Reflection: The foundation of my Spiritual being

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Reflection: The foundation of my Spiritual being

The two quotes below are foundational to my understanding of God and Christ consciousness, by whatever names, and to the spiritual practice of my daily life. While the quotes are from the Judeo-Christian tradition perspective, my study of other traditions supports that these perspectives are represented in them as well thus they are universal in their applicability.

The first quote is from Marcus Borg, a New Testament theologian and author. And the second quote is from Walter Brueggemann, an Old Testament theologian and author. Both are highly respected scholars and teachers in their fields and have written prodigiously.

Both quotes below address the non-partisan aspect of the political nature of Jesus’ Way and ancient Israel’s resistance to the dominant imperial Empires. They are political because they affect the way in which we live together in community. Their practice in our personal and collective lives includes resistance to the imperial accounts of reality grounded in power, control, and violence and the advocacy of alternative realities grounded in radical grace and radical love of authentic communities of belonging.

“The way of Jesus was both personal and political. It was about personal transformation. And it was political, a path of [nonviolent] resistance to the domination system and advocacy of an alternative vision of life together under God.”

—Marcus Borg

“….the tradition of emancipatory covenant making….affirms human agents who have the capacity and responsibility to act transformatively for the well-being of the human community and the ecology of creation. All of that pertains to the ancient context wherein the subversive narrative of Israel lived in ongoing tension with imperial accounts of reality, and amid that tension resisted imperial accounts while proposing alternatives.”

-Walter Brueggemann- “God, Neighbor, Empire”

And so we see that our struggles today against the imperialistic Empire’s accounts of reality (i.e., our resistance to insurrectionists attacking our democracy) in their dominant power, control, and violence are age old in their tensions between violent domination vis-a-vis liberation and freedom to live together in alternative communities of the Truth of Self and the authenticity of belonging. Until all are free none are free. The suffering of the other is also my suffering. So we resist and dream our dreams and see our visions of a better way together for which we must never stop working.

Tat tvam asi. That I am.

Shanti, shalom, peace dear Beloveds.

poem: writing it down for healing

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poem: writing it down for healing

trying to figure things out
finding my psyche and soul
greatly wearied and in mourning
in the postmortem of the culture wars
and efforts to destroy our nation’s democracy

and so I write it down, it is what I do,
until I grow in understanding and feel
I can authentically express myself
as to my witness and truth,
then searching for the right words and
moving them around on the page in composition

while some may be ready to move
beyond these atrocities in triumphalism, I sit here,
on a foggy mid-winter morn during the pandemic,
observing the suffering and waste and contemplating
the challenges, preparing for the work ahead
in the slow recovery from our collective trauma

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
January 25, 2021

photo by Herb Stone
“On a foggy mid-winter morn during the pandemic”

(reader’s note: Richard Rohr teaches: “If we do not
transform our pain, we will transmit it.” )

poem: ex-president X sounds pleasant in our mouth and in our ear

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poem: ex-president X sounds
pleasant in our mouth and in

our ear

the new moniker for the man
whose name is never said
referring not just to one
small man’s official title but also
to their enormous responsibilities

ex-president X was thrust shocked
into our brain resulting
in trauma and toxic shock syndrome
sickening the minds of millions
and radicalizing millions more

like the X factor
ex-president X was
inexplicable and unknowable
bombastic evil personified
and a shadow upon the land

there must never be
another such assault
in our system politic
posing such a threat to
our sanity and way of life

less stalwart souls
and discerning minds
are lost and flummoxed
and the most fragile perish
from the incompetence

now ex-president X is removed
from the world stage
a bad actor and two bit con
flubbing his lines
bombing another gig

may he live out his life
in ignominy and loneliness
far from the world stage
a history lesson learned
never to be repeated

ex-president X rolls
off the tongue, is pleasant
in our ears, and timely
so that the grieving, lamenting,
accountability, and healing begin

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
January 22, 2021

photo by The Columbia Dispatch
‘The Maddened Crowd’

poem: ode to our nation on inauguration day 2021

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poem: ode to our nation on inauguration day 2021

today our nation
inaugurates our 46th.
president and vice president
Joe and Kamala
who feel like family
Papa and Auntie

after the past four years
of a president and his administration
bullying its’ citizens
undermining our rights
eroding our democracy
empowering domestic terrorist
cutting off world allies
causing death and confusion in a pandemic
and leading an insurrection
we citizens of good conscience
find some relief and optimism again

fellow Americans
let us come together
in confession, repentance, and reconciliation
healing one another and our nation
that we will finally do the hard work
of forming a more perfect union together

Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
January 20, 2021
Inauguration Day

Photo credits: Vox, AP, AFP

poem: savasana

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poem: savasana

gonna take a little
rest today
from the resistance

living in times
of injustice, pandemic, and insurrection
is taxing

keeping up the good trouble
is demanding
body, mind, and spirit

in this age
adrift so far from God
can be dispiriting

gonna rest up
binding up wounds
find my repose

the activist
the bodhisattva
the wounded healer

shall return
re-energized
warriors of the heart
Herb Stone
here&now working poetry
January 17, 2021

art image ‘Savasana Chakra
Garden’ by Kimberly Russick

(reader’s note: Savasana is the ‘corpse
pose’ in yoga which is traditionally
used as the last pose of a class and is
a state of deep relaxation also used to
relieve stress and trauma. Combined with
yoga nidra meditation we enter a state of
consciousness between waking and sleeping
in which we are deeply relaxed while
fully conscious. Namaste!)

Reflection: Our nation is setting a dangerous precedent with untenable consequences for all its’ citizens

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Reflection: Our nation is setting a dangerous precedent with untenable consequences for all its’ citizens

As citizens, we need more protections against Presidents, and other elected officials, who prove to be mentally unstable, including sociopathic narcissist with fascist tendencies, who brainwash and radicalize others through constant hateful lies and disinformation, and who incite others to violence against our government through seditious speech and acts of insurrection.

While the outgoing president may eventually face legal culpability for his crimes while in office, we have had to endure four years of his undermining and attacking our democratic principles as a nation resulting in serious damage to our psyches, our souls, and our social order, and the loss of life through incompetence, neglect, and violence.

One problem we have seen is that the majority of politicians can not be depended upon to police and adjudicate other politicians because they are chiefly guided by their own political self interest, including electability, over the principles of ethics and laws. These politicians are true Machiavellians in their ideology which is called ‘godless. scheming, and self -interested’ in Machiavelli’s book, “The Prince,” which is one of the first works concerning politics and ethics ever written. Apparently things have not changed much as to the behavior of politicians since that book was written in 1513.

Our Constitutional and democratic processes have been put to a severe test which has revealed untenable outcomes in the four year term of a person elected, with outside, foreign influence, to the office of president and who was never fit, and is incompetent, to fulfill that high office with all the powers and influence it commands.

This whole debacle in its’ smoldering aftermath must be reviewed with the objective of not repeating the errors and oversights that led to the election of the outgoing unfit president, and other elected officials, and of identifying triggers and safeguards, and consequences against sitting presidents, and other elected officials, that call for more ready accountability for those who are unfit and who incite anti-democracy radicalization, sedition, and violence.

We are witnessing a trainwreck in the history of our democracy which threatens its survival, and those of us who believe in the non-violent transforming of our democracy to include all persons in a more perfect union, must resist and turn back these dangerous precedents and untenable consequences before it is too late.

Let the hard work begin!