Easter Sunday 2026

Today is Easter Sunday. Depending on your religious background and beliefs, Easter Sunday can be the spiritual highlight of the year, or it may have mellowed into picnics and Easter egg hunts, with little recognition of its religious roots. Still, Easter has been celebrated in many different forms for 2,000 years. Of course, there are religious celebrations in other belief systems that have continued across much longer time spans. Religious beliefs and ceremony are like the deep roots of ancient forest trees that still survive; we too, as aspects of nature, have our deep roots--the human roots of tradition, ceremony, with stories of ancient times and prophesies of our future. To me, those roots underscore my sense that life thrives in variation. In many ways, our understanding of religion is divisive, as if the "right way" is to strive to bring all of humanity into one Belief, but Life is abundantly diverse.

This week, I once again encourage you to reflect on these themes of variation and diversity as the ongoing, living, thriving pulse of the natural world. Cultural and political structures are a kind of subset of Life's variation and Life is vastly more than human attempts to contain it in isolated belief structures. Even within a given religion, there are subsets within subsets, histories within histories, reformulations, and hidden, esoteric interpretations. What a wonder! What a puzzle--all the pieces don't match, but then again, some do, some line up. My point is to encourage your own inner structures of belief, and the way those structures of beliefs and understanding mesh with pieces held by others, and the way they simply may not. That is the weave of human consciousness--accepting agreement and non-agreement.

In honor of Easter then, consider these quotes from Jesus and their relevancy for April, 2026: "The kingdom of God comes not with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you". Note the individuality implied here, rather than a collective experience; the entire spiritual realm is within you. And yet, you are within It. This is the Mystery, and very much in the spirit of a Zen Koan.

Consider Matthew 22:37-39 and Mark 12: 30-31 as Jesus speaks of the greatest commandments: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

This is clarified further in Luke 10:25-37 in the Parable of the Good Samaritan: "On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. 'Teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the Law?' He (Jesus) replied. 'How do you read it?' He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and, Love your neighbor as yourself.' ‘You have answered correctly’, Jesus replied. 'Do this and you will live.' But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'"

This is the heart of the questions and definitions that for centuries, many have used to circumvent the basic teaching: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus answers by saying, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, who came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denari and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,' he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'" (Note, Levites were descents from the Jewish Tribe of Levi, who served as singers, guards, and assistant to the priests and Samaritans were a mixed race with different religious practices, including paganism. Samaritans were generally looked down upon and shunned by the Jews.)

Jesus then asked, "'Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’’ Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise”.

Beyond all the interpretations of the crucifixion, the conflicts within Christianity, and conflicts between religions, (and non-religion), there is this teaching to contemplate: Love your neighbor; help where and when you can. Happy Easter. Enjoy the delights of Spring. (Susan Nettleton)

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/T/TagoreRabind/1Thouhastmad/index.html https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2015/04/james-broughton-easter-exultet.html https://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/swan.html

Stay Open

This week, March fades into April. It's been an eventful month and I feel the pull to extend this winter-into-spring transition. A metaphoric blooming of spring seems tenuous with so many rapidly unfolding events--war, Saturday's phenomenal nationwide protests, airport chaos, the A.I. surge, contradictory news, and of course, the actual weather. How do we connect with the Real?

The other morning, I needed information about changing my internet service, so I called my phone company. The call was answered by a robot. It introduced itself as a "digital service provider". Let's be clear, it was a machine, and a machine that actually spoke a little surly to me when I corrected its misinformation. So I hung up. Realistically, I will have to call again, because I need to set up the change in my account, but I took a few steps back first to recalibrate. With a little self-reflection, I ironically realized that my next planned task was writing this Sunday's post on the intended topic, "staying open" to the Good.

We connect to the Good by our openness to it. But how do we distinguish the Good from societies' waves of shifting reassurances, and almost simultaneous undercurrents of threats? Here, I have to repeat one of my favorite quotes from Robert Pirsig, (who attributed it to Socrates): "And what is Good, Phaedrus, and what is not Good? Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?" We all have within us the capacity for recognizing what is Good and what is not Good. Yet, as a culture, and as a world, we do not all agree on what is Good. That said, we as individuals do have the capacity to Cultivate the Good, by staying open to it, and trusting that the larger Reality (God) does both guide and protect us. Staying open to Good as an affirmation of our spiritual life is more than just "hope"; it is actively participating in an unfolding process of Life, our personal life, that remains an essential part of the whole. I have to call it essential, because Your individual life is such a miraculous mystery. In other words, You, as a unique individual, complete the whole of Now.

