This is a Facebook post I posted at the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine: The FaceBook create post asks me "What's on you mind, Beth?" Well, Russia and Ukraine are on my mind. Like everyone else.
I learned about an ancient Hawaiian spiritual practice sometime ago called Ho'oponopono. I have taken that to heart and practice it. It involves learning to heal all things by accepting "Total Responsibility for everything that surrounds us – confession, repentance, and reconciliation." (quote from compassionate listening website blog power-of-wholeness-and-healing)
How in the world could I have any responsibility for a war on the other side of the world?", I asked myself. .... Sitting outside taking in the sunshine it occurred to me that I was sitting there to escape my house so I didn't have to watch my cat kill the lizard it just dragged in. Putin/Cat. Lizard/Ukraine. Oh my, I have averted my eyes because it is just too unbearable to watch. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. (Ho'oponopono)
Should I stare at it like an accident on the highway or roadkill? I hope not. I didn't create this mother nature where cat kills lizard for sport. This is bigger than me. It doesn't seem like keeping cat locked up against his nature is the right solution. I do try to run interference if there is still hope for the lizard to survive. As for today, this guy was half gone by the time I saw him and I couldn't bear to touch it or look at it so I walked away. This guy died fighting. It's really strikingly different from most dead lizards I discover. This guy had that thing on his neck all puffed out it's body rigored in fight posture.
For the Ukrainians that haven't been able to escape their country I expect they are postured to fight. I'm sorry, please forgive me. I love you. I thank you.
Awareness is half the battle. I am aware that there is WITHIN ME, that which fosters war. I confess. I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I thank you.
I can share something here that I expect most people cannot. I sure hope not anyway. Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be, there was a day in my life - a moment in time - where I was overcome with the urge to use violence to effect an outcome. With retrospect and a lot of work I understand now what lead to that moment. I could it explain it to you and I'm sure you would have compassion for me. You would understand how I felt and how I still feel justified to have acted violently in that moment. Perhaps there is a time and place to respond violently? When I ponder this moment in time I can identify with the Putin who would use overpowering force AND the victim fighting against another's use of power. I played the role of victim for so long I had devolved into this moment where I was devoid of thought and trembling with the urge to physically end the situation by force. I confess. I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I thank you.
Thankfully, in that moment, my eyes fell on my young son. I knew that my love was stronger than my rage. I repent. I choose not to act violently. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. I thank you.
It is difficult to feel that I could have much effect on what is happening between Russia and Ukraine [and now, Israel and Gaza]. Though the victim / bully dynamic is obvious, I still lack understanding about how to eradicate the separation between the two and to reconcile. I turn my attention to the tried and true "God grant me the courage to change the things I can." What can I do? I can write for change. I can confess that which is within me. I can choose anew. I could send aid to the refugees. I personally happen to believe in unseen life beyond the veil. I do call out to all angels to present themselves with all of their love and strength to serve and protect for the highest and best good of all. My experience seems so small compared to war but if thoughts can counter war, I choose to make eye contact with the violence before me offering my peace and love with my gaze, I chose to have faith that the universe is working for my best interest, I turn my back on violence and put one foot in front of the other with my chin up and eyes straight forward - come what may.
Oh how I love this! I want a whimsical home in a magical forest or swamp! Sometimes the world, the news, everything is just too much. There are things that are in my circle of concern but not in my circle of control. The only control I have is to pray & send blessings to those in my circle of concern & that is when I escape into my little swamp to find the magic.
Do you remember forts or hideaways you created as a younger person before you realized that the saplings you might have chopped down to support the roof structure covered with pine branches of your fantasy hideaway probably belonged to an owner that was going to be pissed off when they found those little saplings gone? I remember that owner knocking on my parent’s front door and asking if he could speak with the red headed young man that his neighbor had seen walking through his wood lot. As Maud Gaud once said, “If you don’t have red hair, you don’t know what trouble is.”
