hard truths are not always polite. kindness is not always comfortable. niceness and politeness don’t want to stir the pot, do not want to disrupt, and in their avoidance, they protect the status quo. kindness wants to treat the illness and cure the disease.
the Tennessee GOP led legislature overplayed their hand.
the Tennessee Three, especially and most particularly the two Justins, stood up for truth and love. the two Justins are not just the leaders of tomorrow, they are the leaders of today.
~j ⭕️♥️🙏🏻
Posted @withregram • @ibramxk Tennessee Republicans can expel these two young brothers but they will never expel the resistance they represent.
the power of words. the power of presence. the power of standing in love and moving with the authority of love. life itself bears witness.
this isn’t oppressive force. this isn’t aggression. this isn’t violence. it’s true power, prophetic power, calling out harm, calling upon conscience, calling upon that which is within us that is Love to rise up.
there is a shortage of empathy, of compassion, warmth, and tenderness in this country for some. yet no shortage of fear, aggression, and willingness to engage in violence.
what a betrayal of this precious, interdependent life! what a grieving of the heart!
we each have the responsibility to look deep within our own heart, to face our own demons and grow up.
we can choose fear, violence, and weapons of mass violence and carnage, or we can choose love. we need to choose love. survival depends on it. the myth is that our species has evolved only through force and dominance. and surely there is no shortage of that. history is bloody and filled with delusion. however, that’s not the whole story, it isn’t the entire truth – we have survived and thrived through cooperation, through sacrifice, through creativity and collaboration, through caring for the group not just the individual. empathy. altruism. compassion. embodied love.
may hearts open, may we embody love, may sanity arise.
love & support to all my trans friends today on #TransVisibilityDay 🏳️⚧️ & everyday. i see you & love you. gratitude for your embodiment of life & love. thank you for Being.
may this world continue to grow our hearts in love that we may recognize the sacred in all beings & beauty in all life. may we rise with empathy to stand & speak in love to defend from harm our trans community who are being marginalized & targeted. may we be instruments of healing, justice, & peace.
“…they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and spears into pruning hooks…” ~ Isaiah 2:4
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 5:9)
“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.” ~ The Buddha (Dhammapada 129)
WE ARE DOING IT WRONG. to embrace a weapon capable of such fast mass killing, that has the capacity to mutilate bodies beyond recognition, a weapon of war in civilian hands, not meant for hunting or defending a home from an intruder, but intended for war and catastrophic injury and death IS a type of cultural, societal mental illness.
there’s one common denominator in all of these mass shootings, the weapon of choice for mass shooters. a weapon that gives little to no chance for the victims to survive. by the time a first responder (police, security, so called “good guy with a gun”) arrives or engages, a multitude can be dead.
a uniquely American horror story, fed by the greed of politicians paid off by the NRA, while they scapegoat anyone and anything other than the favored weapon of use, and then feed the fear of a minority of gun owners preparing for armageddon with a belief that it is their God given right to own as many and whatever kind of guns they want, even posing with them on Christmas cards as they celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. what a sick, tragic irony.
where is our empathy? where is our sanity? how many multitudes of children have to die?
“There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” ~ Miroslav Volf, Croatian theologian
a day late post for #WorldTheatreDay. there’s a particular show that’s been on my mind of late due to our current heightened (and harmful) rhetoric around LGBTQ+ community and also around immigration.
in 2003, i had the incredible privilege to be in the San Diego premiere of “Deporting the Divas” by Guillermo Reyes. what a play! i remain immensely grateful to Kirsten Brandt who directed, Chuck Zito who produced at Diversionary Theatre, and my castmates, George Gonzales, Juan Manzo, and Arturo Medina for such a rewarding, challenging, and creative experience. the play traversed the intersections of being gay, being Latino, of gender identity, the cultural and personal expectations around these, of immigration, and love. it was funny at moments, touching in others, and filled noir, and the fantastical. could i have imagined just how relevant this play would still be today – maybe even more so?!
theatre is so important to culture, to critical thinking, to growth. to sit with a group of people and be moved to think, to feel, as another group of people embody a story, bringing it to life. and i got to dip my feet into drag (i don’t think i’ll ever shave my legs, arms, chest, pits, or wear high heels again 😂) i have the utmost respect for real deal drag performers. i’m in awe of them, frankly. such gorgeous, incredible artists. so bravo and kudos to them, especially at this time as they field unwarranted, harmful, politicized attacks from ignorant buffoons. and the fact that they can still do it with such humor, sass, and style is simply FABULOUS.
one of the gifts of a regular meditation practice is the practice of “beginning again”.
when our attention drifts from our breath, the feeling of our breath, and we notice we have become lost in thought, we simply return to placing our attention on our breath and begin again. we don’t sit there criticizing ourselves, passing judgment, beating ourselves up. we simply (yet profoundly!) begin again. this is the practice over and over again. beginning again is gracious, it’s gentle, it’s kind.
we can live our entire life this way. showing up, doing our best, and beginning again when we go off track, hit a bump in the road, have a hiccup in our attention, our mindfulness, our lovingkindness, or our compassion.
our practice on the cushion, is practice for how to live, how to relate, how to beneficially be in this world.
less beating up, less aggression, and more making peace with ourselves, with life – a beautiful way to live!
bodhisattva work. keep it simple, doable, balanced, without expectation of fruition. we tend to give up and do nothing, feeling helpless, when we feel we can’t do a lot or “enough” or a resolution isn’t in immediate sight. every little bit helps, though, we aren’t always able to see how seeds planted may one day bloom, and isn’t our job to save the world (or this country). it is our job to show up, heart open, mind free, and embody love in the best way that we can and is most helpful in the moment. we do this with grace, for ourselves and others, it’s not about perfection, it’s about path, practice, and meeting a world in need.
“You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”
~ Pablo Neruda
🌼
love is the spring. your open heart and your love, have the power to awaken this world. so, center yourself in openness and love no matter the outside forces, moving forward with empathy and compassion, working to support the forces of good, of justice, of truth and love, lessening the suffering in the world.
The Metta Garden 