustice, such as the death of a child
we are blind to the force
sublime that dwells in primal depths
a power that thru perseverance
changes all things until
they are completely transformed in their manifestation
until there is the coming together of all that is beautiful

I CHING

a wanderer of the unknown
must have a trustin heart
dependent as he is

on impulses from heaven

Looking past your social masks
deep into your soul, therein
is where i love you
i love you from the inside-out

beauty
inner beauty
closely held, almost invisible
moves me to tears

a moment, lost
overcome by fear and doubt
in paralysis
the moment slipped away

i've washed my clothes
many times over, again
you'd think they would be clean
by now...

with the same resonance by which
Lazarus rose
(the power which commands attention)
a flower turns to face the sun
the world is transformed, brought to Perfection

by that vibrant resonance
are hearts joined
in the Sacrament of Love

To tell men that they are equal has a certain sentimental appeal.
But this appeal is small compared with that made by a propaganda
that tells them they are superior to others, and that others
are inferior to them.

Karl Popper

I dreamed of First Man
a small figure amidst the Forest dense
he sung out and the trees and leaves
reverberated with his song
swirling he vanished
from the vortex of my vision
yet his words were strong...

do not relinquish your personal power
the only way to preserve it
is to act upon it

A state of fear only engenders cruelty:
cruelty, fear, insanity and paralysis.
In the center of Dante's circle
the damned remained motionless.
If we do not become angry
if we do not muster within us
the courage to challenge
the Democratic and Republican parties
who herd us toward the corporate state,
we will have squandered our courage and integrity
when we need it most.

Chris Hedges

Acceptance of the Unknown
is fundamental
if you can't deal with ambiguity
inconsistency and irrationality
you severe yourself from humanity
mystery is the essence of human existence

anything less wreaks of fascism
automatons to blind obedience
cultism

he hides in darken corners
he darkens all that he inhabits
from his place of obscurity
he wreaks havoc upon the world
some call him the anti-christ
but more commonly known
as VP dick cheney

"we have to work the dark side...we're going to spend time in the shadows" dick cheney

the venerable doctor lost her
"Ego-I am brain", the left hemisphere
to a stroke (of good luck)
her brain-chatter, the ceaseless self-conversation
was silenced...

ensuing ... Peace

sidestep...step to the right
of your left hemisphere
step-into the circuitry of your Right brain
one of deep inner peace

Dr. Jill Taylor

"A Superhighway to Bliss"

Holy moments far and few between
must not, in denial, linger unseen
should we be so favored
blessed
it is our duty to honor Spirit manifest
should we turn our backs
we seal our fate in linear time

the inevitable end, of which, is Death

how slowly they sway
trees in the wind
dancing to nature's silent rhythm

The true value of the human being

is determined primarily by the measure
and sense in which he has attained
liberation from the self.

Albert Einstein

the Greatest Gift
any parent can give a child
is their undivided attention
to be fully present with them
in the moment
even, if only for a moment

the child's greatest goal
is to be acknowledged
not to be told what to do
what not to do...

but it is our inability
to exist in the present
(always chasing the future or caught up in the past)
that prevents the moment from existing

"If you bring your full attention
to any moment, it becomes holy"

Eckhart Tolle

though we touch and are touched
by each other, in this life
the time will come
when the stars are so aligned
that our lives truly intertwine

the fibers of our hearts
will weave a love unbounded
by space and time
a New Reality

your life and mine
will become as one

until that time, my beloved
stay one in your heart
as will I
you unto me, me unto you

a moment in love however brief
exceeds all the time-spanning
of linear reality

Holiness or sacredness
is categorically different
from secular experience
in the sacred, experience is numinous
resonating with transcendent energy
in the secular, time is but linear

Time marches on
as seen by passers-by
but, in this holy moment
Creation begins and ends
in the blink of an eye

That man is richest
whose pleasures are cheapest

Henry David Thoreau

of Love true and practical
I know it can't be
but for a moment
my heart soared again
alive and free...

but now all resettles
into that stagnation
that is reality...

