I don't know how to turn things around.
No one does.
People have been trying to turn things around
for thousands of years.
Things have been getting worse all that time.

In light of this,
I think turning things around is a poor goal.
The best goal is caring about one another.
Caring about another.
Caring about something more than ourselves.

I find myself caring about indigenous peoples,
and trees.

A year ago, neither were on my horizon.
Our lives are capable of taking turns
we can't imagine.
Turns for the better.

I'm glad not to know where this shift is going--
I am just along for the ride.

I think if we will allow ourselves
to care about the things we are interested in--
and allow our life to lead us into interests
we don't know we have--
we will surprise ourselves with what happens,
and with what we are capable of.

Caring leads the way,
and we find what we care about,
not by thinking about it,
but, simply by caring what we care about.

Start there and give the horse that is your life the reins.
For the ride of your life!

–0–

Grace and kindness improve everything.
Ruthlessness and anger make everything worse.
Where we go with that,
what we do about it,
makes all the difference.

--0--

EXCERPTS FROM THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE’S STRONG ENDORSEMENT OF PRESIDENT BIDEN

Under the leadership of the oldest and arguably the most experienced president in American history, the team in the White House for the past three years has performed remarkably well, despite the rancor and divisiveness that have afflicted this nation for nearly a decade.
 
The accomplishments of an administration dedicated to governing, one that believes in the power of government to make life better for the American people, is a key reason we heartily endorse the reelection of President Joe Biden. The other reason, equally important, is to fend off the chaos, corruption and danger to the nation that would accompany the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
   
The economy has recovered from the perils of the pandemic and is now healthier than that of any other advanced nation. With unemployment approaching a 50-year low, companies large and small need workers.
 
Inflation is trending downward, somehow, despite all dire prophecies of economists, without the bitter medicine of a recession or a period of high unemployment. Food prices are still high, and hard-working Americans are still wincing at grocery store receipts, but gas prices have fallen, as the U.S. produces more oil than any country in history, including Saudi Arabia. In an ongoing effort to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, the administration is investing $7 billion in an ambitious solar-power project and is promoting other alternative energy projects, as well.
 
The stock market is percolating along and hitting record highs.
 
The Biden administration in its first year managed to pass a bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that’s expected to add an estimated 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years. It’s repairing roads and bridges, upgrading air- and seaports, modernizing our power infrastructure, investing in public transit and passenger rail and cleaning up Superfund and brownfield sites.
 
Steadily growing reliance on the Affordable Care Act during this administration has made coverage more affordable and more accessible for millions of Americans. More than 21 million Americans are now enrolled, up from 12 million shortly before the pandemic.
 
The Biden White House also has given Medicare the power to directly negotiate with Big Pharma, thereby lowering drug prices and placing a $35-per-month cap on the cost of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries. 
 
After decades of “thoughts and prayers” and little else in response to mass killings, the Biden White House managed to shepherd a bipartisan Safer Communities Act through a balky Congress. With the support of 15 Republican senators and 14 Republican House members, the act represents at least a modest effort to address gun safety in this country.
 
The Biden administration has managed to organize and lead an allied response to a brutish dictator’s invasion of a neighboring democracy. As Ukraine desperately tries to hold off Russia’s invasion, Biden, in the words of former Republican Party operative Stuart Stevens, is “standing on the side of freedom versus tyranny in the largest land war in Europe since WWII.” 
 
Under the leadership of a president with decades of experience in the Middle East, the administration is seeking a path to peace and stability in the post-October 7 conflagration involving Gaza, Iran and Israel and the desperate Palestinian people. The administration also is trying to tamp down the potential danger of a region-wide war. It’s hard to imagine Biden’s predecessor having either the patience or the prowess to play a significant role in resolving a devilishly complex crisis.
 