Our capacity to affirm the Good in Life is our participation in unfolding Good. There are many ways to that. Today, I am sharing two of my favorite affirmations, inspired by the late Reverend Johnnie Colemon, the "First Lady of New Thought", who founded Christ Universal Church in Chicago in 1956, and was the minister there for 50 years. She was one of the most powerful, inspirational speakers I have ever heard. Both these lines below hold the theme of staying Open.

"I am open to new delight and discovery, knowing I am sheltered from that which is false in my life, in the world, and all my affairs."

"I am completely open and receptive to the inflow of infinite Good in my life."

This first one acknowledges that humans are susceptible to, and can get caught in, the nets of false ideas and false understanding. The Real provides shelter. Here, I can also add Robert Schuller's prayer--a good one to remember as well: "Lord, help me to see where my answers are wrong." We aid ourselves in the spiritual art of side-stepping the false, by remembering that we humans are susceptible to blind allegiance in belief systems. To truly be healing and transformative, our affirmation of Good requires depth. "Completely open and receptive" to the Good, means our willingness to dive deeply into "delight and discovery." What an adventure!

Now I am ready to re-tackle the phone/internet carrier. I really do know how to ignore the robot, and find my connection to a human being and the Real. You do too. (Susan Nettleton)

https://hopefischbach.substack.com/p/poetry-lesson-stay-open-by-james https://hillsidesource.com/openness-poem?rq=openness https://words2da1.wordpress.com/2023/08/11/poem-for-everyman-john-t-wood/

Spring Refresh

Ah, Spring is arriving! Officially, the spring equinox was last Friday, on March 20 this year, and the sun shown across the equinox equator bringing almost exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nighttime to the entire planet as it rotated; the entire Earth has been bathed in Light. Now the balance tilts and our northern hemisphere will have increasing daylight until summer solstice, June 21. Although worldwide, we begin each New Year on January 1, the equinoxes of March (for our Northern Hemisphere) and September (for the Southern hemisphere) alternate in bringing a "refresh" of newness of seasonal change. Our collective awareness of this wonder has ancient roots in human observation and study of our planet, the seasons, and the night time sky. Living in the Northern Hemisphere, in a time of climate shifts, uncertainty, and war, it seems particularly important to enter the spirit of a new season. Let this first week of spring, regardless of the outer picture, be a time for a reset, a time to refresh and enter the Spirit of Spring.

The first layer of a spring refresh, might be simply spontaneous. Yesterday, I was up early, having committed to listening on my phone to a program in another time zone. While attending, I decided to make my morning coffee, and I opened a kitchen drawer. What a mess! My brain was processing the program, but my eyes and hands began to throw out very old spices, some of which layered the drawer with spilled remnants and stain. I realized in the rush of everyday mornings, I had ignored the overload. Some times cleaning really means throw it away! I actually did not connect this sudden imperative to liberate the drawer with my theme of spring refresh, until I sat in meditation. Then, I unexpectedly saw the link--the centuries of traditional spring cleaning and a renewed round of release-the-old, is embedded in human consciousness. Don't dismiss the small step that expresses nature's renewal. We are of nature and sometimes the way of nature is slow and piecemeal, and subtle. And sometimes, it is full throttle.

Consider too, a spiritual refresh. In writing about this time of year, I often reference the religious holidays that can overlap in spring. To me, that overlap of differing belief systems seems particularly significant as an opening for renewal. Ramadan, the holiest month of the year for Muslims, ended this past Thursday night, as devotees broke their month long daytime fast (no food or drink from sunrise to sunset for the entire month). The holy month of Ramadan includes prayer, charity, and celebration, and this year ended powerfully with the dawn of the equinox. In Judaism this year, the solstice falls between the religious observance of Purim (March 2-3) and Passover (April 1-9) which overlaps with Easter this year. In Catholicism and other Protestant denominations of Christianity, there is Lent, a 46 day preparation for Easter Sunday. This year it began February 18th, and ends on Sunday, April 5. While I usually feel a surge of spiritual options and openings with these overlapping sacred holy days, this year, specific countries, in differing streams of these religions, including America, are at war. To see beyond the tragedy of territorial and deathly conflict, requires a deeper renewal. Our choice is to open to that renewal.

