Signs and Portents

I’ve heard a lot of people wondering what the coming months will bring both weather-wise and for the people of this beautiful world we inhabit. As wars and weather wreak havoc it is totally understandable to be concerned. But if you’re looking for

Signs and Portents

of what is to come, I think you are looking in the wrong direction. All any of us can do is to live fully in each moment. We can pray and hope and think all we want but in the end what matters most is action or inaction.

What one small thing can I do today that will make a tiny difference? How can I lighten the load someone is carrying or brighten someone’s day? Can I spread peace through the words that I write or the photographs that I share? Or can I help someone see the beauty of this perfectly imperfect world? If nothing else, can I practice mindfulness to create a sense of peace and calm in my own mind and body?

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.

Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.

   — Maya Angelou, We Were Made For These Times

Staying Engaged

A minister I once knew once told me that we must meditate with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Faith is important to many. But faith should not become a reason to hate or harm others. Turning a blind eye to what is happening to people here or anywhere is a form of other-ing that harms.

I don’t have the wisdom to know how to end the suffering and hate that I see all around me in the world. The best I can do is to work towards spreading light and love, not hate and fear. It’s hard not knowing how to fix things and to instead simply love what is. So I do my best and walk through each day seeking and seeing beauty, loving those I encounter, and doing one little next right thing that comes to me.

May you walk in beauty.