Life below the Tropic of Capricorn

President Sarkozy's little brother - wants to assure the world that the private financiers will maintain the economic order in order to replace the central banks of many of the smaller countries.  As Chief Executive to the Carlyle Group - one of the large alternative sources of capital available to the world - drawn from the exploitation and non - sharing of the wealth derived from the energy and resource rich regions of the world; assures us that all will be okay according to a report in "the Australian" a few days ago

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/private-equity-can-help-europe-says-sarkozys-brother/story-e6frg926-1226217666803

The one percenters believe their own humble opinions as the messiah's who will rescue humanity from its depravity.  We should not be fooled by foolishness alone.  The reality of most of humanity is defined by struggle - survival - violence - and the in-ability to participate and offer their gifts to the whole of life.  I appreciate the freedom to speak foolishly into the mix of the madness of the new "wonderland" we now live in.

May the days of the journey ahead - whether it is flight to another country until the tyrants have died or been replaced, or for the child born in the outback village in the territories - may they be symbols of hope that one day - soon - a new way of life will emerge.  Here in the lighted half of the world where the days are reaching their longest periods of light may we be awake to the darkness around us.

May this season be filled with hope - joy - and grace

on the way to Uluru to watch the sunrise and set

bruce 

Being alive - feeling good!

Finding one's voice in the wilderness can be difficult and suppressed by one's own imagination and mind.  I am offering to others to what I wrote to my activists friends who I feel were responding to what is going on around us.  The words I offer are in love and in the tradition of claiming my role as a deacon within my faith tradition.

I too want to thank the posters / cross posters.   I have edited this on the evening that I heard Danny Michel - sing Maybe You Can Find it in Your Heart.

http://www.dannymichel.com/newsite/welcome.html 

I can declare that where humanity is today - in the midst of a huge reorganization on many institutional and confines of the contexts - ways of living -  based on the human desire of the old ways to live beyond a scarcity mind set on consuming more.  Such current narrative being promoted by those with the most is falling apart.  The ancient seven wonders of the world remind us of civilizations that have disappeared.  Our current one - is like the one described by Ishmael - in Herman Melville's tome - Moby Dick.  We are on the Pequod - together sailing towards our end at the bottom of the seas of time.

http://youtu.be/6Ugkain3QUg    Danny's song Feather Fur and Fin


Such knowledge and information can very easily effect our moods and ultimately take us into the darker places where we find ourselves living.   Such moods include - Dispair - Resignation - Cynicism - immobility - victimization - blame - resentment - anger and fear.   What has happened and is happening will continue to happen. We too will experience the impacts as are all other life forms on Mother Earth.  Coming to the realization and acceptance of what is and how we chose to respond to what happens to us is a powerful skill to become who we intend to be.   If we continue to operate out of the behaviors we have come to use based on the old story we create to explain ourselves to the universe we will get stuck in the mud of the lakes where the water has disappeared.  When I am given the choice to respond to a situation - I can choose a different response and choose to live in a different mood.   This is the activist dance that then goes on in our mind.

I offer that I have found myself in exagerrated cycnicism and sarcasm - but if I can stand up turn around from looking backwards to looking forward in inspiration of a vision using my creativity to live fully alive with what I have - around me and by working together as citizens of earth we can support each  other, including our enemies.   By taking out of our vocabulary the word "enemies" - replacing it with "the friends I do not yet know and appreciate" I can change my being.


If I declare I do not like being a victim and take responsibilty for where I / we are together we can create  options and actions - including civil disobedience - to invite others to do the same and to invite the powerful to engage in dialogue.  Such when we sing and dance together our hearts and minds can be changed.


If I can get forego the resentment - anger - self pity and all the energy it requires sitting in such space, transformation can happen.   I can allow acceptance of what has happened and what is happening may continue. It is what it is.  I can turn into the realization and responsibility that I have the power within myself and along with the community to make a difference.   Accepting such I can be the person I am destined to become as I can be.


If I let go of the moods of resignation - and use the energy that is currently immobilizing in such situation - and convert it to ambition to do and stand and walk on the path of an aliveness and sense of healing and vitality.

I have recently returned from a program called "returning to Spirit" which gave me the tools and path towards empowerment. Why does it take me fifty years to become "When I'm you" especially to find the happiness that comes with letting go of the imagined person I thought I was.  Now I can be the you I really am.  I have experienced finding "the spark in my heart."  I was lost in times old ways!!!!!

http://www.returningtospirit.org


Such work included getting in touch with the basic core belief I held unconciously for most of my life. The lie perpetuated was; I am not important!!


The behaviors and patterns I used to support and grow my "concept story" were when I was in the four ugly moods - were exagerrated cycnicism / sarcasm and inserting my story and my crap into the conversations. Persons were unable to hear or listen as I suspect they became tired of my "incessant wisdom and need to explain" such as I am doing now.