Remember the equinox, just last Friday, when the sun shown on the entire sphere of a rotating earth. No one is left out of the movement and Light of wholeness. No one. Matthew 5:45 "...for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust." We share this planet. Your inner, spiritual renewal is not separate from the world's renewal. The world's renewal is not separate from your inner renewal. Whatever our belief systems, we share this planet. Spring is arriving. Let our hearts weave, and refresh, connections of Peace. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=2948 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54303/meeting-at-an-airport https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RumiMevlanaJ/lookatlove/index.html

Excerpt from The Power of Consciousness

Today's post is a section of Dr. Susan Nettleton's online Sunday talk, "The Power of Consciousness" (If you would like to be on our email list for future talks, email us at hillsideew@aol.com, or our website contact page at hillsidesource.com)

"So, what do I mean when I say consciousness? Loosely, we can say consciousness is a particular kind of awareness that includes awareness of ourself. Consciousness includes being aware and able to think about one's own existence, emotions, thoughts, and environment. The more I searched to find a concise definition of consciousness, the more I realized the cross currents of definition. Some philosophers and modern researchers view consciousness as the mind; your consciousness is your mind and your mind is a complex set of capabilities and processes interacting with your body and emotional states. Consciousness then, becomes a subset of the mind, representing our immediate awareness of our inner and outer experiences.

Usually, we consider consciousness as conscious activity of the brain, but modern research is re-defining what consciousness is--awareness is not so cut and dried. An essential factor is that we must use our mind, our consciousness, to define consciousness. We don't get outside of our mind. Or do we? Consider the wandering mind as opposed to the focused mind. Essentially we have come up with a term and a concept to pursue understanding of how human beings process and use awareness of our own experiences, and awareness of our own thoughts and feelings, and our interactions with other minds. Don't mistake what we name we give it, for this awareness of ourselves as living, thinking, planning, learning beings.

Then we have cognitive science as a 20th century construct, that explores the process of thinking, in the fields of anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. It sprung from the 1950 construct of the mind being like a computer with the adage: "the mind is like software, the brain is like hardware". This was a shift away from the 17th century revelation of Descartes, "I think therefore I am", and the idea that the mind is separate and different from the body (although there was some awareness that the brain could communicate with the body to some extent). We now know that cognition, as our process of thought and thinking, is not located in your head. Rather, it is described as a neural network of interactions with the body and its environment. The degree to which we are aware of that functioning, is an aspect of consciousness. As one of the articles from Cal Tech's consciousness exchange described, "We know that consciousness is inextricably linked to the brain, but a comprehensive understanding of this connection remains an open scientific question."

My intent here is a call to a practice that affirms the positive aspects of Life right now, as Life is, today, March 2026. My short review of these 20th century and 21st century constructs is to orient that consciousness of yours to where we are now, in this exploration and understanding of the power of consciousness. I accept the power of individual, conscious, positive affirmation to lift your sense of meaning and purpose. Research shows that positive affirmation and a positive state of mind supports health, including mental, emotional health, as well as physical health (more important now than ever in a time when our healthcare systems have fragmented). Positive affirmation as an aspect of spiritual practice, enhances your participation in the unfolding, collective, technological and environmental shifts of our times. The power of consciousness is really a call to you, to affirm the Highest and Best unfoldment for you personally, and for our world. There's a lot of room there for layers of the social order. The way of affirmation has been around a long time; really as long as prayer has been around. The psychology of affirmation blossomed in the 20th century, why not continue and enhance it in the 21st. Affirmation is prayer; it is faith in the Good of what we name as God, or the Universe, or the All. This is the power of consciousness.

Today's poetry: https://www.eugeniasalomon.com/blog/the-wind https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/1527532/apocalypse https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/A/AngelouMaya/ABraveand/index.html

The Wind

In the U.S.A. this Sunday, we "Spring Forward" and in that process, most of us lose an hour of sleep. The more we learn about the body's response to losing that hour, the more self-gentleness seems the way to adapt. If you already have been losing sleep in the changing times, (and I don't mean the time change), then it is doubly important to find a space of disengagement, if not this Sunday, then some time this week. This weekend has also spawned severe weather in the midwest, including intense thunder storms and lethal tornados. Here in Southern California, we have surging winds with a new set of alerts and warnings--all the more reason to pursue inner calm, rather than inner storm.

