Endings
A defining (for these times) speech by the Canadian Prime Minister. See video. PM Carney has walked through the rupture in the (now) old world order and declared a path to a new pattern of alliances and agreements that decenter the U.S. and draw stability from complex arrangements crafted by the “middle powers” of which he […]
Sacred Ground
Before you speak, ask yourself – will this in any way ease pain or lighten the load carried by those closest to this tragedy. We all have the obligation to treat heartbroken people and their excruciating losses and grief as sacred ground. Do not set a single critical, judgmental, opportunistic foot upon it. Note that […]
I Love Us. Still.
Waking to tragedy. Another day of epidemic of violence and destruction. This is our story. It’s not our only story, but as a species, we seem to have a lust for blood and destruction. Perpetual outbreaks. Another insane person weaponizing their personhood, tossing their soul on a pyre to take as many as possible with […]
Service and Survivors Guilt
I was recently in Buncombe County invited by those leaders and community members working hard on recovery from Helene. When your world has been turned upside down, this is an especially hard time of year. One woman in Swananoa talked about what it was like to have one of the few livable houses on her […]
Resilience and Strength.
What do they mean? Houston is seen as resilient. As a city. As a feature of our identity. As I explore the ways we need to become stronger and better protect ourselves from inevitable upheaval, I ground myself in climate realities and accept the uncertainty that comes with our position on the Gulf Coast and […]
Innocence and Loss
We try to protect our children – some of us. Thinking some realities are too harsh to introduce to our children. Wait we think. Let’s wait. Wait. Until they are older. They don’t need to know this yet. We call that period before they know that everything that matters is fragile and subject to loss, […]
Saints and Suffering
Sometimes when I’m really really happy and life seems to be going well, I don’t quite trust it. A lifelong habit of anticipating disaster – with an eye toward averting the worst – interferes with my enjoyment of the present. There’s more than a bit of leftover Catholic flavored guilt. Suffering was heavily promoted in […]
Losses
breathe through it I’ve been trying to “get over” some losses because even though I know better, the “just get over it” cultural norm pollutes my thinking. I’m not “over” these losses. I’m still in the process of letting go. Of reflecting on what they meant – what they mean now. Someone wise once told […]
SAVING GRACE
Loving Detachment When I desperately wanted to save my family from the ravages of the disease of alcoholism, I would have gone to any lengths to force solutions, would have said anything, done anything. And I tried in all the ways I knew how, to adjust, to shape shift, to mitigate what was happening in […]
RED LINE
I’m more interested in armor than vulnerability. In war, we don’t expose our throat to the enemy. When we are being assaulted, our poetic professions of pain do not cause a perpetrator to pause in their cruelty. We continue to believe all the displays of outrage and empathy, calls to higher ground and virtue are […]