Beyond Original Sin
is Original Innocence
man's True Reflection, True Being
if we should ponder
then should we not seek the Source
dwell not in the Shadow of Evil
but bask ye in the Light of Truth

with modesty and reserve, the wanderer
side-steps the onslaught of the material world

Mah-to-tah-pah, war chief of all the Mandans
and Mah-to-te-ha, the shaman
smoked together in the Medicine Lodge
and their warriors rushed to douse them with water...

i went to Buckweats this morning
eagerly anticipating a healthful experience
but, they asked me if i was an owner
and unwilling to submit to filthy accusations
i walked out, preserving my integrity

I own but a few things
i am not bound by ownership
freely, i roam the broad plains
following the straight and narrow

everything you own owns you
You have to care for it, store it.
It becomes an appendage...
If you are burdened by these things
and they become the center of what you have to do to live,
is that really positive?

Dr. Mary Grigsby, "The Voluntary Simplicity Movement"

i love you
beyond even my own desire
i love you
press no claims upon you
i love you, as you are

We would like to be quiet, but our restlessness will not allow it.
Hence we believe that for us there can be no peace except in a
life filled up with movement and activity, with speech, news
communication, recreation and distraction. We seek the mean-
ing of life in activity for its own sake.

Thomas Merton

There is a perverse form of contemporary violence (that is) activism and
overwork... The rush and pressure of modern life are a form of violence. To
allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to
surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to
want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy
of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our inner
capacity for peace.

Thomas Merton

In Love

all things are beautiful
In Love
all things are possible
is there any reason, not to be
In Love

looking upon
a gray-haired, little ole lady
my vision reconfigures
and i see a smiling, care-free child

in mindless delight
i poison myself
with a greasy cheeseburger
fries and a coke

once you've been wounded
cut to the core
endured the dark nite of the soul
yet kept your heart open
vulnerable
then and forever more
you feel others pain
as your own
you bleed and continue to bleed
every traumatic event is a re-play
of your own wounding
deep pain is transformed into deep empathy
empathy evokes Sacrifice and thus, healing
for it is thru Sacrifice that the Holy Spirit is summoned
and only Spirit can heal the world

in seeing with Light
the Kingdom manifests

see you an angel
when you gaze upon woman so fair
see you an angel...

spirit manifesting your heart's desire

our lives
only stations along the way
not the end-of-the-line

i love the little girl
in a woman
oh its no doubt
the woman is beguiling, intriguing
but its the little girl
the one who believes in dreams
the little girl
the one who is joyous
whose voice trickles and leaps
like a cascading mountain stream
it will always be the little girl
who embraces life magically
with her exuberant heart

Once your heart
gives birth to love
pure and true
once you submit
to its ancient wisdom
allowing it to nourish you
tenderly it leads
and your life is forever changed
it may turn you inside-out
challenge your most time- honored beliefs
but given free reign
its heart that brings you blessings
heart that puts a knowing smile upon your face
...but its heart that we betray

we return to that shallow- way
that has no depth, no soul
that shallow way that knows not passion
that shallow way, halting in step
freezes in fear
in trepidation calculates...

give it no thought though
we mortals have not eyes to see
our metaphysics, reason, protects us
instills in us a sense-common
which denies seeing and being
its only Natures Child, God's Holy Child
that defies reason
but not...
no, not you and me

Did you not know
but then
you have always known
haven't you
i have been waiting
deep in the place of your dreams
when you called
was i not there, at once
by your side
in this place
us, where we are, who we are
remains eternal
only time changes
flowing like a river
in which we stand
ankle-deep

I saw the look
again
caught it in your eye
just a flash
a moment gone by
but...
you can't hide
whats in your soul
you can't deny
that over which you have no control
when you are loved by someone
deep and true
when your souls connect, merge
its really not up to you
anyway
i love you
beyond all time
beyond all rules
i love you
because i've seen your soul
looking out at me
when it gathered itself in your eyes

we cannot fully appreciate
what we have, until we lose it
loss, however, is the gateway
to greater wisdom and love
pain and suffering, then
are welcome companions
on this, the Spiritual Path

the journey is the path
not the destination
walk in a sacred way

as i napped i heard someone stirring
i thot it might be my beloved
trying not to disturb me
but, no
the movement came from within
in my mind or more aptly
my soul

Exhausted
I knew my body wasn't functioning properly
to recuperate i sat on a bench
gazing out on a familiar scene
then i saw something unseen before
a big, sturdy, lush tree
exuberant with new foliage

my spirit helper had spoken to me
coincidence of inner and outer
i got up finished my walk
feeling renewed, restored