Our mind and our behaviors when we do the dance of moods I described above for me was that I could not pay attention or hear others. I was self absorbed and often isolated and withdrew from being fully alive. I dare say a form of depression - and would by others be described as "mentally ill" which is a term often used by the powerful to discredit anyone who could not dance the power and oppression dance - of the delusion they invite and encourage us to live.


So I offer my weekly "sparrow speak" - chirping my voice to the universe - because it is now out there and as James Brown sings "I Feel Good!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzlpTRNIAvc&noredirect=1

so good -


bruce

P.S.  Thanks Danny for your insights and music to wake up the nations.  Bob Marley likes it !!

Poetry or Prose

Living in the chaos of dysfunction
Accepting and living a response ability
Beyond the meager walls of my self contained
a yearning to be "Rhinestone Cowboy"



the song embodied in my soul
leaving fragments of greatness
to leave behind
as story and legend

oh what is such psalm of ages past
wandering the land of being
in tune with life around us?

Many cry out in despair -
Critics of all that is wrong
wounded by injustice
in their minds eye

the easy place of critique and pain
desiring more
yet unable to lift a step
a finger to forge ahead

such oppression - such lingering doubt
no sympathy for others on the path?
Why brutal - lateral violence -
such human living contain?

Godde help my soul proclaim
Yet why such madness
mental illness often proclaimed
blame the victim
self included - such fear -
such dread of night -
holds on so tight.

A voice caught in the trap of changing rules
by politicians vagarious choice
wondering why the time to issue visas to return
to menial work - as lowly servants
tests the patience and endurance.

(plight of many foreign temporary workers aka slaves)

Such patience and endurance -
lived values
our own fore-parents
did accept when offered passage
that built the nation within where we dwell.

Why such mean spirited ignorance
consequences of actions and words
come to destroy the will to live
as such is the result?
Could it be pathology within those who quest for power
failing to recognize the impact
on those imposed.

Is it not such named pathological?

Is such thoughtlessness
or extended righteousness?
Imposed to placate the little soul within
the drunken sailors at the
parliamentary ball?

Why such misery needs to be imposed
Is it fear like ancient kings of Eygpt?
Where are the midwives to deliver the future generations?
Or are these coming angry children going
to give up and wander in limbo
between life and hell of greatest pain?

Yet from strange lands we take the rich
the educated - professionals in mimicry
of Nebechenezzer of Bablyon.
To let them live
or send them home to Jerusalem
with riches for them to carry on
Curse the Samaritans - who were not chosen
Stayed behind - like the older son -
While the younger prodigal
did spend the inheritance for life secure
only to find he too was welcomed home.

So where is this home that people long for?
Why can we not invite the strangers in to our tents?
To try to claim as ours
As was only lent to us to care for
Yet we still dance the same old story
as it was in the beginning - is now - forever yet to be?

If such godde is still alive - growing - changing - welcoming us home
Can we not do the same - and in grace - celebrate and sing
so all are welcome in this time a place?

Such stiff - necked people we have become
Our hearts turned inward on our souls
Yet in the days ahead -
Let us dance the freedom dance -
sing the songs of celebration yet again
Hoist up the cup of grace and reconciliation
To begin again - the new day dawns eternal
here and now in this space "The Eternal Now"

With thanks to Paul Tillich and Glenn Campbell and the calls for help I recently received?

Do we need "a" reality? Carl Roger's prophesy of contemporary Canada!

Carl Rogers essay near the conclusion wrote "we are wiser than our intellects, that our organisms as a whole have a wisdom and purposiveness which goes well beyond our conscious thought. ...men and women, individually and collectively, are inwardly and orgasmically rejecting the view of one single, culture - approved reality. I believe they are moving inevitably toward the acceptance of millions of separate, challenging, exciting, informative, individual perceptions of reality. I regard it as possible that this view like the sudden and separate discovery of the principles of quantum mechanics by scientists in different countries _ may begin to come into effective existence in many parts of the world at once. If so, we will be living in a totally new universe, different from any in history. Is it conceivable that such a change can come about?" Roger's concludes his essay

"..that if nations follow their past ways, then, because of the speed of world communication of separate views, each society will have to exert more and more coercion to bring about a forced agreement as to what constitutes the real world and its values. Those coerced agreements will differ from nation to nation, from culture to culture. The coercion will destroy individual freedom. We will bring about our own destruction through the clashes caused by differing world views."

mms://64.41.121.56/saybrook.edu/NeedReality1.wma

He goes on to offer hope: "But I have suggested an alternative. If we accept as a basic fact of all human life that we live in separate realities; if we can see those differing realities as the most promising resource for learning in all the history of the world; if we can live together in order to learn from one another without fear; if we can do all this, then a new age could be dawning. And perhaps -- humankind's deep organic sensings are paving the way for just such a change."

mms://64.41.121.56/saybrook.edu/NeedRealty2QA.wma

I had an experience in listening to this - that it mirrored the disciples at the feet of Christ listening to the master. My response to first reading the quote and then listening to Roger's deliver the essay at a conference - I was struck by the polarization that he concludes would occur. The message mirrors what has happened in Canada's election. On the one hand a message of values that the world has abandoned - and how the described "zealots" want to make life where everyone is in agreement to the leaders demands versus those who appreciate the amazing diversity and wonder of everyone's powerful unique perception of reality and being able to honor and listen to each other.

