another trip around our beautiful life giving star.
gratitude to you and for you, my friends, for all of the birthday greetings you sent my way!
thanks to my family for some rest and really yummy food, sweets, and coffee.
and it really is such a lovely and meaningful gift each year to go through and see your names and read your words.
you all are a reminder that in a year (the past few years really!) with so much loss, friendships and the love they bring into our lives are truly a treasure, and the source for much of our well being and joy.
thank you for your presence, generosity, and kindness!
i’ll end with sharing these beautiful words from my friend, Josiah, gone from this world way too soon, but whose words and wisdom many of us still carry in all these years since his passing.
i have long been inspired by the Hebrew phrase and Jewish practice of “tikkun olam”, as i understand it – repairing, mending, or healing the world. this is the practice of bodhisattvas, as we Buddhists would say, and is certainly an embodiment of what i was taught in church as a child of “loving our neighbor” as Jesus preached.
what Hamas did on 10/7 was horrific destruction. the opposite of tikkun olam. at least 1200 Israelis killed and over 6,900 injured then and since, along with roughly 240 hostages taken, of which it is estimated 130 remain.
nor is it tikkun olam that the Israeli government and IDF are practicing under the leadership of Netanyahu. with over 18,000 Gazans killed (70% of whom are children and women), over 50,000 injured, and 85% of population completely displaced, with an estimated 50% of population starving, and 95% of the population lacking clean water, we can only call this destruction, not mending or repairing, or healing.
if security and peace are the goal, the war isn’t working. this war isn’t bringing security or peace. quite the opposite. so much death. this isn’t the practice of tikkun olam.
yet, i see an ever increasing number of Jewish human rights activists and rabbis who are embracing tikkun olam and have been at the forefront of calling for a ceasefire and for peace.
an example of this is, Rabbi Irwin Keller, who early in this war on 10/18, wrote the poem “Taking Sides” in which he states “Today I am taking sides. I am taking the side of peace.” i have shared Rabbi Keller’s full poem in a previous post. please read his profound and moving words.
may hearts open, may wisdom arise, may there be an end to the violence and death, may the hostages be free, safe, and returned to their families, may their be a safe space for all people to thrive with the dignity inherent in their sacredness, and may we all embrace a practice of tikkun olam.
Peace, which I will not abandon even when its voice is drowned out by hurt and hatred, bitterness of loss, cries of right and wrong.
I am taking the side of Peace whose name has barely been spoken in this winnerless war.
I will hold Peace in my arms, and share my body’s breath, lest Peace be added to the body count.
I will call for de-escalation even when I want nothing more than to get even. I will do it in the service of Peace.
I will make a clearing in the overgrown thicket of cause and effect so Peace can breathe for a minute and reach for the sky.
I will do what I must to save the life of Peace. I will breathe through tears. I will swallow pride. I will bite my tongue. I will offer love without testing for deservingness.
So don’t ask me to wave a flag today unless it is the flag of Peace. Don’t ask me to sing an anthem unless it is a song of Peace. Don’t ask me to take sides unless it is the side of Peace.
two days ago, December 10th, was #HumanRightsDay, and the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
it was and is groundbreaking, setting a principled basis for how people are to be treated, without torture, with dignity, no matter who they are or where they are from, or what religion they practice. we are to stand on and act from principles born out of the best of who we are and can be. these principles continue to call on us today, to be observed and embodied.
it is, perhaps, in the most fractious, violent and fear-filled times, when emotions are high and wounds are deep, that we must not waver or be pulled down into the depths of hell where the most deluded of us act from. it requires a vow, discipline, and courage. in Tolkien’s words, “No half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.”
my birthday is NEXT Sunday, Dec 17th, so i wanted to raise money this week leading up to my birthday for a cause close to my heart. i’ve been a monthly donor for years, because i believe in their mission and the benefit it brings – their work is LOVE IN ACTION, something i talk about all the time with my art and quote sharing.
Action Kivu is led by Congolese Community-Builder and Educator, Amani Mataboro, and my good friend Rebecca Snavely is the Executive Director/Co-Founder. They have a Peace School, a Community Farm, and provide Entrepreneur Training along with HIV Education in the Congo. all of this is to support a people who have been subject to and victimized by extreme violence, loss of home, child soldier recruitment, and sexual violence.
here is a link to their latest Blog essay featuring the UN Report on Children in the Congo and Action Kivu’s commitment to MLK’s Nonviolence Principle Three:
A poem written by Thich Nhat Hanh during the Vietnam War. You can listen to a version of this poem put to music via the app – link in bio
Recommendation by Thich Nhat Hanh
Promise me, promise me this day, promise me now, while the sun is overhead exactly at the zenith,
promise me: Even as they strike you down with a mountain of hatred and violence; even as they step on you and crush you like a worm, even as they dismember and disembowel you, remember brother, remember: man is not our enemy.
The only thing worthy of you is compassion – invincible, limitless, unconditional. Hatred will never let you face the beast in man.
One day, when you face this beast alone with your courage intact, your eyes kind, untroubled (even as no one sees them), out of your smile will bloom a flower.
And those who love you will behold you across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying.
Alone again, I will go on with bent head, knowing that love has become eternal. On the long, rough road the sun and moon will continue to shine.
how is it that we can use this one precious life, with our intelligence and our imagination, rallying the full force of our presence to what? to create a myriad of ways to harm and destroy life?
we must stand with the sacredness of all life and push back against the delusion that gives rise to the justification of harm and destruction wherever and in whomever it arises.
and when force is necessary to defend the innocent and endangered, should we not move with love still, with careful reservation and the intention to minimize harm and destruction?
there will always be those who seek to take advantage of tragedy and crisis, playing on heightened emotions. it is power they seek, not peace.
as challenging as it may be, in such moments, may we remember we are called to stand with life, to love and heal without discrimination or favor, in solidarity with those suffering.
The Metta Garden 