I am an ordinary American: an older woman, born into a working class family. I’ve raised two children alone, completed a 40 year career in nursing and now have retired into a simple, frugal life as a senior with disabilities. I am enjoying the freedom of having time, at last, or pursue interests such as politics.
After discovering the world of political blogs and CSpan some years back, I turned into a political junkie totally fascinate by all I’ve learned. I’ve been through all the common stages of reaction, from anger to outrage to determination to fight back however I could, to discouragement, even despair, only to find myself freshly outraged and more determined to fight, around and around and around I’ve gone, along with most of the people I know here on the blogs.
Until now, that is.
For some time now, omething within me seems to have stopped cycling, leaving me in a strange state of detached awareness that simply isn’t going away. This is my honest attempt to identify this state of being I find myself in.
I no longer think this government, as it is now, can be fixed. I see it as a structure so riddled by the cancer of corruption it cannot survive much longer. This cancer of greed and addiction to power and wealth has metastasized to all of it vital organs and it has clearly progressed too far to ever be cured.
This sense of “detached awareness” I feel within, is exactly like the feeling I know so well as a nurse, when we knew we’d done all we could do for someone, and there was nothing left but to stand by and allow death it’s turn.
I have no more hope that those within either established political party, even those who may still have the greater good of America in their hearts, can do anything to change things. Not when the powerful leadership of both parties have clearly succumbed to the same terminal disease.
Yes. This is where I am now, sitting by the bedside of this dying democracy. There is sadness of course, but after you’ve sat as many death watches as I have, you come to see death differently. It is not always JUST a tragedy or a terrible, loss of something that can never be replaced. Yes, it is the end of that particular body that will no longer exist on this earth in the form it pmce did.
But every life now gone leaves many echoes and footprints behind. Memories of the suffering, so acute at first, do fade, leaving behind the effects of all of the good that body stood for, and did, in its allotted time. People remember these. People use these footprints and echoes in ways that can make them stronger, wiser, and healthier.
I don’t know exactly how our democracy, as we know it, will draw its last dying breath. It could just quietly expire unnoticed for awhile. Or it could go out in the blast of a mushroom cloud that will take us all with it. Or in a myriad of ways in between these. This seems to be an outcome out of any hands powerful enough to stop it, as it seems to me right now.
Yet even this would not be the end. For every one of many hundreds of deaths it’s been my privilege to share over all these years, there are new births in equal or greater numbers, happening everywhere, bringing new life, new hope, new beginnings.
And for every death, there are families who survived it, and become stronger than they were before.
If this democracy must die, as a member of it’s family who has loved it dearly, I will indeed sit here and accompany it out, while honoring all that it has given to me and mine along it’s long way. I will celebrate its dreams attained, and its dreams not yet accomplished, and draw strength from the example of its life, for the days to come and the work ahead.
I will shed my tears, then get on with gathering up the echoes and footprints it has left behind, and put them to good use in the next attempt to birth a new democracy that can and will remain healthy and strong. That there will be another such birthing, I have no doubt at all, as long as enough authentic Americans remain alive.
With that, I feel the beginnings of peace, and the rebirthing of hope that I was seeking.
(x-posted from OurWord.org.)
Great diary Scribe (still hoping to win that lottery and send you the million bucks!).
Interestingly, I was just thinking along similar lines, in conjunction with Arthur Gilroy’s diary, and the way it seems any time anyone comes out with the dire, but very accurate prognosis about the real “state of the union” (i.e. terminal), people go ballistic on them. How dare you be the bearer of such bad news, we’re just trying to have some ‘fun’ here.
I got to thinking then if there might be some stats or info on the way relatives, loved ones, etc. may have a knee-jerk reaction of complete denial of death (I think this was a big factor in the Schiavo case, i.e. the family just did not want to accept the fact that Schiavo was DEAD). Is that what’s going on here? Not only in the minds of mainstream America, but also in the so-called ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’ community?
