Take Power

The news is pretty bleak. Today, on the last official day of winter, I'm looking for ways to protect my family and fight the powers that be. 

Agenda:

1. Read "Hope in the Dark"

2. Love meditation

1. Read "Hope the Dark":

I'm reading a new book, "Hope in the Dark; Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities" by Rebecca Solnit (2016). The forward is Grounds for Hope: "Hope is a gift you don't have to surrender, a power you don't have to throw away. And though hope can be an act of defiance, defiance isn't enough reason to hope."

The last section of this long introduction is "People Have the Power." She talks about the fall of the Berlin Wall, Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street. 

"We don't know what is going to happen, or how, or when, and that very uncertainty is the space of hope. Those who doubt that these moments matter should note how terrified the authorities and elites are when they erupt."

"The sleeping giant is one name for the public; when it wakes up, when we wake up, we are no longer only the public: we are civil society, the superpower whose nonviolent means are sometimes, for a shining moment, more powerful than violence, more powerful than regimes and armies."

2. Love meditation:

Every month after the full moon, in the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon, I practice a love meditation that progresses from receptivity, to gratitude, to generosity:

Day 3: Practice a love meditation, and then journal about generosity with time and attention - start with ideas for being generous with myself, then my family, my neighborhood, community, and the earth. I might decide to give money or a gift, or simple acts of helping and sharing my time.

From my journal: Today I commit to giving myself generous space for building resilience, joy, and meaning in my life. I'm ready to choose an action project, and will look carefully at local organizations to participate in, and will offer generous time.