That was an early lesson in property rights and repayment for what was really a youthful thoughtless transgression. The owner asked me if I had been the person who chopped down his saplings and stripped the pine branches off his young pine tress then built a nice little lean-to fort on his land? My mother stood there remembering how I’d used her fingernail polish remover to clean-up my pitch stained hands earlier that day and probably wondered if I was going to try and lie my way out of this new mess. I confessed.
We walked back to the owner’s woodlot together, and he explained to me how he had planted those trees several years ago to create a new woodlot, and then he asked me how I thought that I might “Make this situation right.” I ended up working for that property owner doing various chores after school,and on weekends “until the owner was satisfied that we were square.” Many years later, my Mom sent me the owner’s obit with a note attached, “Remember Mr. Hapgood? He was a good neighbor.”
Often, I’ll walk down the alley past our building wall and see a new piece of spray painted graffiti there. I’ll curse, and then realize that the spray-painter might be an aspiring artist who does not have a place to express themselves. I realize that I can telephone Clean Machine to power wash the spray paint away. But, I had chopped down living trees that disappeared forever, so just lighten-up. Thanks for that recurring lesson, Mr. Hapgood. He did not call the police, and I learned something that occasionally recurs.
I think in time of war and death, it’s a holy role to hold open the door to the recognition of beauty. Some of us, a special few, can occupy both spaces at once. Can hold grief in their hearts as well as love. The force that loves murder and chaos is powerful but cannot stand against hearts that can still apprehend and uphold beauty. You’re an inspiration to the rest of us, Janisse. When I read something like this, i feel I can rise from despair and hold my heart open enough to pray.
Oh Janisse, this is just a lovely invitation to peace! Thank you so much for writing it and reminding us that we can be, and do, life differently, kindly, and in harmony with All That Is. Peace, Deb
Welp. But we also have you! :-)
I love the concept of a door to a different world, reminding me of Narnia. I need a larger one, however.
The great photography certainly primes the pump of the imagination.
This is a Facebook post I posted at the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine: The FaceBook create post asks me "What's on you mind, Beth?" Well, Russia and Ukraine are on my mind. Like everyone else.
I learned about an ancient Hawaiian spiritual practice sometime ago called Ho'oponopono. I have taken that to heart and practice it. It involves learning to heal all things by accepting "Total Responsibility for everything that surrounds us – confession, repentance, and reconciliation." (quote from compassionate listening website blog power-of-wholeness-and-healing)
How in the world could I have any responsibility for a war on the other side of the world?", I asked myself. .... Sitting outside taking in the sunshine it occurred to me that I was sitting there to escape my house so I didn't have to watch my cat kill the lizard it just dragged in. Putin/Cat. Lizard/Ukraine. Oh my, I have averted my eyes because it is just too unbearable to watch. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. (Ho'oponopono)
Should I stare at it like an accident on the highway or roadkill? I hope not. I didn't create this mother nature where cat kills lizard for sport. This is bigger than me. It doesn't seem like keeping cat locked up against his nature is the right solution. I do try to run interference if there is still hope for the lizard to survive. As for today, this guy was half gone by the time I saw him and I couldn't bear to touch it or look at it so I walked away. This guy died fighting. It's really strikingly different from most dead lizards I discover. This guy had that thing on his neck all puffed out it's body rigored in fight posture.
For the Ukrainians that haven't been able to escape their country I expect they are postured to fight. I'm sorry, please forgive me. I love you. I thank you.
Awareness is half the battle. I am aware that there is WITHIN ME, that which fosters war. I confess. I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I thank you.
I can share something here that I expect most people cannot. I sure hope not anyway. Fortunately or unfortunately as the case may be, there was a day in my life - a moment in time - where I was overcome with the urge to use violence to effect an outcome. With retrospect and a lot of work I understand now what lead to that moment. I could it explain it to you and I'm sure you would have compassion for me. You would understand how I felt and how I still feel justified to have acted violently in that moment. Perhaps there is a time and place to respond violently? When I ponder this moment in time I can identify with the Putin who would use overpowering force AND the victim fighting against another's use of power. I played the role of victim for so long I had devolved into this moment where I was devoid of thought and trembling with the urge to physically end the situation by force. I confess. I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I thank you.