I just get the sense that the tragedy (the death throes not only of ‘democracy,’ but of everything we have ever believed ourselves to be) is so overwhelming that it’s easier to focus on the trivia (i.e. the Texas quail hunt ) than it is to face the truth.
It was the same thing with the election: I just had the feeling that the reality and the truth of it was so mind-bogglingly overwhelming, that neither the people of this country nor the rest of the world could so much as comprehend it.
I wonder if you have any experience with this kind of denial in relatives and loved ones refusing to acknowledge the truth and could provide some insight on that?
I know this much: the human mind will go to almost any lengths to protect itself and to protect it’s known (thus controllable) realities. This serves us well in so many many ways. But when it’s attempts to do this for us become too strong, it can crreate a fog of sorts, that some label “denial”. This can be a very powerful force, when it operates below ther conscious awareness. I know it in many forms: yes, in the unwillingness of families to accept a pending death, in myself all those years I denied my own addictions and didn’t know I was denying anything.
What I think I see however, in many people I am close to in face to face life, (the ones who tell me,” OK let’s get together, but DON’T TAlk ABOUT POLITICS!”), doesn’t look so much like this kind of subconscious denial, as much as it looks more of a conscious kind; (picture those three monkeys with their hands over thier ears and eyes and mouths.) Or like the little kid who thinks if he dives under his blankets, the monsters can’t see him. In these cases, it seems almost more of a chosen coping mechanism born of fear, perhaps of what might happen, or what might be required of them, if they DID see what was really going on.
Fear is what lies behind so much of this, I beleive. Fears well fanned on so many levels, for so long people aren’t even awars of it being a subconscious driving force behind many current choices.
Thank you for your very astute observations, both this reply and your diary.
You’ve reached the final stage in Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief:
You have it right: now we move forward.
would make an excellent resource for students studying the 5 stages. The majority appear to be lingering a bit in the bargaining stage, occasionally you can actually watch them, over the course of a few days, sometimes even a few hours, feel themselves slipping into the depression, and quickly climbing back up for the relative comfort of bargaining, the stage that is hosted by Magical Thinking.
And kudos scribe, for some excellent word writin’ and congratulations on your emergence from the darkness of the stages into the light of possibiity 🙂
Very, very powerful and meaningful diary.
I often feel like that .. like we’re seeing its last vestiges slip away.
I watched a marvelous old (1981) documentary on the history of the anarchy movement in this country …
in one section, they showed the heroic battles of the people of Spain in the 1930s. Oh, if only they hadn’t been crushed. We’re not the first nation to lose a marvelous system of government, and frightens me we’re not out in the streets like those in Spain were, fighting until the end. We don’t want a revolution. We want our government to fulfill its to-date unachieved potential.
I can only offer you the words of Dylan Thomas:
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Thanks Steven, for such appropriate, conforting words.
Scribe…. I don´t think it´s fear. I am afraid that people just don´t care. It´s a kind of self involvement…I don´t think it´s fear.
I dunno, Stu. You may be right, but sometimes apathy is just another cover for fear. Some fears have tunneled under so far the awareness they aren’t seen at all, but still sit there fermenting and causing pressures that lead us to no end of coping mechanisms in order to live with it.
You are not alone.
The best way I can describe it is when the realization occurs that the truth is nothing but useless trivia.
<<The best way I can describe it is when the realization occurs that the truth is nothing but useless trivia.<< <p>
Most of what is presented to the public as “truth” is certainly nothing BUT trivia, I totally agree.
But the truths that I embrace for myself, are not. They are as real as the fingers I am using to type this reply. They exist, they belong to me, and no one can ever take them from me. I get to choose exactly how I live out those truths in my own life, no matter what the hell happens to the world around me, or what anyone else chooses to do or not do with theirs. This is the source of my power and my freedom. No one could give it to me, and no one can ever take it away.
I agree completely with that. I was speaking of the truths that are found in digging and learning about the accepted misinformation that’s presented. All of the outrage we experience in learning the truth builds hope for change until it’s found to be that the truth is nothing more than useless trivia.
I’ve found the other truths and peace but it’s hard to hold.
