FACING/NOT FACING
2021-2022

It’s been raining all night. I too have been raining, falling falling steadily all night long. Hitting the roof, the window, constant sound of collision and splatter. My mind turns and moves, falls and splatters, a constant outpouring, a continual processing. My mind rains. I sit and take in a big breath. Hush now. The rain outside has subsided. The cars’ wheels on the wet road sound like sporadic waves, coming quickly and leaving fast. I sip my coffee, and smile. Where does the smile come from? Where does it go? What is it ignoring, not touching? What is it in embracing with conviction, hope, presence? The radio speaks of war on all its levels, personal to international. I listen to understand, to know, but I can’t get the info I need to understand, to know. How to be present in this situation?

 

There are sounds that exist that we can’t hear. Sights that exist that we can’t see. Our physical senses are limited. Be careful about embracing and adopting the way men have determined who and what we are, and how we best live together. The domination of men has resulted in a skewed way of functioning and it has brought deep harm to all of us –the water, the soil, the air, the trees and plants and the species on the planet – the array of it all and the interactions. We’ve been blinded by the philosophy of men in every realm of our understanding – educational, political, spiritual, intellectual, emotional, economic. The white men who determined the “way things are” and enforced them have caused deep harm, and because we have lived in the manner set up and continued by these practices, we have caused great harm. Now we return. Now we go back and get it. Now we turn around. The miracle is to be alive on the Earth.

 

April 6, 2022