Thankfully, in that moment, my eyes fell on my young son. I knew that my love was stronger than my rage. I repent. I choose not to act violently. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. I thank you.
It is difficult to feel that I could have much effect on what is happening between Russia and Ukraine [and now, Israel and Gaza]. Though the victim / bully dynamic is obvious, I still lack understanding about how to eradicate the separation between the two and to reconcile. I turn my attention to the tried and true "God grant me the courage to change the things I can." What can I do? I can write for change. I can confess that which is within me. I can choose anew. I could send aid to the refugees. I personally happen to believe in unseen life beyond the veil. I do call out to all angels to present themselves with all of their love and strength to serve and protect for the highest and best good of all. My experience seems so small compared to war but if thoughts can counter war, I choose to make eye contact with the violence before me offering my peace and love with my gaze, I chose to have faith that the universe is working for my best interest, I turn my back on violence and put one foot in front of the other with my chin up and eyes straight forward - come what may.
Oh how I love this! I want a whimsical home in a magical forest or swamp! Sometimes the world, the news, everything is just too much. There are things that are in my circle of concern but not in my circle of control. The only control I have is to pray & send blessings to those in my circle of concern & that is when I escape into my little swamp to find the magic.
I think you could put a few fairy homes in the swamp for the little grandsons. xoxo
I love this.
Thank you, Karen.
Lovely words, lovely images -- from a lovely place, visited by a lovely being with a lovely heart. 💚
Five lovelies in that line. You win. :)
Do you remember forts or hideaways you created as a younger person before you realized that the saplings you might have chopped down to support the roof structure covered with pine branches of your fantasy hideaway probably belonged to an owner that was going to be pissed off when they found those little saplings gone? I remember that owner knocking on my parent’s front door and asking if he could speak with the red headed young man that his neighbor had seen walking through his wood lot. As Maud Gaud once said, “If you don’t have red hair, you don’t know what trouble is.”
That was an early lesson in property rights and repayment for what was really a youthful thoughtless transgression. The owner asked me if I had been the person who chopped down his saplings and stripped the pine branches off his young pine tress then built a nice little lean-to fort on his land? My mother stood there remembering how I’d used her fingernail polish remover to clean-up my pitch stained hands earlier that day and probably wondered if I was going to try and lie my way out of this new mess. I confessed.
We walked back to the owner’s woodlot together, and he explained to me how he had planted those trees several years ago to create a new woodlot, and then he asked me how I thought that I might “Make this situation right.” I ended up working for that property owner doing various chores after school,and on weekends “until the owner was satisfied that we were square.” Many years later, my Mom sent me the owner’s obit with a note attached, “Remember Mr. Hapgood? He was a good neighbor.”
Often, I’ll walk down the alley past our building wall and see a new piece of spray painted graffiti there. I’ll curse, and then realize that the spray-painter might be an aspiring artist who does not have a place to express themselves. I realize that I can telephone Clean Machine to power wash the spray paint away. But, I had chopped down living trees that disappeared forever, so just lighten-up. Thanks for that recurring lesson, Mr. Hapgood. He did not call the police, and I learned something that occasionally recurs.
LOL again, reading this.
Amen, sister.
I like being in the amen choir with you, GG.
And look!!!!!! All the forest beings put out the welcome mat for us. They said, “Enter here.” And we did.
So beautiful. You're a poet.
I think in time of war and death, it’s a holy role to hold open the door to the recognition of beauty. Some of us, a special few, can occupy both spaces at once. Can hold grief in their hearts as well as love. The force that loves murder and chaos is powerful but cannot stand against hearts that can still apprehend and uphold beauty. You’re an inspiration to the rest of us, Janisse. When I read something like this, i feel I can rise from despair and hold my heart open enough to pray.
Sometimes beauty is all we have, right?
Oh Janisse, this is just a lovely invitation to peace! Thank you so much for writing it and reminding us that we can be, and do, life differently, kindly, and in harmony with All That Is. Peace, Deb
Only the strongest among us have the range of spirit to suggest the fairy door. This is how we heal. Thank you.