:)…I agree, Onward.
This may seem a bit odd, but this is the third or fourth time that I have read this diary, and now I am appreciating all of the work that you have put into it. So many truths in your writing as compared to the lies that we have been conditioned to believe/accept.
Seems like we have been neglecting the most important thing in our life, a sense of peace within ourselves, as we are trying to have an influence where our voices do not make a difference. Your title describes it best: Letting Go–Moving On.
Still remember the saying, What goes around, comes around. And it always seems to happen that way.
Thanks, I feel better now.
ONward!
For many years I did classes and workshops on personal empowerment: on tapping into the vast pool of personal power and potential within each of us that we so often lose track of, especially when events outside of us feel so out of control. . (How true it is that we often teach what we most need to learn ourselves.)
When I remember to take advantage of this internal potential, I can create the peace inside of me I can’t find in the external world. When I feel peaceful within, (which, for me often means letting go of what I cannot change, to seek out and pursue what I can change,) I am much more effective in the world.
very sadly true. When I read the news this morning that the NSA Senate investigation is being aborted, I felt something like depression but not exactly that. Now, you have given me the words that describe my feelings exactly. Let us mourn, dear friends, the passing of The Great Democratic Experiment that was our Constitution. The ruling class will keep the patient on life-support; it will still breathe and they will say it stills lives. But, it will not stand again, the fullness of its life is gone.
Note..I must leave for awhile to do a babysitting gig with a baby grandaughter. Please carry on and I will return soon to share whatever she has to teach me today: theres always something, it seems.
Beautiful diary.
I plan to go down swinging.
I don’t think the rebirth will come with an epidural.
I agree, there will be no epidurals and the labor will be long and hard. But it will be.
This is spot on. You know what we need now? A wake. Rumi can provide wry commentary, Scribe’s done a beautiful eulogy. Now we need to all get together to drink whiskey and wine and blog about our happy memories of the deceased democracy and where our lives will go from here. WHat about a Friday night wake?
I’ll be there, was fighting a rough cold the past two days but I ought to be beyond it by Friday.
Hmmm…thinking ’bout that.
Hope that wake’s a go. We can take up a small collection to bring a tryanny to roast.
Greedy and corrupt to the core. Entrance fee to membership in the cartel? A willingness to check every bit of principle and human decency at the door. Don’t believe me? Ask Paul Hackett. In the blogosphere I read the principled response: “Paul Hackett is a ‘pussy’ and a weenie because he won’t stab the Dems in OH-2 in the back the same way the DSCC stabbed him in the back.” Slavish devotion to the unprincipled overlords of the Cartel Party from the very same netroots always whining about the “Republican culture of corruption.” The culture of corruption is bipartisan, because it is the corruption of the Cartel itself. Why are the Sunday morning interview shows fellatio-fests? Cartel Members Only.
My democracy lives within my very soul and so long as all I do every day considers others we can cast our small votes among ourselves and live within our own democracies. They will never own me! I cannot be confined or defined by them…….my spirit out grew such small cold environments eons ago and it took my intellect with it!
Right on, Tracy. Living from the inside out, not the outside in means one can never be “owned”.
One reason I take extended breaks from the blogosphere is what you speak of. I don’t need to know every last detail of the crumbling of the American empire. I’ve known for some time that it was on it’s way, do I really need to see every little example to justify my belief? Of course not.
I think many fall into the trap of seeing glimmers of hope here and there when they are just the last gasps of the American body politic.
This is exactly why I think we need to look at other solutions to our problems. One idea that keeps coming back to me – and pardon me for being overly pessimistic here – is that we need to PREPARE for the eventual collapse of our government. When we look at peak oil and global climate change, I feel we truly are looking ahead to some Mad Max-style future. The government’s “response” to Katrina has only strengthened these feelings. Maybe I’m completely paranoid, but I think we need to be preparing to live through such an eventuality by creating a progressive equivalent to the right-wing survivalist movement. God knows I don’t want those people to be the only ones prepared for such a possiblity. I keep wondering whether these thoughts mean I’m crazy or if they mean I’m on to something. Either way, I’d rather be prepared.
