“When people self-organize around their authentic human needs, when they move beyond denial and break out of what I call the ‘social trance,’ when they stop accepting domination and trauma as part of the status quo, partnership values flourish.” — Riane Eisler, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE
This Sunday, February 26th, on the eve of the opening of the 56th Session of the UN-Commission on the Status of Women, women of all spiritual traditions are invited to join together for five minutes of prayer and silence to support the creation of a UN 5th World Conference on Women.
Supporters of the 5WCW hold the hope in their hearts of a world without violence and fear, where healthy food, clean air and water, education, and medical care are available to all women; where women’s empowerment and gender equality are the norm; where voices and choices and consciousness rise from our sacred center and women’s wisdom and courage are given their full range of expression.
A UN 5WCW is not an end in itself but a huge step in empowering women and inspiring compassionate action around the globe. To learn more about this historic gathering, please visit http://5wcw.org./ and help spread the word on Facebook’s UN Women’s Circles.
Now is the time.
“To me, God is love. I’m not speaking of a physical or personal love, but of the universal love that created all of us and everything in this universe, the unconditional love, the infinite power that transcends everything in this finite world. When you know that love through personal experience, it’s something that’s with you constantly… It’s not just a thought or mental process. It’s an experience, a joy that wells up in your heart. I could not live without that inner communion. It’s more precious to me than life or breath.”—Sri Daya Mata, IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE
Yesterday my husband and I went to the Oakland Zoo. We sat on a bench by the lions and waited for them to wake up. After a while, I started to watch the people watching the lions: six-year-olds pressing toes against the fence line, parents taking photos with their phones, grandparents taking a breather from pushing strollers of sleeping babies, young lovers standing close together hand pressed in hand. Despite our external differences—size, age, race, and a variety of fashion statements—it was a beautiful tableau. Everything fit. Everyone had a place.
There is a old Yiddish proverb that says if you think of the person beside you as the Messiah, you will weigh your words and watch your hands. If they choose not to reveal themselves to you it will not matter.
What a valentine this would be for the world.
The word ‘love’ is so bandied about today, but love is the most powerful energy in the world. It’s so important to unleash it. To be present to the dignity of the forgotten, to recognize the beauty of the scarred and maimed, draws forth their goodness and self-respect in a way that nothing else can. — Sister Helen Prejean. IN SWEET COMPANY: CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE
Recently, a young man I love experienced the tragic and unexpected loss of a close friend. This is the first time something like this has happened to him. I have three times as many years as he does and many such losses on my dance card. It never gets easier, but at least I knew what to say to him, at least I could tell him with absolute surety that some things never make sense, but they teach us how to love more deeply and how enduring love really is.
In the wake of his loss, I have been thinking of losses I have weathered: the young soldier whose name I wore on a POW bracelet in the 70’s until the bracelet fell off my wrist; the olive-skinned girl in 10th grade who one day stopped coming to class; dear friends lost before their time to the ravages of disease or accident and those lost to the ferment of time. As I recall their lives, I review my own: Was I kind enough? Did I dwell too long on their idiocsyncrasies? Did I forgive them their humanity even when they could not forgive me mine? How do I carry them in my heart, the heart that remains?
What I know for certain as a result of my losses is there is a greater need for kindness, a greater need to accept what is different about us, a greater need to let go of the pettiness and prejudice and pride and busyness that separates us from one another, that separates one heart from the other. This is especially hard to do when other losses–financial and professional, loss of the future we hoped for and the past that used to be–weigh heavy on our minds.
My young friend did a very brave and very kind thing, I thought, when he wrote a tribute to his lost friend on his Facebook page. He put his heart on the line in a few short, raw, elegant phrases for all to see. It was a tribute to both boys, one gone, one–perhaps–a little more found; an act of kindness that did not separate one heart from another.
Your thoughts?
“Great Mystery … is an energy that lives within me constantly. It calls to me internally and prompts me to develop or expand specific information or insights for myself and for others. It talks to me through my mental processes, through my intuition and feelings, and through inner visions. Great Mystery both sends and receives — it’s a two-way street. I talk to Great Mystery all the time and Great Mystery responds.” — Grandmother Twylah Nitsch, IN SWEET COMPANY:CONVERSATIONS WITH EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN ABOUT LIVING A SPIRITUAL LIFE
Wanted to share a truly inspired poem sent to me by the truly inspired editor I am working with on my new book, The Architecture of Light. Lesley can be reached at http://www.lesleykellaspayne.com. The poem is by Lisel Mueller, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet from Illinois. Both brighten my days.
Sometimes, When the Light
Sometimes, when the light strikes at odd angles
and pulls you back into childhood
and you are passing a crumbling mansion
completely hidden behind old willows
or an empty convent guarded by hemlocks
and giant firs standing hip to hip,
you know again that behind that wall,
under the uncut hair of the willows
something secret is going on,
so marvelous and dangerous
that if you crawled through and saw,
you would die, or be happy forever.
