258) Day 26 -- Reason #26 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism: You can make a difference
You are a courageous, intelligent, beautiful, bad-ass-motherfucker. Let that light shine.
254) Day 22 -- Reason #22 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism: True Happiness
With very, very little in terms of material possessions, but rich in purpose, rich in play, and rich in love, you can be happy, every day, forever. And so can your loved ones, your neighbours, and people on the other side of the world. Happiness is not a zero-sum game, in which if one person gets more the others get less. But Predatory Capitalism, is.
248) Day 16 -- Reason #16 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism: David Suzuki
We are the Earth. This is not just a slogan. It is one of the deepest, most robust and profound facts of human existence.
And yet, we have built a civilization largely in denial of that fact.
215) Just one year of love, is better than a lifetime alone
When you realize who you really are, authenticity is instantaneous. And it’s the loveliest experience of my life.
169) The despair you are feeling right now: Dead children, bombed hospitals, the lies of tyranny in a dying world, and the crushing hopelessness of “What the hell can I DO about any of this?”
What can we do, in the midst of a genocide? What can we do, in the midst of tyranny that’s been happening, and strengthening, since before we were born? We can we do, in a world that burns its own living flesh, due to the greed of the most-privileged minority who clamour for ever-more wealth and power?
None of us want this.
167) Thanks Mom: Intergenerational Wisdom, Part 2 -- Friendship and Community
I am coming to realize that this Tale of Aloneness was never actually true, and that what made me feel alone was simply Shame, not the reality of being disconnected from people.
When I look at my life from a different angle, then that same passage of time that seemed bereft of social connections was, in fact, RICH with relationships!
Realizing this has given me a sense of almost something like awe…
166) Thanks Mom: Intergenerational Wisdom, Part 1 -- Professor Dolderman
I want to share with you what is perhaps the most beautiful inheritance of wisdom that has passed through the generations of my family, and it’s one of the things I’m both proudest of and most grateful for in my life.
158) this trans life -- a spoken word poem
To me, being trans is beautiful, there’s nothing to be mourned
I don’t feel it like a death, I more feel like I’ve been reborn.
And, I cherish it.
146) Clara Dolderman: My coming out story
People who are in transition, or who are questioning their gender and trying to figure themselves out, really need acceptance, because let me tell you, the more that your social world threatens to reject you, the WAY harder this ends up being for the person. They need to accept themselves, because it’s Who They Are. And it sure is a lot harder to accept and love yourself, if the people around you don’t.
139) Wow…weird. I healed: Part 3 - The Spontaneous, Seemingly-Magical Transformation of Motivation
Keep in mind, the “self help industry” is an INDUSTRY. It, decidedly, does NOT thrive on wellness, but ironically, on illness. Nothing quite as good for the bottom line than repeat customers!
134) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 13: Avoiding the Shit
The only thing we really get better at by avoiding our problems, is avoiding our problems. We become Level 10 Shit Avoiders. Our defence mechanisms, fantasy thinking, distractions and other “coping strategies” become our super-powers. Pretty shitty super-powers, eh? No wonder Marvel and DC don’t have movies about Avoidance Man fighting bad guys….
133) From Shitty-ness to Well-ness, Part 12: You are strong enough
If it’s been hard to read this, I’m sorry. But if it’s the truth, then it’s the truth.
This can change. You are strong enough. Your ancestors made sure of that.
99) From the River to the Sea
These are people whose families and communities are, right now, experiencing practically unimaginable terror and violence. Their future is a question mark. And their people have lived as literal prisoners, for 3/4 of a century. That’s three generations, an entire human lifetime, birth to old age, imprisoned.
And they feel joy. Along with rage, fear, and no doubt often hopelessness.
I don’t have words to describe what that feels like, to encounter that depth of love, community, sharing and openness. It’s….Well, straight-up, it’s one of the most absolutely beautiful experiences I have had in my 49 years on this planet as my current incarnation.
So, to my brothers and sisters, thank you. You collectively inspired me and touched my heart tonight. I will raise my voice with you, anytime, “From the river to the sea…”
98) The cure for The Dude's pain, is in The Dude's pain
You’re not special. Not any more than any other collection of atoms in the universe. Which is ok, because every single one is infinitely special. (And doesn’t actually exist as “an atom” anyway, but is indelibly interwoven into the whole Quantum enchilada.) So stop trying to convince yourself you’re “more special” than infinity.
Instead, feel. Everything. You’ll probably need help doing this. Which is, in some ways, exactly the point. Because “you” are not you, just like an atom isn’t an atom.
Embrace this. Your heart will open. And everything you once relied on for “coping” will seem so silly, when contrasted with Being itself.
This is not an idea. It’s as real as biting into an apple. Taking a shit. Moving your eyes back and forth to read these words.
You can do this.
95) Gratitude Day 9 - A Dead Raccoon
That raccoon-shaped piece of God taught me an important lesson about the wisdom of the “Perennial Philosophy” that is the beating spiritual heart inside the world’s religions. Without that raccoon, I think I would have been lost for far longer in a kind of modern perversion of spirituality, a positivity-infused delusion known as spiritual bypassing whereby so many people talk about wisdom as though it was practically synonymous with happiness, and happiness with “success” and living a life of passion and adventure, a North American-ized, mega-church, business and self-esteem-friendly Disneyworld version of Wisdom that is easy to translate into motivational sayings for people to hang on the walls of their yoga studios.
90) Gratitude Day 8: Loneliness
Loneliness is like a psychic heartbeat. It shows you that you are a creature of Love. You yearn for love. Not just to BE loved, like you want to consume other people and vampirically suck the love out of them. But TO love.
Loneliness tells you, moment by moment, that you are a fountain, a river, an ocean of love, and it is the sheer, relentless pain of loneliness that confirms that, irrefutably. For if you weren’t a creature of Love, then you wouldn’t be lonely. You would just “be”.
It is the very agony of loneliness that reflects your inner light. It is a Friend who visits, right in the depths of your suffering.
81) The Feeling of Falling
My hand knows a soft perfection that my mind can only understand
As a dream,
Knows curves that fit my palm
Like the sky fits the albatross’ wing.
My fingers know what it feels like
To grip
A galaxy that seems it could only be fashioned
To be their glove.
73) Dear Ancestors,
Dear Ancestors, thank you for this chance you’ve given me, to live. For the songs you passed on. The babies you nursed at your breasts, taught to walk, and speak, and play, and fish, and build, and love, and read, and forgive. Thank you for your courage, the sacrifices you made in the wars of your time. The wisdom you discovered in silent meditation. The poems. The traditions, dances, beautiful creations of art and worship. Thank you for the recipes you passed down through generations of care-takers labouring over hot stoves, for the endless mouth-watering concoctions we coaxed from the abundance of water and soil and sunlight. Thank you for the luminaries who inspired all who came after, to strive for the Good, to love unto death.
72) Purpose -- Part 4 -- In Between
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.
I’ll meet you there
67) Purpose: A Four-part series -- Part 1 -- "Tearing Down the Wall"
The antidote to suffering and alienation, is love. It’s trusting. Reaching out for connection. It’s admitting weakness, accepting yourself, and accepting the Other. It’s embracing the unknown, together. It’s courage, in the Brene Brown sense of speaking your truth, with your whole heart.