To do that, consider reframing the week ahead, by opening a window of positivity. One can certainly argue there is a downside to daylight savings time, but for now, it is our collective practice. Frame it as more Light to shine on your circumstances. When you can't find any Good in the storms' destruction, give yourself awareness of the sun's return, and the stirrings of Life's renewal as support. Here, the winds have not been so destructive, and the heavy rains we have faced earlier means the fire threat is low. So, in honor of wind, I am re-reading Margaret of Navarre 's poem, "Wind will Blow it All Away" (link below, trans. by Robert Bly, from his book, The Soul is Here for Its Own Joy).

Margret of Navarre (1492-1549) was a sister of the French king Francis, and she herself became a queen as the wife of the king of Navarre in the Pyrenees. Her prolific writings were the expression of both her intellect and her deep spirituality. Consider in our 21st century, the first 2 stanza's of her Wind poem.

If someone insults you, Go on, with light heart; If they all do it, pay No heed to what they say. There's no new art In talk of that kind. Wind will blow it all away.

If someone praises Devotion Implying of course it's OK, But says of course the works Of the Law are much greater, It's weird dogma, Pass by, don't bother. Wind will blow it all away.

So I am letting the wind blow in the renewing transition of March. With the promise of spring, why not add, in calm expectancy and clarity, an affirmation of Peace. Let the wind blow away all barriers to Peace. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: http://warpandwolf.blogspot.com/2007/07/wind-will-blow-it-all-away.html https://americanliterature.com/author/robert-frost/poem/wind-and-window-flower https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/1527547/it-steals-into-my-heart

Enter March

Today, we enter March. I had been mulling over the intensity of the last week of February: The State of the Union Address and it's counter, The Peoples' State of the Union, the drama and joy of the Winter Olympics, the sudden "Blizzard of 2026", hitting the New York Tri-State area, as temperatures here in L.A. county soared above 90 º. And now, on the last day of February, American and Israeli forces bombed Iran. Where we collectively go from here is not clear yet. A new month is one way to consider a spiritual re-set as as the world stage reacts. We can begin with moments of peace, moments of prayer for healing that extend to peace for all. Can we leave February behind, but take Love with us as we open to Peace?

As I was mulling over the week's events (before the attack), and this shift to a new month, an artist friend of mine sent me a photo of the winter landscape surrounding his New York studio. (see below)

I texted back the first thought that popped into my mind, a poem by William Carlos Williams.

"Among

of

green stiff

old

bright broken

branch

come white

sweet

May again."

Yet, I sat a little longer with the photo. In that quiet space, I was transported to Switzerland, and the memory of a magical drive through a snow covered forest, with our mutual friend and teacher, U.G. Krishnamurti. It was late December. The upcoming New Year loomed ahead - was it 2005? 2006? I'm not sure. I just sat with the photo, the spring poem, and the winter nostalgia of Switzerland, acutely aware of passing time. Even the naming of this month seems a reminder that time is "on the March" in Nature's transition. The months of winter, the promise of spring, and March in between--"in like a lion; out like a lamb" is the timeless chant of March, (dating back to at least 1732 in an English book of proverbs). March is the pivot between the memory of spiritual retreat in a winter wonderland forest, and the arrival of "white sweet May again", in the movement of the seasons.

The point here is to pause this first week of March, and reconnect with Nature. It doesn't have to be outside in bad weather; Nature is everywhere. With the human centered pressure to transform the world into something other (and there are infinite visions and revisions being dreamed of in these times), as ancient as it may seem, our lives are still enriched and sustained by the natural, in Nature's ongoing rotation. Perhaps, I can really call it Nature's agenda, which includes the Whole of Life--every evolving creature in It. When you reach news overload, remember March may begin with a roar, but softens into spring. As much as we love to assume that we, as human beings, rule life, we remain a component of a much larger field--call it Nature, or the Universe, or God the Transcendent. Still, we are home. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://mypoeticside.com/show-classic-poem-35463 https://poets.org/poem/dear-march-come-1320 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45667/the-gardener-85