I can’t claim credit for having had the courage to “unhook” myself from dependence on corporate employers, health benefits and a good salary: disability forced me out. Now I find myself grateful it did, for it forced me to reevaluate every value and belief I held about what it takes to live a good life and what is truly important. It amazes me how free and how safe I feel now that I have almost nothing left to lose.
If I was younger and still “out there in it all” (and know what I know now :), I’d be setting about simpfying my life however I could I’d dump everything I could that chains me to any of the established systems. I’d be lookiing for an essential skill or service to offer that I could market on my own or with like others. And most imoportantly, I’d be investing heavily in building or becoming part of a strong community that would pull together in bad times and good.
These sort of thoughts are never far from my mind these days. I’m working on just such a plan and hoping I get it together before it’s too late.
Scribe, you are so wise. Thank you for so eloquently writing what I have been wrestling with. I am not ready to grieve yet and let go but close. I guess what I will never comprehend is how we got to this point. I grew up in a country the rest of the world admired and looked to for answers to global problems, where people wanted to immigrate to, you know The Promised land, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. I miss that country with the depths of my soul.
(((Hugs))) Leezy, as many as you need.
Why thank you Scribe. As much as I love hugs and lots of them, they just aren’t making me feel better these days. I don’t know how to stop caring but I don’t think the things I do are going to change anything. it’s too late as you said. It’s the full moon right? I will feel better by the weekend!!
my adult family who felt much this way during Nixon times. In my heart and in my soul I know who I am and though I have lost a government and community framework that supported my beliefs and my priorities I will never lose my soul. So long as my heart and these two hands share this body with this soul they are FREE! They are free everyday to share small words and take the cold hands of the needy around me. They are free to do their bits, little tiny bits that grow and harvest and self seed.
I know exactly what you mean, I’ve been there awhile myself.
So I remind myself every day that 95% of humanity lives elsewhere. I remind myself, sad as it is to say, that the end of the U.S. may in fact be a boon for most.
There’s no question that we brought into this world the best intentions every seen, and even achieved many of them. No nobler experiments in political organization have ever been attempted. But I’m pushing fifty, and I can’t concoct a view in which my country, over the course of my life, has been other than a net negative in the world. I know what I’ve seen.
The brilliant conceptions we brought into the world will live on, to be tried again perhaps with even more success somewhere, someday. Our theory absolutely deserves to live on. But our practice, diverging as it has so far from our theory, I don’t think will be mourned.
Thank you for your diary, for sharing the feelings that are felt by so many now.
However, I plan to keep on fighting. Paul Wellstone’s poster is still on my door; I’m not ready to take it down, still standing.
And good for you, kidspeak. As for Paul, I full expect to see his footprints reappearing somehow, sooner or later. His voice was too strong for it’s echo to ever stop sounding.
But reading about thinking about Paul Wellstone right here caused me to have a cry. I miss his voice so much right now. I never lived in his state and I never voted for him but I miss him a lot lately in a very sore way.
Me, too. He was from my college, though not my state, and I treasure his memory – always will. I keep his poster behind my door at work to buck me up in bad times, even though the tears rise up (right above my Howard Dean poster).
Wonderful. Truly.
Now out of the way while we stuff a breathing tube down this Democracy’s throat and keep it in a Schiavo-like state of existence through its Tyrannical Imperialist years. 🙂
(wisely stepping out of the way of the Dr.Joes crack Code Blue team)
As you wish, Dr. Joe. Shall I alert the ICU, or will this one be comfort cares only?
(you want dark humor, hang around a bunch of nurses working long term care 🙂
I can only imagine. Don’t forget, the whole “gallows humor” comes from people working around the justice system, too. Really wonderful diary. I wish I were at peace with it, too. I’m still raging against the dying of the light I guess. Very much want to slip into that state of comfortably numb.
Just a bit ironic Scribe, reading this when I get home from a funeral for a good friend. So I can feel it on so many levels.
