Inspiration

poems, blessings, prayers, etc.

The Power of Listening

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“I suspect that the most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. … When people are talking, there’s no need to do anything but receive them. … Listen to what they’re saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it. …

A loving silence often has far more power to heal and connect than the most well-intentioned words.”

– Rachel Naomi Remen (from Kitchen Table Wisdom)

Solitude and Community

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“… we need solitude and community simultaneously: what we learn in one mode can check and balance what we learn in the other. Together, they make us whole, like breathing in and breathing out. …

Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one’s self. It is not about the absence of other people – it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others. Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other. It is not about the presence of other people – it is about being fully open to the reality of relationship, whether or not we are alone.”

– Parker Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness

“No News is Good News”

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My Dad was generally a man of few words, but one of his favorite expressions was “No News is Good News”. This is usually taken to mean that if you don’t hear from somebody or about something, then you can assume all is okay, because if something was wrong you’d hear about it. The absence of information is a kind of affirmation of inner strength and grounded-ness, and a quiet reassurance to carry on, no matter what. That was my Dad.

I was thinking about “No News is Good News” today, because it has been 8 days now since I stopped reading, watching or hearing the news out in the world, especially the political news. Yes, as soon as the election results were confirmed, I turned off the news. I’ve never done that before. As my wife Helen can attest, I’ve been a news junkie, checking the New York Times online frequently throughout the day, or listening to NPR or watching CNN, all the time. Through wars, murders, and other disasters, even 9/11, no matter what, I never turned off the news.

But now I have. And it feels great! It was actually easy, and now the craving is gone to where I feel like I could go on this way for many weeks or longer. Please understand, it’s not that I’m so upset and despondent about the election that I don’t care anymore. In fact, I care more than ever, as it is now so crystal clear that this dramatic change in the mentality and norms of how we treat each other and how we are governed will have a huge impact on all of us. What’s happened is a powerful call to arms to get involved, and to get more knowledgeable, not less.

Yet I need a break – not break as in escape or avoidance, but rather a letting go of the mindless attachment to mass media, to a frightfully limited perspective (however “progressive”), to the addictive adrenaline of crazy political drama, to the bombardment of information spun this way and that by talking heads, to soap opera-like tragedy and farce – to where I couldn’t hear my thoughts or feel my heart or soul in any of this. As long as the drama seemed to be headed to a happy ending I was hooked, but when it ended differently, the absurdity and utter brutality of all of it got revealed. My inner hard drive crashed, and my soul said “ENOUGH!”

Again, this time of no news is not an escape but rather a deepening of caring and connection and healing with myself and those around me. Sooner rather than later, I will turn the news back on. But for the time being, it is a precious opportunity to listen more intently and compassionately, to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to discern more wisely what is truly going on between us, beyond the noisy ups and downs of daily news. “No News” these days doesn’t mean “Good News” in the traditional sense, certainly not from the nasty or unnerving snippets I’ve been hearing from others. The news is not at all good, but if its absence in my life now enables me to recharge my batteries and to be more fully present in the world, and if it brings me deeper understanding and that “quiet reassurance to carry on”, then perhaps that is the real Good News, and a true blessing indeed. Thank you, Dad!

For Courage

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At this dark post-election time, when fear, division, and uncertainty abound in our country, there is a natural tendency to either lash out in protective reactive mode or else retreat and hide in helpless and overwhelm mode. But there is another choice – to stop and breathe, summon up our inner resources – foremost among them being courage – and face the darkness with renewed light. So I take much heart and inspiration from these wise words by John O’Donohue, the great Irish poet and Celtic spiritual teacher. And many thanks to a loving friend, for sending them to me.

“For Courage” – John O’Donohue

When the light around you lessen
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside

When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen

When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,

Steady yourself and see
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The Blessings of Darkness – Finding Our Way Forward After the Election

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I went to bed on Election night very uneasy, as the dark political forces of fear, division, and “othering” that have been building for many months now seemed on the verge of winning. In and out of sleep, I continued to pray for a miracle that they wouldn’t. But when I woke up and went online, I saw that the unthinkable had happened: Donald Trump had been elected President of the United States. I felt like I had been run over by a bus, that a bomb of demagogic insanity had exploded over millions of us, even as I realized that millions of others were celebrating in joy. I was terrified, because now those dark forces would have actual governmental power, and it awakened from deep inside me very frightening Jewish ancestral historical memories of what happens when whole groups of people are demonized and made unwelcome. I felt (and still feel) very scared and potentially unsafe in my own country. My initial reaction was to hide under the bed covers. Well, that worked for about half an hour…

Then I realized I had to get up and face a new dark reality out there. But for me, that meant to first face myself, and the dark fear, helplessness, despair, and rage inside. So my very first task has been self-care, specifically, to grieve, to be comforted by loved ones, and to deepen awareness of what is going in my body, my heart, and my soul. To just let myself feel the pain AND to feel the inner strength and resilience, to keep breathing, and to keep going forward. It’s a time to be gentle to ourselves. That’s why I’ve temporarily stopped reading the news.

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