Louis Brawley, March 2026

A Lighter Love

As February comes to a close this week, with all the latest news and conflicts, it seems important to complete this month with a lighter heart. First though, I want to return to Corinthians 13:13, that I quoted St. Paul last week: "and now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love." When your heart is heavy with national and world events, or with troubled events in your personal life, it's not a simple thing to dissolve by just willing your emotions to "lighten up". That's why I offer the scripture; it brings a progression of spiritual perspective. Today I add another Biblical quote Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, but not yet seen." Many assume it was also written by St. Paul, but that is questioned by other biblical scholars. Regardless, it offers a bridge between between faith and hope. Metaphysically, as Emmet Fox put it, "what you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind, you magnify in your life." When you add faith to your thoughts, along with your inherent human hope, you participate in the creation of a more satisfying, fulfilling life.

Naming faith as substance brings a dual message of the real. Faith is an assurance that Life provides for what we need on a concrete level (food, clothing, shelter, financial/transactional wherewithal), as well as fulfilling our spiritual longing for connection to the Unseen, the unfathomable Allness. The true substance is our relationship, our union with the Godhead. Now all this may sound weighty, not light. Yet, our overriding context here is actually Love. Certainly some forms of religious beliefs are heavily weighted with human imperfections, requiring suffering and sacrifice, but what kind of Love is that? Consider instead a spirituality that lifts the burden of life from your shoulders, a spirituality that brings your mind and heart peace, a spirituality that sparks compassion and care that includes--actually begins with--your own well-being and belonging.

This week, follow the thread of life that allows you to feed your faith in the essential goodness and delight in life, an inner song of hope that hums quietly, gently, as you go about your day, navigating whatever disruption or storm. Don't wrestle with hatred this week. Consider the simplicity of love, not the complexity. Simply Love the things, the activities, the beings you love. Tread lightly. Spring will come. Love sustains us all. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://thepoetryplace.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/life-is-but-a-weaving-the-tapestry-poem-by-corrie-ten-boom/ https://whitmanarchive.org/item/ppp.00270_00330 https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/A/ArabiMuhyidd/Myheartwears/index.html

Hope

Where does February lead after Valentine's Day? After last weeks flurry of assembling classroom valentines and treats, a morning meditation brought me a scripture from St. Paul, the essence of his teachings: Corinthians 13:13, "and now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love." But rather than the obvious focus on Love with all the Valentine energy, I have been reflecting on the "precursors" to love: faith and hope. Faith and hope lead us to our capacity to Love. Something in me settled with a focus on hope. Saturday then brought further complexity, with a weather alert and another series of storms headed for Southern California this week.

Consider hope. Hope often seems the weaker path in our reckoning with Nature and the turbulence of climate, let alone the conflicts of the social order/disorder. Hope for reconciliation, hope for peace, hope for simply our future. Few of us can move forward in life carrying hopelessness. Daring, choosing to be hopeful seems risky when our hope is not grounded in something of the factual, tangible world. On the other hand hopelessness will simply not motivate us to pursue avenues, experiences, and interactions that reinforce hope. What we read, what we listen to, the social media clips and videos that we watch, inevitably feed and alter our perspective, our "take on life". Community social influence is powerful. Early human beings who bonded into groups, reinforced belonging with shared viewpoints--that reinforcement is still very much there, but the scope is so much more complex. The way we access information and the sheer amount of information is beyond previous generations with single, simple group bonding. "Facts" can and do contradict in the vast modern range of information and communication. Hope is the expectation of Good. Hope is not so much about ignoring facts, but it can be strengthened by a focus on positive facts and their potential. As humans, we collectively build our expectations on the facts we choose to absorb.

Yet ultimately, hope has a deeper inner source, that doesn't reveal all of Life's mechanisms. It is that still quiet inner urge that lifts us into life again and again. As Emily Dickinson wrote, "Hope, is the thing with feathers", our inner bird-like silent song that lifts us again and again. Hope is the source of human resilience. In the worst of times, Hope rises in the heart.

"I’ve heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me."

