Hopeful Thinking

What is your general rule of thumb when spending money? For most of us, we buy what’s convenient, affordable, and has a level of quality to it that we are willing to sacrifice to various degrees according to convenience and affordability. You get what you pay for. That’s how we shop almost all of us, almost all the time. Few of us ever spend very much time considering what it actually is that we’re truly purchasing when we buy something. Some of us know full well what’s at stake, but we justify our behavior because of convenience and affordability.  But you get what you pay for. We have expectations of the things we purchase. So check your expectations for a moment. What do you really expect from the dollar you spend? Do you expect that dollar to save the world? You darn well should. Buddhist teachings say that money viewed through the principles of right view, right thought, right speech, and right conduct help one to perceive their own money as a positive influence in the world,...

What does the term “woke” really mean? To some people it’s a battle cry, to others it’s an inspiration for eye-rolls or snide comments. Most of us fall in the middle. Like many things that have a tendency to confuse us, it’s an intention. The term ‘woke,’ in the broad sense, references a desire to be more aware of social justice issues.  In the minutia, however, there are great variations to the community of woke-ness. Those who tend to be more extreme in their views are the ones who also tend to be the most noticed, and therefore become the defacto prototypes of how a concept is publicly defined. That’s unfortunate, because the social justice community, by and large, is an extremely loving, gentle, and compassionate one, who wishes for unity among us all. It just doesn’t always look like that. Because that’s not the view we’re often given. The same is true on the opposite side of the social and political spectrum as well, of course. The more extreme someone’s perspective, the more...

My first memories, at least those about others, are of wondering about what people believed, religiously speaking. I’m not certain of the foundation of that curiosity. I have no memory of religion in my life until my brother and sister and I began attending Sunday school later in childhood. And even then, it was an opportunity presented to us, not forced upon us.  My parents did not really attend church. Eventually my brother and sister stopped attending as well. But I kept going. Walking down into the valley at ten years old every Sunday morning and getting a ride home from someone after coffee hour. Free range days long gone. So I’m not exactly sure where the early question mark came from about the nature of other people’s beliefs. But I remember the wondering distinctly.  My first formed thoughts about religion, once I had started to discover traditions outside my own, were that they all felt very similar in some ways and extremely different in others. But it was the simila...

Today is May Day. The first day of the “lusty month of May.” That winking lyric from the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot is a hint at the ancient observation of this month in the wheel of the year as a time for sacred recreation and, a bit more specifically, sacred procreation.  On this night bonfires are lit and children born from tonight’s unions—whether in or out of the marital bed—are tinged with sacredness for their entire lives. It is an annual tradition much older than the invention of the calendar.  We always feel a certain kind of way at certain times of the year. It is usually a reflection of the amount of sunlight, activity, social interaction, and nourishment we get in the ebb and flow of the seasons. As these individually flourish or fail we are emotionally, and probably energetically, affected by it.  Our various religious rituals, each in line with their own scriptures, address these intrinsic, annual, human concerns in their own way. The May Day Beltane ...

I got my second covid shot last Thursday. Unfortunately, I had some mild side effects, but had kept my schedule clear for two days in possible anticipation of them, so I just relented and relaxed. It wasn’t so bad. Just a couple days of achiness and fatigue. But when they ended it was like the flipping of a switch. It was just suddenly over rather than gradually improving. Not something I would have expected or have ever experienced from an actual illness.  I must admit I found my experience of the side effects to be a little emotionally jarring. In a strange way, I wanted it to behave like a regular illness. I wanted to be able to predict how my recovery would occur. The way my side effects unfolded, and then re-folded, did not happen in a way I could predict. And frankly, it annoyed me and made me feel uneasy, if I’m going to be honest. One of the more fascinating aspects of this pandemic has been the uncertainty factor. Understanding that I’m creating an unnecessary burden on th...

Whether you believe in it or not, whether you’d use the word ‘prayer’ or some other more secular descriptor, you are praying for what you’re saying. Your words matter. Every single sound that comes out of your mouth, ever, contributes to your reality. Your ears hear all of it. And most of the time other ears are listening to it too.  The brain is really fast on its feet. It can tell the difference between regular ambient sound and human language in a tenth of a second. The brain isn’t necessarily asking questions as far as who’s doing the talking. But it’s definitely paying very close and reflexive attention.  It’s listening for survival, really. And for opportunities to thrive. It acts like a bright yellow highlighter filtering out the background white noise, and making prominent all that truly matters. Spoken words are like lightning to the brain.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about that old aphorism, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me...

Lately, I have found myself embroiled in online discussions about politics and racism. This is not typically my way. In fact I usually go to great lengths to avoid that rabbit hole. I suppose I should get back on the wagon and stop participating in conversations that ultimately get nowhere. But it’s so tempting. My usual method is to comment on unloving posts for only two reasons. Either I feel that the person is in a position to be persuaded toward a more loving thought, or for the purpose of demonstrating kind responses to unkind words for the sake of others. Both sound fairly arrogant as I see them written here. But I do think it’s important to model loving behavior. So, arrogant or not, my hope is that the principle of inherent worth and dignity of all people is at the center of my actions.  One thing that struck me though, as I have been dipping my toes into such debates, is that I seem to be battling a tide of misinformation. I feel like I’m constantly counteracting misrepres...