In Praise of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Eternal Spirit in the World We have lost a great leader In the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Glorified, as she should be, In classrooms In the dormitories of millions Of growing women Beloved by a nation of every gender and race That was trembling with fears That the Law might deny them  Their Sacred Rights She gave us an emblem, a banner, a voice We needed and could not find Until her. Justice Ginsburg offered  Her intelligence and self-respect, Her gentle but firm wisdom To a nation that had…

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Roses are Still Red

There is much to worry us in this time. But if we look upon the anger, the tumult, the struggles to live and more than that, the struggles to be free- we see a different color in this now dark world. We see fiery red. And red means love in our culture. It also means bravery.  For many years, we have talked much about conflicts outside our nation.  But now the conflicts are not outside our borders, but within them. We have violence against black people and people of other…

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Plant Trees!

Many people are out of work, so now we need a new Civilian Conservation Corps.  CA lost millions of trees, risking runoff this winter into our salmon streams.  We should hire thousands of tree planters, plus volunteers doing community service.  It's safer working outside, with distance and masks.  Lots of organizations, businesses, tourism and students could help them plant millions of trees, and do other conservation work, across the state.

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From Car-Love to Car-Friendship

Living a 1930’s lifestyle is quite a lesson. As soon as the pandemic hit, we all knew we were in for a taste of thrifty 1930’s style Depression life. To prepare for a life of thrift, almost 20 years ago, our family took the urging of Adbusters magazine’s incredible “Buy Nothing Day” campaign. Spending a day spending no money taught my kids and me a lot and to this day, we use it. But with the economic collapse of these last months, I am herein instituting for myself and urging…

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Transitions

Nature follows a blueprint. We know if we receive a cut on our hand, with time, the cut will scab over and grow new skin. Our bodies are so magnificently designed; they have the ability to heal themselves, if given the proper energetic environment and nutrients. Our human lives have this same innate ability. However minute or monumental our life catastrophes, they are actually opportunities disguised as trials and tribulations with the end result transitioning us into personal growth and transformation, provided we are willing. We each possess a skill…

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Thoughts on Beirut

The tragic explosion in Beirut wiped out the port area and killed about 150 people.  I lived in Beirut as a child, and it's sad to see the destruction.  The disaster left Lebanon in chaos, and they'll have trouble recovering and rebuilding. Last week was also the 75th commemoration of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed about 200,000, mostly civilians.  Those were small nukes.  What if a terrorist or enemy had bombed Beirut with a nuclear weapon?  Hundreds of thousands would have died instantly or over the following weeks…

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Being Plagued

In 541 AD, rats from Africa came on ships to Constantinople controlled by Emperor Justinian.  The rats were sick with a plague. The city dwellers did not pay much attention at first to what they called the Plague of Justinian until it ravaged the city and moved on to others. Actually it raged on until 750 AD and killed a total of 25 million people. Death does not give up easily. The Black Death began on ships returning from the Far East to Venice in 1347. Italians recognized the sickliness…

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Inside Ourselves

When we talk about the inside of ourselves, what is it that we mean? Are we talking about our bones, our tissue, our blood, our organs, and our systems? Well, those of us bound by the purely physical may only view our insides that way. But for me, I am fascinated with so much more. Yes, because I am a personal trainer, the physical parts listed above fascinate me, but I am more fascinated with the parts within us that cannot be seen and may never be understood. The parts…

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When COVID is Over, Don’t Stay in Place!

COVID has given us much fear and suffering. It has also given us much space and time. And with space and time comes connection. And with connection comes action. Black Lives Matter sprang up bolder and bigger and more fierce than ever before during this tragic springtime, because people had time to witness a terrible murder and really protest this foul act in huge numbers. The COVID pandemic enabled black and white people to forget about their jobs or even their loss of their jobs and take to the streets in droves. Did it help us…

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The Nature of Consciousness

To speak the truth about the nature of consciousness, we would really have to remain silent, for it is the highest teaching. Consciousness as defined by Rupert Spira, a British potter and teacher of the Advaita Vedanta direct path method, as “that in which all experience appears, in which all experience is known, and out of which all experience is made. All experience is mind, thinking, imagining, sensing, perceiving, and the mind’s knowledge of whatever it knows or perceives is only ever as good as its knowledge itself. The highest…

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