We are well aware that the Biden administration has not been successful on every front. The calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan was the most obvious failure. The administration’s inability to quell chaos at the border is another, although blame primarily belongs to caviling and cynical MAGA Republicans in the House. In servility to Trump, they torpedoed a bipartisan border-security plan painstakingly crafted in the Senate. Biden can’t solve the crisis by executive order; he needs Congress to act.   
  
We are reassured in large part because Biden has restored the tradition of a capable team running the White House, a tradition trampled by Trump’s deeply flawed scheme to run a one-man show. Like Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt, Biden’s deft management of his team has made him, arguably, the most productive president since LBJ in the early months of his administration. He has, as they say, forgotten more than his presumed Republican rival will ever know. That’s not saying much, and at the same time, it says it all.
 

Greedy, selfish, ruthless, mean
seem to describe the worst of us.

Compassionate, just, gentle, kind
seem to do for the best of us.

With the rest of us falling out
between those extremes.

Everything takes its place
along the continuum between extremes.

"The Golden Mean" balances, harmonizes,
the Yin and Yang of too much and too little,
offsetting each other eternally
over all levels of existence,
with "relatively stable equilibrium"
being the best that can be hoped for
over varying degrees of time.

Keeping that in mind
with an eye on our own 
emotional/physical/psychological/etc.
states of being throughout each day,
gives us the ability to consciously
adjust the ups and the downs
in being "just here, now,"
ready for what comes
in a "this means that" 
or a "here we are, now what?" kind of way,
with the ideal being
that of "the still point
of the turning world,"
throughout time and space.

–0–

I wish I had done better.
I could have done better.
But.
I'll give me this:
I'm doing better all the time.
Most of my lapses were long ago.
Yesterday was a gem.
Most of my yesterdays were gems.
Which means most of my todays are sparkling
right out of the box.

We have to give ourselves credit.
For having what it takes
to meet the day,
day after day,
on the day's terms
and deal with it 
the way it needs to be dealt with.

That's something.
The days never quit,
and we can't either.

It is always, "Batter up!"
With curve balls 
and smoking fast ones coming,
one after another.
And the fences get farther away.
No problem.
We'll just keep swinging.
And growing up,
some more,
again,
each day.

Smiling at the idea
of being worthy of the game!

Made worthy by the game!

Which is, I take it,
the whole point of the game!

–0–

Jesus didn't care what his chances were,
neither can we. 
We have a job to do: Being who we are,
when we are,
where we are,
in ways appropriate to the occasion,
and not trying to get anything in the bargain.
Just doing what is called for,
no matter what.
Like turning over the tables
of the money-changers in the temple.
And refusing to tell Pilate
he would stop causing trouble
and go back to Nazareth.
If Jesus had only done those two things
he would have lived to enjoy his grandchildren.
But duty called.

Duty.
Is what the moment needs
from us.
Of us.
And that is what we are here for.
No questions asked.
No demurring permitted.

We are here to do what is called for
in each situation as it arises
as long as life shall last.
With the gifts of our original nature
and the virtues,
virtuosities,
that are ours to serve and share
the way only we can,
day by day,
every day.

I can't wait to see what that means
for me
today!

And you? 

–0–

We have an affinity for this
and not for that
throughout all of the categories
of options and choices
that is natural to each of us
and quite different around the table.

"Explore your affinities!", I say.
"Do not allow any to go unnoticed, unknown!"

Our affinities bring us to life,
disclose our nature,
express our preferences,
expose us for who we are,
comprise our identity
in a "Me/Not-ME" kind of way.

I enjoy spending time with myself,
doing what I like to do,
being where I like to be,
and expect that most of us 
would be able to say something similar,
with a life lived around
what we enjoy doing.

Why don't we do more of that
more often,
and let the pressure to live differently
drift away like the clouds passing by?

–0–

Think Indigenous: Native American Spirituality for a Modern World

by Doug Good Feather | Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services | Apr 13, 2021

4.8 out of 5 stars

385

I'm recommending this to you, and am happy to let you do what you will with it, which is part of the way, the part that makes us in charge of what's next, with all of us choosing our next step and not being forced to do anything that isn't at one with us. That is the way.