It’s really gut-wrenching saying good-bye. And as I watched my friend fight lung cancer – I had lots of moments when I didn’t know whether to continue to hope or begin to seek acceptance. But there did come a time when it was clear she would not survive this. And then it was just a matter of how much time do we have?
I’m ready to give up on the idea that a political solution is possible for this country. And in that sense, I can begin to work on accepting the end of these American ideals. But I can’t give up on all of the people who are being affected by these crimes. I know I don’t have the power or capacity to change things, but I do need to find a way to live in peace and spread that as far as I can. As I said in Boston Joe’s diary, I’m looking for how we create the spiritual/psychological healing this culture so desperately needs in order to be able to contemplate being a democracy.
Living in peace and spreading it as far as possible..what more noble purpose could anyone have? I happen to consider you a friend, as as such, I happen to know you already live this every day. What we do speaks every so much forcefully than what we say. To be able to walk in this world in a state of peace, is no small task in and of itself. Add to that the kind of empowrment work you do with the young, and I think you are already doing more than your fair share.
Even though many of us recognize the “terminal” condition of the broad societal system in the US, we can still speak out when we’re able. If we recognize the fundamental reality, the inevitability, that things are going to get a lot more difficult; if we recognize that virtually all the systems and structures that define the dynamics of the overarching lifestyle in America are unsustainable by any measure; then at least we’ll be better able to help those who are coming after us more effectively and more forthrightly acknowledge and deal with the new problems they will face.
How we live is how we can lead. By example, I am showing my children and grandchildren that it is very possible to live on very little money, and no financial “security” at all, and still have a very fufilled and happy life. If and when they have to face job loss, or lower standards of living, or a disability, they will know it isn’t the end of the world. (even if it feels like it at the time!)
I agree with you, and in fact I’m in a similar situation; having some physical disabilities now and also, due to catastrophic health events, being abjectly poor.
I’m trying to stimulate interest in children and grandchildren in fundamental skills like growing food and understanding other basic skills relating to survival in a primitive environment. Being able to live without the creature comforts we take so much for granted I think will be a great asset in the not too distant future.
I dusted off a book the other day that completely righted my life when I was a single mom! The light that it shed on the current state of our nations affairs brought a huge brand new feeling of relief for me and everything being okay for me. The book is called Your Money or Your Life. My life is so very different than it was the first time I read it, I have more than I need now and it released me from the scarcity demon. I can give back now in ways I never could have ten years ago. I can go to marches and attend Democratic meetings and volunteer my time in a way that I never could have before. I have asked my husband to read it also now.
I think that book transformed my sister’s life a while back, too. I’ll have to ask her if she still has it.
Thank you so much for this diary. You describe eloquently the sensation & perspective I’ve been having for a while now.
Glad to know I’m not the only one.
Amen sister. . .I have been here for a while now, with brief forays into the outrageous behavior of the pols. . .but I have recognized it is time to let go and move on. So it is. It will be interesting to see, if I am in a seeing place, how it comes to be and what rises out of the ashes.
Thanks for your always wise input.
Hugs
Shirl
It will be interesting to see, if I am in a seeing place, how it comes to be and what rises out of the ashes.
The warmth of a welcoming light will be there with a need to be shared.
😉
Shirlstars, your comment reminded me of a great poem by one of my spiritual mentors, David Whyte:
The Journey
Above the mountains
the geese turn into the light again
painting their black silhouettes
on an open sky.
Sometimes everthing has to be
enscribed across the heavens
so that you can find the one line
already written inside you.
Sometimes it takes
a great sky to find that
small, bright and indescribable
wedge of freedom in your own heart.
Sometimes with the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire has gone out
someone has written something new
in the ashes of your life.
You are not leaving
you are arriving.
Thank you for this.
Absolutely perfect. Thank you. And an added recognition for the geese symbol. . .geese have played a very symbolic role in my life. So yes, absolutely perfect.
Scribe,
Thank you for this heartfelt and thought-provoking diary. I read it this morning and decided to let it marinate in my subconscious all day before posting a comment.
