Thoughts: Wahoo!
Poetry of music: The place of loving in each of us, as infants….
From Shantala:
My heart has been broken by the violence, polarization and xenophobia that have been escalating so much in recent weeks. If things had been like this in 1933 when my father’s family came to the US to escape the Nazis, I simply would have never been born.
I’ve felt deepening anger, despair, sadness and frustration as these messages of hate and division increase in their frequency and intensity.
I must respond.
So here is my response, inspired in no small part by the kind and gentle percussionist Mike Wofchuck, who stayed with us in our home recently. Mike shared with me that, since he became the father of an infant, he’s been able to see people he encounters as infants, and he can instantly connect to a place of loving them. This song invites each of us into that place and, I hope, into living the lessons of the great Indian saint Neem Karoli Baba:
Love people.
Serve people.
Feed people.
Always remember God.
The opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of those in need is a gift beyond measure; I was given such a gift over 20 years ago when I was called to help dozens of Bosnian (and yes, Muslim) refugees here in Portland. It remains one of the true peak experiences of my life.
Our time to love is NOW. Our time to help is NOW.
Shantala, The Music of Heather and Benjy Wertheimer
Visit their Facebook page here…
Writings: Thankfulness & gratitude, with Ezra Bayda
One of my favorite quotes from the Buddha is: “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.”
Gratitude is one of the fruits of living from genuine happiness; at the same time, it arises from an inherent seed in our being, a seed that requires cultivation. There’s a quote from Meister Eckhart, the Christian mystic, that illustrates how important this quality is: “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” If we truly understood the depth of this teaching it would be all we’d need to know.
Unfortunately, we can’t just tell ourselves to be grateful and expect it to happen, yet it’s a quality that certainly can be nurtured.
– Ezra Bayda
Well, thanks…
As people say in Canada, this is the week of American Thanksgiving (instead of October’s version), but any day, it’s as good time as any to give thanks, and feel the warm glow of gratitude.
I hope you have a good week, no matter where you are.
And I just wanted to let you know it makes me feel warm to have you checking out this blog (or on the Facebook page), the way you do. I’m glad for the comments & the emails & the notes & the feedback you give me, and most of all, I’m glad we get to do this together.
I hope you find & feel & allow light & love to surround you…
In warmth & light,
Brother Ian
Poetry of music: Born at the Right Time, with Paul Simon
https://youtu.be/qMpoNxV02k0
Thoughts: The Peace of Wild Things, with Wendell Berry
The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
About Brother Ian
Over the centuries, Brother Ian has been collecting stories & information & discourses for the purpose of elevating the human condition as needed, dissecting it when necessary, and building the case for hope.
In the spirit of noting that organized crime, organized baseball, organized labour, and organized religion tend to engender controversy & occasional discord, I promise to be neither organized or critical of those who are.