Spring reflections

A short reflection on the spring season to re-open a new season of The Rainbow House. 

Song credit: MaMuse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfsRSoeC8Lg)

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Transcript

0:57

I have not uploaded in a very long time, and so much has happened over the past year that it would be really difficult to condense into this short update. So I'm gonna just open by saying that yesterday I experienced a tremendous number of highs and lows and emotion, and I've been feeling that way for several weeks now. Uh, truthfully since November. I think I spent the last two months of last year. In denial and also hoping that it wouldn't be as bad as I feared. And now, two months into President Trump's new term, I am finding it worse than I ever feared. Well, not ever. I think there's still dark things to come that will make it worse. At the same time as me feeling this fear and this anger and this anxiety, I am working to plan a motherhood blessing ceremony with a friend of mine. I am also supposed to be nurturing my children and providing them with a strong, stable, emotional foundation so that they can grow into loving people and I am also. A loving wife and partner and trying to find room for myself creatively and professionally in this world. So I am deeply frightened and worried about the future of my country, the future of the world my children are set to inherit. So I'm holding all of these conflicting emotions as I am trying to navigate my day. And I know that many of you who are listening are feeling the same. Combination of confusion and anger and helplessness that I'm feeling. So I wanna share a little bit of a song. You're gonna have to forgive my attempt at singing. I haven't warmed up, but as I was doing my work, I was listening to some of my favorite music by a group called Mam, and they have a beautiful song called The Power of Kindness, and it goes a little something like this. Ooh. I believe in the power of kindness. Ooh, I believe in the power of love. Ooh. I believe in the power of kindness. Ooh. I believe in the power of love. We don't know what's coming. We can help shape what's ahead. With kindness as our currency, the commonwealth is in our hands. So give a little. Give a little. Oh, give a lot. Don't stop. A helping hand makes the world go around there. It's more than enough. Ooh. I believe in the power of kindness. Ooh, I believe in the power of love. Ooh. I believe in the power of kindness. Ooh, I believe in the power of love. Listen up now, people keep your ear to the ground. We are the river. Flowing, generosity, ear bounds. So give a little. Give a little. Oh give a lot. Don't stop. Helping Hand makes the world go around. There's more than enough. So. It goes on from there. And they have other songs, which are wonderful protest songs, um, support songs, just incredible music. And as I was listening to it, I was singing it and feeling it and wondering at the same time how I can preserve my belief in the power of love and kindness in the face of naked, public opacity, greed, and. Lack of sympathy and empathy for people who are suffering in this world, for people who are trying to feed their children, for people who are sick. The kind of immaturity that I'm seeing from our political leaders, um, it just was overwhelming to both believe in the power of kindness and love and wanting to believe that generosity is all around us, and then seeing so many people acting in such ungenerous ways. So I know this podcast started mostly as a way for me to explore the liminality that people experience when they're both religious and ethnic minorities, and how that liminality can shape our religious experiences and journeys. And that's definitely still a focus, but I just want to share that if you're a person whose spiritual impulse is toward growth, toward life, toward connection, and you're listening to this and you. Want to grow and change and celebrate life and live more in harmony with the many beings who share this existence with us. That I wanna say, I share your pain, I share your confusion. I share your anger and your hurt. And I think as the year progresses, I don't see this getting better, but I think that also. My answer to this for my own personal health insanity is to lean into meditation, to deal with my anxiety, to to lean on and honor and remember and remind myself of the ancestors of those who have passed before, because they went through hard times. They went through suffering smallpox, deaths. Slavery, hunger, homelessness, oppression. They were serfs, they were slaves. They persisted in the face of incredible odds, and that gives me strength to know that when I lean on them and I ask them for their inspiration and their guidance, that I can draw on that and that I can share it with my children and honor it in my house and bring it to the forefront when I talk to other people about this. So. I think this will be a very difficult set of years coming toward my children and myself, and for the rest of us who share this earth, including the animal people, the plant people, the insect people, all of those who are enmeshed in this delicate web of existence with us. But I do think that there is hope and that there is opportunity for growth and change. This is kind of a funny opening. Uh, this is extemporaneous. It's coming from my heart in a place of deep spiritual perturbation. And because I share a lot of this with friends of mine online and we talk, we commiserate and we share the increasingly concerning news about the direction that our political leadership is taking us. I was reminded that the sharing in there is about building community and giving us strength. So. That's why I decided to open my new year with this vulnerable open communication because we have to lean into creating community with those of us who are like-minded so we can support each other spiritually and materially as things get harder in this country. So what I'm gonna do this year is work on getting interviews with a couple of people who can speak to the core purpose of this podcast, but I'm also going to be periodically posting reflections and short meditations on the ways in which our ancestors can guide us and strengthen us. How we can push back against the oppression and the increasing march toward fascism that is happening currently in the United States and. I think that by honoring our ancestors and asking them to guide us and strengthen us, that we can work together to build a community that will support us against the tides that are coming. It's a busy time of year. It's an uncertain time of year. It's an uncertain time of life, and I also have other things to share. I climbed Kilimanjaro last year, and so I might be posting a little bit about that and some reflections from that journey because it was a very intense spiritual experience. But I wanted to get this marker out and back on the podcast because I think that this outlet is going to be very important to me, and it can hopefully bring some wisdom and some relief to those who share my concerns. So welcome back to Casa, the Rainbow House. In a more open and vulnerable and hopefully more scripted year going forward. I'm going to post a link to a podcast I did with a friend of mine earlier this year. I was very honored to be interviewed by him about some of my work here on the podcast and also just in the rest of my life. So thank you for joining. Thank you for listening to this brief update. There's more to come. Watch this space. And remember, your ancestors have their hands on your shoulders. You can learn from their joys. Reach back. You can learn from their experience. Remember that they persisted, they grew, they lived. Make space to honor them in your home so that you can keep that reminder in front of you, even as we face dark times together. My wish for you is a bountiful spring, a warm and generative spring. Time to organize. Time to create mutual assistance. Spiritually and materially so that we can work toward a more equitable, loving, life loving planet. It's not easy work. It's not short work, but I think we can all pull together and support each other. If you're having a hard day, even if you're not, go outside. Stop. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath in. Feel the warmth of the sun on your shoulders. That's growth, that's life. That's energy pouring down on you. Feel the solidity of the earth underneath your feet. That's your mother. That's the cradle of all life on this planet. This world is a beautiful place. There is beauty there. No matter how horrible our lives might get, no matter how wonderful your life is, there is always more and deeper. Growth is there, new life is there. The spirit of this season is renewal, so let's lean into that. Let's support each other. Thank you for tuning in, and I will talk to you more later.