I just checked out who’s commented and who’s recommended, and it’s like a who’s who of Boo-dom. Is this the fear that dare not speak its name?
I had expected you to face a barrage of hostility and comments that “The Cause is not lost,” but instead I can almost see heads nodding solemnly. We see some small victory and have a few days of optimism, like the family of a dying patient grasping at straws but knowing on some level that the inevitable is coming, but an objective look at all the long-term trends is not good.
A part of me keeps saying “Yes, but you cannot know what surprise right around the corner might send history off in a totally new direction.” And that is true. But I cannot do my budget based on the assumption that I’m going to win the lottery.
I think the emotions we’re all feeling are what led some folks to take an inward, spiritual turn as the ’60’s evolved into the ’70’s. And what led some folks to do the same as Rome ratcheted down the long path to collapse. But look at the 2,000 year run that the philosophical/religious fruit of that collapse has had – who can say what ideas, dreams, and hopes are percolating below the surface today that we cannot see or do not recognize, but which will blossom forth into new hope that will take the world off in a totally different direction than we can even imagine today.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Roman history lately; I’m even working on a multi-part diary based on what I learned during the Reagan-Bush Sr. years (when as a younger man I also expected the American Empire to collapse). I’ll just share one little piece of it; perhaps it reflects the human hope that “even at this late hour things can turn around”:
The Romans made great use of their coins for propaganda purposes, much more than we do, given the lack of other ways of getting official propaganda out to the people. And every time there would be a slight uptick in the course of the decline, a good year, the emperors would issue coins with the inscription “FEL TEMP REPARATIO” which was short for “felix tempus reparatio” – literally, “Lucky/Good Times Have Returned!” or, as Harry Truman’s campaign put it: “Happy days are here again!”
Hope springs eternal in the human breast, whether in the Roman forum or on Booman Tribune. Whether that spark of hope can still kindle a flame or is doomed to die because it fell onto moldering wet and rotten wood is something that we may not know for sure until we have the entire arc of our life as American citizens to look back on; even then the instinct of others will be to keep their own sparks of hope alive. Who can say if they’re right or wrong? Things looked very grim for America in 1930, for example.
Someone commented that perhaps we need a left-wing counterpart to the right-wing survivalist movement; we had that too in the ’70’s – check the history of Mother Earth News magazine out, for example. Still, it’s not bad knowledge to have, especially if the alternative is to depend on FEMA or Homeland Security. I’ve been thinking about putting in a raised bed vegetable garden anyway…
I’m thinking about moving to China. Better a blatant authoritarian regime than a Disneyland democracy, eh?
It’s true that this isn’t the first time I and I think a number of us have felt that the nation was on the verge of…slow collapse? Decline into fascism? Certainly during the Reagan years I was pretty doom and gloomy. I feel like this is qualitatively different…but I’m not completely sure. Maybe that’s my personal flickering candle of hope.
But after more of those Abu Ghraib photos…basically I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning.
I think the situation now is qualitatively different from the Reagan regime’s tenure. while there was certainly almost as much blatant criminality in the Reagan government, they weren’t able to establish the “Let’s weaponize the planet and launch the final war” template anywhere near as thoroughly as these lunatics have.
Had it not been for Gorbachev I think the Reagan gang would have wrought much more destruction upon the world, nut even so, the Bush Gang are by far the most dangerous and violent criminal psychopaths on the planet today.
they weren’t able to establish the “Let’s weaponize the planet and launch the final war” template anywhere near as thoroughly as these lunatics have.
These are the same lunatics.
It just took this long to carry out the plans.
Forgot to add that it might be prudent to wait awhile before moving to China. If the US defaults on that $600billion debt and if Wal-Mart goes under due to a collapsed economy in the US, even though China has all kinds of other really smart new trade deals and alliances going with other parts of the world, I suspect their economy would still take a reasl hit if the US screwed them over, and of course the citizenry would pay the price.
