Oh, it's been a long time.
I finished my facilitator training with Against the Stream. I went on another retreat with an amazing teacher-monk, historian, teacher, writer and all around genius. Analayo. While in Barre, Mass, it was revealed that Noah Levine who started ATS has been accused of sexual misconduct, lots of it.
Shite.
Fuck.
So I left the East coast and came back to Seattle where friends and I started Dharma womxn, a community for womxn and womxn identified folk who want an alternative to the local fuckery. We meditate together, talk about the dharma and eat. Eating is important. Builds community and is tasty. We meet at my house. Surrounded by Buddha stuff, statues and paintings and such. I've even started a Quan Yin on my garage door. I hope she doesn't turn out looking insane or malevolent.
I need to renounce the news cycle. Really. It continues to scare and mystify me. I went to visit a day old baby today and fell into a conversation with the (beautiful) dad whose parents are from St Kitts/St Lucia (where I trained as a midwife student in 1985!). He was born in Bristol, UK and then his folks moved to Canada. We talked about other places to live-he's got dual citizenship in the UK and Canada but a green card here. We thought Canada might work out but of course that's not the answer. Ok, how about this. I buy the NYT on Sunday and that's it, all I read. Nah, I won't be able to stick with it. Well, there's always SNL, they got it going on. And what about the Michelle Wolf? My friend Casey and I were whooping and hollering watching her. Damn, she killed.
I discovered who called about the Black man in my yard. My Mexican neighbors said it was the Chinese family a few doors down. The elders who live there don't speak English so I have to catch one of the younger family members to talk to. And I'll leave my phone number with them so they can call me, not the cops. And Victor and I thought a block party would be a good idea. Cliff has a huge wood fired barbecue grill on wheels. I oughta invite him for sure.
We can learn to stop being afraid of each other.
Spring is springing all over the place.
5 comments:
Do it for yourselves. What a crushing blow, though.
You know, I recently thought I should just read the Sunday NY Times, too. It's all so difficult, though, isn't it? I'm reading this amazing book by Louise Erdrich that is a dystopian, rather terrifying novel, something that I ordinarily wouldn't read. It's about the reverse of evolution -- I can't explain it, but I think you might find it interesting. Anyway, here's to Quan Yin not looking malevolent. The world is wild and wonderful.
Excellent idea. Start with the neighbours, living in fear or hating the people next door is like war.
You know what to do, I salute you!
We can learn. So many ways to learn.
The block party is a great idea. We must become known to each other. Thank you for not letting the matter drop. We are in a terrifying place right now.
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