The Heart Knows

Spiritual Warriors

Last night I went to bed with joy swelling in my heart. For I had watched the awakening of America, and I felt proud once again to be an American.

I understand how we have felt beaten down. Once I saw a movie where, in a Nazi concentration camp, a man was stripped naked, tied to a post as tribal hunters would bring home a fresh kill, sprayed with water, and allowed to freeze to death.

The inmates were forced to watch.

I was screaming inside, " Rush him, you are more than him, rush the man with the hose, the man with the gun. He will only shoot one or two of you before the rest overpowers him.

But who wants to be the first?

You need a unified group behind you. Otherwise, you are just another dead idealist.

We value our lives and want to live. And if the one inmate had spoken, had suggested the overrun, he would have been a goner, and the others would be back in fear and captivity.

We needed a small group of warriors to silently walk for peace. To stir our hearts to health and hope once again.

 

 

And the I.C.E  killings lit the spark that exists in the hearts of many of us, that we aren’t going to take it anymore.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUMXkqbjYyv/

And this is only a part of the people. They are taking to the streets in LA, San Diego, Boston, all over. We are watching history—we are always making history, but this is unprecedented. I began copying photos to save for posterity and to share. (It’s all over Instagram—for that’s where people are photographing and posting, and where you see kind hearts all over the place. People have lined up for 7 miles to praise the Monks on their 2,300-mile hike for peace. But if you aren’t watching Instagram, you can miss it.

This morning, my surging heart dropped a notch when I turned on my computer and saw nothing about the marches, the assemblages of people all over America who say, “We aren’t going to take it anymore.” I did see that a judge issued a ruling on I.C.E.’s presence in Minnesota.

 

“U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez denied a request from Minnesota officials for a temporary restraining order, despite acknowledging what she described as “profound and even heart breaking” consequences for communities in the state.”

She said “those are not the only harms to be considered,” however.

“The Eighth Circuit has recently reiterated that entry or injunction barring the federal government from enforcing federal law imposes significant harm on the government,” the judge wrote.”

 “Significant harm on the government?!!! Brother! Hey, did you notice, I.C.E. is killing people, and the government is blaming the victims? And the President will not intervene in a Democratic jurisdiction unless they say, "Please." Silly me, I thought we were a two party system.

 

There is a sign over the door at the Cardo Rehab Gym at the River Bend Hospital in Springfield, Oregon that reads:

“The heart can do anything.”

 

P.S. I have opened a New Newsletter, and for the past four days have posted small comments. I would love it if you would join me. 

click on the image

 

 

This is what commitment looks like: 

 

And I though Last Week was Tough

When someone asked Isaac Asimov, "If you knew you would die tomorrow, what would you do?"   

He answered:  "I'd type faster.

I have adopted his answer.

Not that anyone told me I was going to die tomorrow, but when you go into the hospital, they always bring up the end-of-life directive. They want to know what to do with you if your heart stops beating.

I had a heart attack this past week and was in the hospital for two days.

But now I'm home and talking to you, and my little fingers (not little) are typing faster.

I had a super stressful event, and I thought my reaction was an adrenaline rush, except that after my daughter badgered me into having a blood test, it revealed that the enzyme that is released when the heart is damaged was in my blood.

See, your heart calls out for help when it needs it.

Take that advice to heart. If you need help or support, ask for it. Our mission is, or should be, to support each other.

And see how often we use the word 'heart'? "Bless your heart." "Heart-break," I love you with all my heart."

Your heart is sweet and lovable—love it back.

The afternoon after I came home from the hospital, I lay on the couch reading a novel. Sweetpea our little dog lay on the pillow beside my head. Zeke, our 3-legged German Shepherd lay on the couch at my feet warming them. And Laffe, the coon-hound lay on the floor beside me.

 This is heaven, I thought.

 

  

Since I believe in the Mind-Body-Spirit connection, that our physical issues are not separate from our minds, and that our minds are not separate from our Spiritual understandings, I'm here to say, I don't know what the f* I'm talking about.

But I do know about being grateful.

I love my life, and I love having one. I love having the opportunity to express myself on the page and having people read what I write. There are many reasons to be grateful.

And today I just had a conversation with my husband about LIFE.

As I have mentioned before, I signed up for a major in Biology after the college professor yelled out over a class of about 200, "This is the study of LIFE."

Biologists study living things—and dead ones. But they don't know about life.

Nobody does.

The subject moves into an esoteric, philosophical, theological, idealistic, and magical reality, and yes, a biological one, but that's the physical part.

We are more than our bodies.

Think about it, we have always been alive—except for First Cause, and I don't know about that. We came from our parents, who came from their parents, back and way back some 300,000 years to the Mitochondrial Eve, the first woman. How did she come into being?

Here we are, a result of that magical progression, and look what we are doing. Instead of saying, "Wow, look at us. Aren't we lucky!" We gripe and complain, and treat each other, as well as the animals and the earth, poorly.  I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about the collective humanity. Which, it seems to me, is having an identity crisis right now.

Collective humanity doesn't know who they are or what to think. Or they believe so strongly that they will beat their fellows over the head with a belief system, or shoot them.

Yet, they have the spark of life in them.

Where did that come from?

You might say, "From God," but that is magic. What is Life?

Those ova and sperm were alive before they got together and fired off an entirely new set of instructions.

 

It's time for me to reconnect with some of my long-held inspirations and motivations.

Are you with me?

Here is my oracle for the day from Thomas and Penelope Pauley:

"The sooner you define your life, the easier it is for the Universe to create it for you."