I’m thinking about a commune somewhere in Northern California. (I think about Northern Italy, Southern France, even possibly Argentina or Uruguay, but new found poverty makes those ideas, at least for the short term, out of reach).
Very true, SBJ. When people tell me about how China is going to be the next big hyper-power, I kind of have to shrug and giggle a little. They have so many problems and their economy really is inextricably intertwined with the US at present.
It’s just that, from a practical/selfish perspective, I could earn a living there without having to work all that hard, have more time to myself, etc.
I recently wrote in my blog about Chengdu, a place I like quite a bit…it’s very relaxed and the locals seem to have the right attitude about what makes a good life. And it’s not about work, work, work.
Northern California is high on my list as well. I’m a native Californian and I do love many things about our state. But right now, I’m not so sure how I’d support myself up there. Maybe in a couple of years.
Now, if only we could secede from the US…
If I start a commune in NoCal, SBJ, you and yours are more than welcome!
That sounds great! thank you for the invitation. (I lived first in San Francisco and then up in Sonoma County and points further north in the late ’60s and early ’70s and will always have a special affinity for that beautiful part of the world.)
Many years ago I read a book by a rather mystical fellow titled “Across China on Foot”. This was his account of his journey (back in the 1930’s I think), all the way from Shanghai to Tibet, and I remember he spoke quite well of the beauty and spirit of Chengdu. I think he had a mystical experience on a river there, though I can’t remember the details.
It’s not likely I’ll get to travel to Chengdu anytime soon, but the idea of work not dominating the landscape of one’s life is pretty appealing. (I even lived that way once upon a time.)
<<who can say what ideas, dreams, and hopes are percolating below the surface today that we cannot see or do not recognize, but which will blossom forth>>
I love this. No one can say, Knoxville, and no one can see the bubbles till they rise closer to the top. It is never easy to let go of what is, yet sometimes one has to, in order to make room for something even better. Something that we cannot perhaps yet imagine.
Simply beautiful, Scribe. Others have said it much better than I can right now, so I’ll just leave it at a heartfelt THANK YOU for putting these thoughts into words. My brevity here bears no relation to my admiration of what you have written here.
I’m in the same spot as many, income and health wise. Can’t do much but I do the what I can. Moving on…3rd party…just want to have some sanity back in my life.
Theodore Parker, the 19th century Unitarian minister, proclaimed, “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one … And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”
I have joined the Unitarian Jihad.
Creaking Ttribouchet of Infinite Patience
I held nine month Ivy Rose very close this afternoon, and couldn’t help but be aware of the awesome life force in that small body. Whatever she has in her hands is the only thing that exists for her. She turns it this way and that, touches every bit of it, tastes every bit of it, experiences it to the fullest, then tosses it aside and goes on to the next fascinating thing, which is always there, even if it’s just a wee bit of fuzz on the blanket.
Taking my cue from her once again, I will allow myself to revel in this moment, having read all of your heartfelt comments and sharings. I feel a sense of being “in oneness” with you all, and it is a precious, powerful feeling. It is a state of “shared beingness” that human beings have the power to create at will, and one that will carry us through and beyond.
that required nothing personally from me is just about the only thing right now that calls up the soulful knowing that it is impossible for darkness to ever take over or ever conquer the light! It is just simply impossible so I need not fret over it happening, it isn’t possible. All I need to do is live from the inside out as you say.
You’ve got it and stated it wonderfully! When we open the door to a dark room, the light always rushes in to overtake the darkness.
The old Democracy is making way for the new democracy.
As I get older, and after some health scares, I now accept the approach of death. It’s like I can see it over the horizon now, inevitably making steady progress toward me. Because of this, I can now accept the death AND renewal of other things.
What is exciting, is waiting for the ‘suprises of history.’ They happen all the time and they initiate enormous change no matter ‘the powers that be.’
I feel some excitement about this too, Sybil. It’s just one of the things that makes me wish to live for a couple hundred years so I don’t miss anything. On some days, that is. On other days, I feel quite content with time served, and feel curious aobut what happens after that. 🙂
And it is so with us.
I really like your diary.