Where are you walking?

We see not the errors of our own ways

Trampling through others’ gardens, because all we see appears to be dirt

Stomping down the plant whose seed was to bring fruit

While simultaneously extolling the virtues of sustainability and peace

Did you not see the plant was tended and prepared for you?

Were you so ready to curse the dirt, that you missed out on the flowers?

There, in the footsteps you walked, are the trampled remains

Yet you have moved on, without care to look back, or acknowledge that damage was done

What was your intention as your feet moved you along?

My Mind, For You

My Mind, For You

In this crowded world there is competition for your thoughts

Persuasion from all arenas of life working on your mind, your pocketbook, your stomach

Causing you to salivate involuntarily, looking away came too late

But the separation of the mind from the distraction is still possible

To guide your own course you do not need a map

You only need the will, and then the courage, to discover your way

It feels uneasy to take that first step away from what you know

But after the initial fear, the potential is there to experience glory unlike anything you’ve known before

The feel of riding on two wheels for the first time

Jumping from the nest, falling through tree branches does bring pain

But once you fly- all of the boundaries you previously knew seem to slip away

And when you crash, the pain will give you the rawest sense of reality

It lets you know that you are still alive

If you haven’t fallen lately, you aren’t trying to jump quite high enough

Find the courage to accept that everything you know is already outdated

Start learning again with the eyes of a child

And join me as we leap into uncertainty

~JPL

Elephant Rocks State Park

Elephant Rocks State Park in Missouri, USA.

Panoramic shot from the top.

A Piece of Latin American Wisdom

I am proud that I belong to all humanity,
Not to a few but to many,
And that here I am surrounded by their invisible presence.

~Pablo Neruda

Topsy Turvy Bus Passes Through St. Louis

Brian Schwadron recently jumped off the Topsy Turvy Bus as it passed through St. Louis. He had been traveling the United States with a group from the Teva Climate Learning Center.

The bus is upside down to represent the United States Federal Government Spending which is "upside down" in its priorities. http://www.jewishclimatecampaign.org/busTour.php

Money: Not For Everyday Use.

Money money money.  All this money talk.  Boy, the rich people sure

are freaking out about their wealth and riches.  The poor endure, scarcely fed.

The seed does not know a dollar sign; the livestock does not

depend on currency; the heart yearns to be free from it.

And so the money is invested into a quickly disappearing dinosaur

who is at the brink of extinction.  Money. Cheddar. Dough. Cash.

Infusing lifelines of cash they throw money at the problems,

but it was money that brought us here.

It is money we must move past.  

The riches of ancient despotic rulers

have passed through generations of hateful accrual only to

remain a force of depravity unto this day.  A binding, heavy chain

dragging down our individual opportunity and freedom

due to the burden of its crushing weight.

But no money can conquer the spirit.

No abstraction of value into paper can replace true beauty.

You only know what your eye is truly seeing by trusting in your mind- 

and in yourself.

These dollar signs will fade away with the glowing neon signs

sputtering into darkness of night, a new night free from artificial light.  A new time.

नमस्ते

Namasté:

"That which is of the Divine in me greets that which is of the Divine in you."

"I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One."