Poppies, A Light in the Heart and 65,000 Thoughts in Everyday Ramblings

From a little walk this morning, it is, after all, Memorial Day here in the States. Flanders Fields and all that…

We are still pretty shaken up by the events here last Friday, with the racially motivated hate filled attack on our light rail system.

On a day where we honor those who have lost their lives in the service of a higher good it is appropriate to think of the two men who died and the third that came very close to death here right in the middle of our day to day world, as well as those off in a place far away.

But also to think about how this was a homegrown terrorist attack. Where is the news coverage of it as that?

I can’t even imagine how those two young women who were the target of the vitriol that was defended, the attempted de-escalation, who saw men who came to their defense murdered so viciously will cope with the trauma of having seen such violence, been at ground zero of such viciousness as if a deadly animal had gone wild.

It helps us to make heroes out of their defenders. I doubt they thought of themselves that way. They were doing what they did everyday, the right thing, the engaged thing, the “you just do this because this is who you are” thing.

In preparation for my class tonight and the stress reduction workshop I am teaching in July I have been reading about the Tantric and Yoga Nidra bodies of knowledge.

Did you know that we average about 65,000 thoughts a day? Wow.

I love this quote from Rod Stryker…I am paraphrasing…

“We are all born into and exist within conditions unique to each of us, and those conditions have placed certain limits on our abilities, our perceptions, and our relationships to ourselves and others. Tantra is the science of overcoming those limitations.”

He goes on to talk about this beautiful image of meditating on a light in the heart that is beyond all sorrow, a practice of joining with some resource that lies beyond.

What we think matters.

And how we are influenced in what we think matters.

I heard a piece the other day on a podcast about how many of the men on the Alt-Right are freaking out because the new version of the Star Trek television franchise has a woman of color as both Number 1 and Number 2, Captain and First Officer.

One can’t help but think that “Make America Great Again”, is in fact a codeword for “Make America’s White Males the Most Powerful Again” and bestowing on them all privilege and prestige and the spoils of any enterprise that they feel they are due and duly entitled to.

I think not. :)

It does make me crazy though to think that now young women are being targeted all over the world as pawns in this power play.

Let us not forget them on this Memorial Day as well.

Last updated May 29, 2017