Now as I hear the words that the state will have to apply more coercion to have people comply and give up individual rights in order to implement thier agenda I can understand the needs for prisons. When we hear and cheer for the death of Osama Bin Laden - we are allowing a precedent to be set that it is okay to seek out and kill another human being because their ideas may be contrary to our own. The years ahead with a "strong and stable majority government" should be looked at with sceptism and foreboding as to what lengths the "authority chooses to unleash on the masses" of oppressed people - blind to their oppression.

To be subversive is a calling Jesus had .... will you join him on the journey?

The Revolt of the Elites and the Moral Deficit

The May day parades are over for another year. Did you hear about the throngs of people who took part? In the years to come - their significance may once again emerge. The pendulum swings slowly over the ages.

The future became much clearer for Canada last night. The great divide between the rich and the poor - those with the right "stuff" will be able to victimize the poor - broken as simply stating it is only the result of their choices. Clarity will be shown by compassion and how we treat the strangers - beaten up and left by the side of the road on the path of progress of the free - market economy.

Perhaps the new jails and prisons will become the poorhouses where many will be forced to go when they have no other choice. What will be the color of the uniforms of the selected enforcement agencies?
Will they also be trained at Fort Benning? Or will the School of America - come to Fort McLeod in Canada?

http://soaw.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100

The need to have more dialogue and discussion to recognize the way forward is the tension and the tragic gap that we live in today.

The Revolt of the Elites and the Moral Deficit

If you have a sense of unease - perhaps George Monbiot will be able to help clarify the dilemma of the human condition.

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/05/02/the-lost-world/

May we all gain the vision of our time - as to which path through the wilderness we may take.

Merging Markets and tax giveaways to the "job-creationists"

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2011/02/07/a-corporate-coup-detat/

The writers extolling the blessing on the merger of the Toronto and London Stock Exchanges seem to believe that the value and opportunity for sales of shares is what defines the economy and provides opportunity and growth. It is true that one can believe what ever they want. That is why freedom of religion and free - markets go hand in hand. They are both "belief" systems. When enough people believe that money made on speculation contributes to an economy there is generally a bull market. When people believe that the market is not necessilary the best investment they try to find other places to park "their money". Now consider that the value of a dollar is a belief that a dollar has the potential energy or value within to exchange for something of "value" purchased by said dollar. Having a bigger market to gather and sort out the values of any one stock on any given day nurtures a belief that the economy is continuing to grow. John Galbraith in his little treatise on the financial industry and its short memory reminded us that when paper money and shares are exchanged for other paper money or shares then some time in the future - everything will return to "real value". Such collapse of the inflated market can even reduce the value to a negative force which will suck up what is real and reduce it to nothing. One might suggest that such is a "black hole". But in the ever expanding universe of the stock market trading world when belief turns to disbelief the surreal may become real. Many will be left holding no money and governments waiting for the "job creators" ie large corporations reducing their expenses and becoming more profitable by "corporate welfare" or large scale tax rate decreases will only have to resign- when the people discover the cake they promised is only dust in the wind.

Weavings | Diving Deep for Wisdom: Spiritual Discernment

Weavings Diving Deep for Wisdom: Spiritual Discernment

End of month 5 of my healing - restoration - retreat from paid accountable ministry I celebrate:
- grace bestowed by the Great Mystery.
- the consciousness sharing provided by the Internet.
- the spiritual tradition of lectio divina.
- love that is incarnate in all life.
- patience - silence - and the gift of hearing the "spirit".
- Kairos time to interpret and reflect apart from cultures dominant "Chronos as money".

Only in the past few weeks have I begun to feel again.
The lectionary for this week contains the beatitudes - Matthew 5: 1 -12.
As I listen - I hear words of feelings. The intangible - the unseen that can not be measured as facts that can be scored on a form. The wisdom that confounds those who believe they know.

I give thanks to Ann Siddall for her offering linked above expressing many of my experiences in pastoral ministry the past 11 years. Living Christianity is not a set of words - repeated in a ritual on Sunday mornings. Living Christianity is informed by the Spirit of the Living Christ in "all that we think say and do" expressed often in Rotary International gatherings 4 - way Test.

I give thanks to the sense of wondering /wandering in the wilderness - allowing me to be challenged - transformed - and led to a promised land. May I be grounded in humility - knowing the spirit will dance within and beside me all the days of my life.

Amazingingly Graced by all continuing to heal