Sounds much like 'ubuntu', "I am because you are."
What strikes me is that these are not new ways of thinking about life. These are ancient understandings. Given the amount of people who understand this reality, how did we get to "here & now?". How did it get so distorted that we people like your friends seem to be the exception & not the rule, that Greta Thurnberg is considered "crazy," that care for creation is looked at as avant garde or woke or some hippie thing?
The only answer to this not rhetorical query is these distortions are as we say in religious language "sin." I cannot otherwise comprehend therss we're in, a mess which is human created & carried out. 🌿🕊️🌿
I thank both you and Joanna T. My challenge in my spiritual practice is to be able to make room for both my horror and disgust over the “spirit” infusing the current occupant of the White House and those who worship him and on the other hand my recognition that he is a deeply wounded soul who was subjected to abuse and neglect in childhood (as I was, but differently) and therefore he (and his wounded followers) need compassion more than condemnation. But I/we also need to set limits and not allow the wounded creature to inflict harm on others as they are wont to do (“identification with the aggressor”). Only on my best days am I able to honestly put my arms around all of this and hold it in my openness to Spirit. Otherwise, in an intellectual, detached way I am able to adopt it theoretically. But in my wounded child-self I am afraid, and in my protective mother-bear self I want to rip him/them to shreds.
So I also embrace the Ubuntu Joanna and Ms Ngomane share with us. But that is a community spirit. The network has tensile strength, but I’m not certain that we, in our separated culture, can handle the heavy-duty chainsaw. I guess it does come down to joining hands to make “good trouble.” What stands out for me is how those on the Edmund Pettus Bridge shared courage through singing together. And today I feel much gratitude to the women coming forward with their stories to demand transparency in the Epstein case.
Sounds much like 'ubuntu', "I am because you are."
What strikes me is that these are not new ways of thinking about life. These are ancient understandings. Given the amount of people who understand this reality, how did we get to "here & now?". How did it get so distorted that we people like your friends seem to be the exception & not the rule, that Greta Thurnberg is considered "crazy," that care for creation is looked at as avant garde or woke or some hippie thing?
The only answer to this not rhetorical query is these distortions are as we say in religious language "sin." I cannot otherwise comprehend therss we're in, a mess which is human created & carried out. 🌿🕊️🌿
I thank both you and Joanna T. My challenge in my spiritual practice is to be able to make room for both my horror and disgust over the “spirit” infusing the current occupant of the White House and those who worship him and on the other hand my recognition that he is a deeply wounded soul who was subjected to abuse and neglect in childhood (as I was, but differently) and therefore he (and his wounded followers) need compassion more than condemnation. But I/we also need to set limits and not allow the wounded creature to inflict harm on others as they are wont to do (“identification with the aggressor”). Only on my best days am I able to honestly put my arms around all of this and hold it in my openness to Spirit. Otherwise, in an intellectual, detached way I am able to adopt it theoretically. But in my wounded child-self I am afraid, and in my protective mother-bear self I want to rip him/them to shreds.
So I also embrace the Ubuntu Joanna and Ms Ngomane share with us. But that is a community spirit. The network has tensile strength, but I’m not certain that we, in our separated culture, can handle the heavy-duty chainsaw. I guess it does come down to joining hands to make “good trouble.” What stands out for me is how those on the Edmund Pettus Bridge shared courage through singing together. And today I feel much gratitude to the women coming forward with their stories to demand transparency in the Epstein case.
I just had to repost that prayer. Everyone in America - no, the whole world - needs to read this article.