–0–

Our search is for ourselves,
for our original nature
"for the face that was ours
before our grandparents were born."

For the virtuosities that we are
capable of exhibiting
a the right time,
in the right place
in the right way
in the service of balance and harmony,
integrity, sincerity, spontaneity,
and the true good of all concerned.

The way Jesus, the Buddha, Betty White,
Dolly Parton, Helen Keller, Grayson Pardo,
and thousands of others have done
throughout their lives
over the long sweep of time.

How many people have you known
who did it the way they would do it
with kindness and compassion for all?
There you are!
We are looking for what they had,
namely, themselves in their full glory,
dependably, reliably, consistently,
day in and day out
always and forever.
Amen!

Be you like they were like themselves!
Letting that be your gift to the world!

–0–

Joseph Campbell said, "Meditation sounds complicated,
but it's just waiting."

Meditation can be a "blank mind" practice
where we would concentrate on our breath,
or a repeated sound or phrase
to the point of cutting ourselves off
from all external stimulii
including the awareness
of being empty of awareness.

Meditation can also be a "being with" practice
of focusing, say, on the above image
and being aware of all of the associations
the image "produces," "enables," 
"invites," "calls forth,"in us,
and following where those associations take us
and what realizations our reflections produce.

I think of this as being a meditative "walk-about"
leading us through a "dream world,"
or "dream land,"
deepening, expanding, enlarging our awareness
to include the possibility of "visitation"
with other beings
and providing us with out-of-the-body knowledge
that could potentially help in our day-to-day life.

The Shamans of early primal experience
could have employed this kind of meditation
to gain insight into the cure of illnesses,
or to guide the hunt,
or to warn of pending dangers for their tribe.

The rhythm of drums and stomp-dancing
could have been used to induce the trance state
instead of simply meditating on an image or a scene.

All of which underscores for me 
the various "levels of reality" 
that may be experienced 
by closing ourselves off from "this world"
of normal, apparent, reality,
and opening ourselves to "worlds" 
that may be experienced beyond this one. 

–0–

William Butler Yeats had an eye for what's what:

" Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...

 The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity."
(From "The Second Coming")

The Sixties killed the best we had
and the songs of protest 
changed "absolutely nothing."

And we all are waiting for a savor
who is not coming
to relieve us of the burden
of being ourselves.

That which we seek is within.
It is never more difficut
than rising to the occasion.

One person doing what needs to be done,
when,
where,
how
it needs to be done,
becomes two people,
two become four...
by just making the bed,
sweeping the floor,
in the right way,
at the right time.

We choose to despair
rather than do what 
the moment requires.

Rather than see what we look at
and respond to it in ways
appropriate and called for.

We hold out false hope
instead of doing the next best thing,
thinking, "What good would that do?"

Try doing what is good
whether it does any good or not,
time after time,
all your life long.

Without keeping score.
Without caring about the outcome,
just bringing our best
to meet the moment
anyway, nevertheless, even so.

How long has it been?
And the thing that needs to be done
is always there
waiting for someone to see and do
with the right mind set,
with the right manner,
in the right way,
at the right time.
Here/now.

–0–

After 24 hours with the Norovirus, I have some tips
that may prove to be useful for you or someone you know:

1) Feeling better does not mean getting better.
2) If you think it's a fart get to a toilet NOW!
3) Consider making your acquaintance with Depends
and 33 gal leaf-disposal bags.
4) Re-consider what "Making the best of it" means.
5) Laugh out loud when the thought crosses your mind:
"Surely, the worst is over now!"
6) Make certain your sense of humor is the last thing 
that goes. If you don't have a sense of humor, spend
what remains of your time left for living developing one.
You could start with the George Carlin YouTube videos.