Reality is so strange
is it but a dream
or
is the dream reality

even more strange is that
the answer to both questions
is very likely "yes"

so let us dream the reality
that we desire
let forces unknown
conspire to make them come true

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing, fresh from the world

Sweet's the rain's new fall, sunlight from heaven
Like the first dewfall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Spung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day

Ysuf Islam

Rev. Wright is right
he speaks the Truth
as Spirit moves him
but for political correctness
expediency
his favorite son, denies him

the issue is not Wright
or wrong
but can the vision on high
survive the transition to the valley
below

uttering primal incantations
hypnotic, repetitive chants
rhythmic reverberations

walk the world
perhaps not in some far-away
exotic location
but walk the world
in your own neighborhood

in walking there is a perception
that arises
akin to roaming wild and free
walk the world
and know your spirit

...a clan where children

are people in their own right
perhaps, even more so

due to their closer proximity

to Original Innocence

ego keeps getting in the way
i step on it stumble over it
run up against it
until i remember:
Abide in the Creator

so blind, i have to be
periodically reminded

I found myself in a moment in time
no really, i mean i found myself

not until you are overcome
by a moment so consuming
that it totally possesses you
can you possess yourself

not until all your "self" concepts
are completely overcome
undone
can you for the first time
know and own yourself

i heard a voice calling
as from deep within a well
yea, it startled me
called me by name

the voice is the message
that there lives within
a spiritual entity
is message enough for me

something to do with synchronicity...

in my heart, desiring oneness with Nature
and the setting sun, perfectly poised
over a rooftop, between two tree branches
so framed but for a few brief moments

then, being in position to perceive
such a heavenly alignment
a coming together of heart's desire
in time and space
my own personal Stonehenge
even if for a brief moment, only

A blessing bestowed by Spirit
by Divine Providence
.

...and she slides sideways
into the dance of love

"...a little heel toe step, and the
sideways slide of the dance of love."

Lucia Robson, RIDE THE WIND

Happiness is not achieved
by the conscious pursuit of happiness
it is generally the by-product
of other activities

Aldous Huxley

Americans are a gullible lot
falling victim (prey) to every passing shill
the pendulum swings to and fro
and in its wake
the dis-illusioned, dispossessed, and un-initiated
a blood sacrifice upon the altar of illusions
be it a pop-star, politician or "spirit-filled" ministry

the hopes and dreams of the multitude
lie deflated, flat
at the altar of the trickster

on the prairie undulating
in a sea of deep grass
the Comanche made his home

could we, had we been more humble
gracious
not built forts, but simple camps
as visitors, met the Indian on his on terms

could we not have had a blending
of cultures
hybrids, spinoffs
richer than either alone

could we not have lived in peace

looking thru the window
Mother Nature drew me out
into her Bounty

the withered limbs
of winter weather-stripped trees
glowing with the setting sun
promises of a New Beginning

among the feminine
she stands out
as the most lovely, the wisest
gentle, yet firm

many would be her suitor
but few can withstand the rigors
of ultimate Truth, Beauty, Love

those brave or fool-hearted enough
to submit to her discipline
to those few, she opens her Treasures
in her, the world is transformed

my anima, again
she's irresistible
beautiful and cultured
and so warm to the touch
tho she is demanding
or more aptly, commanding
strict devotion to her
and to her, alone

why is it
that when you are not looking for something
is, when you find it

many winters have come and gone
since i first trod this path
upon the Earth Mother
my journey has seemed as a dream
or as day and night
coming in and out of consciousness
but one thing remains constant
that subtle, moonglow light
that twists and turns, weaving
the many things into one
and it is to winter i owe
this season of reflections

he carried a blanket
as many thru-out the ages have
rolled and slung over his shoulder
this blanket, worn and tattered
was as close as the wanderer got
to home and hearth
this blanket
his only refuge from a cold and uncaring world
yet when he rolled up in it
at nightfall, this blanket was his home

The Garden of Eden collapses
not when man is exiled
but when God walks out

only by abandoning his creation
can morality begin
the dichotomy of good and evil
is man's vehicle for spiritual development

Primal Power lends form to Archetypes
wherein there is no friction of time
yet time becomes a means manifesting
making actual that which lies potential
harmonizing things that accord in tone
that they may vibrate together