Hope feeds our hearts and prepares us to Love. Maybe this is a good time to trust it. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://www.hopeisthething.com/the-poem https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48601/yellow-glove

The Soft

This week begins with Super Bowl Sunday....In addition to the fierce competitive spirit of whichever team you are rooting for (2026 brings East Coast New England Patriots v.s. West Coast Seattle Sea Hawks--battling in California, no less!), the 2026 culture war has brought a new split to the highlight of Super Bowl musical spectacle at half-time. Puerto Rican American singer Bad Bunny, the official headliner of this year's NFL entertainment extravaganza, will sing in Spanish. In competitive protest, Turning Point USA, (led by Erika Kirk) will offer their alternative "All American Halftime Show", featuring Kid Rock, on another channel. Who could have ever dreamed of such an entanglement around Super Bowl music! The cultural/political power struggles are unlikely to be solved by a battle of the bands, even as Super Bowl 2026 fades. In contrast this week, I invite you to consider the power of the soft.

Soft seems so contradictory to a week that begins with the toughness of premier football players, and a climate of social-political pressures underlying, not just athletics, but healthcare, immigration, international power plays, and financial maneuvers. If you feel your body and mind is in a constant state of tension, consider softening. By definition, the soft has the quality of yielding to pressure or weight. Soft fruit yields to our touch. Soft is malleable; it can adjust and adapt. In nature, softness is a response to the awe of life in so many forms, and especially in our encounters with the vulnerable. In relationship and connection, softness is an expression of love; it is linked to tenderness and our own willing vulnerability. In our inner spiritual depths, softness is our receptivity to the Divine, to the Inner Directive. Softness is the pull to love and to be Loved.

It may seem impossible to shift from bracing against what often feels like ominous threats of explosive change, to an experiment in cultivating softness. Yet, softness fosters resilience. I am not writing of weakness. Softness is not weakness; it is a kind of trust in the essential goodness at the root of life. That trust is strength, and self care. As the ancient Taoist sage Lao Tzu, put it: “Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it.” Tao Te Ching, Verse 78

To thrive and survive as the world becomes increasingly complex, humans developed mechanisms and constructs that allow us to release emotional tension and conflict in ways that promote social order, rather than destroy it. Consider Super Bowl Sunday as collective sublimation. In psychology, sublimation is a defense mechanism that channels the socially unacceptable impulses into something more beneficial to collective society. With football, we channel our anger and frustration onto a reduced battlefield, a fight by proxy, with well trained athletes and lots of energy flowing, as we watch the players run, throw, catch, evade, tackle and fling themselves across the end zone. We spectators have our catharsis; we cheer, scream, even cry. Let them fight it out, we watch. Softness maybe useful in an occasional surprise play on the football field, but there is something to football as planned aggression. We can watch and shout and scream, in the stands or in our living room and leave the field when it's done. We don't have to be hardened after the game. Exhausted maybe, but it's cathartic exhaustion.

After the win or loss, return to softness of heart. This week may bring more challenges to softness. The wonder of the human heart is that it does reset, when we say yes to a softer way. (Susan Nettleton). https://hillsidesource.com/daily-thoughts/2018/6/26/yielding?rq=Lao%20Tzu https://grateful.org/resource/kindness/ https://www.best-poems.net/amanda-gorman/chorus-of-the-captains.html https://grateful.org/resource/belonging/

The Natural

This Sunday we enter February.-- the "short" month, with its midpoint aura of Valentine love--beginning with a vibrant full moon. No way around it, January has been rough across America. Maybe it's the bright full moon, or maybe it's the relief of blue sky and mild weather here in Southern California, but I feel a infinitesimal drop of spring in the atmosphere. And it has me reflecting on that which is natural. Last week, I wrote of human beings as an aspect of nature, and the possibility of opening to the "primal without the primitive." It occurred to me this week that another approach, perhaps a corollary, is turning to that which is natural, in our daily lives. Consider the natural aspects of your daily life as a way of perceiving yourself as an aspect of nature.

A few days ago, I was at the dentist for a routine cleaning. My usual strategy for dental appointments is a kind of dual awareness--I settle into meditation, but maintain enough alertness to shift when the dentist or hygienist needs me to shift. This appointment was routine cleaning, so I settled in and began reflecting on "the natural." I noted how "natural" it is for me to lie back in that dental chair. I started dental visits when I was very young; my mother was a school nurse and made sure our family practiced what she taught in schools--we all had regular dental visits. They were not always a pleasant experience, still, I'm grateful for the interventions and care. As I relaxed in the chair, I considered the hygienist, busy cleaning my teeth. She always seems to enjoy her work, and is very meticulous. I considered whether or not she was "a natural" at what she does. Most likely. I don't know her personal history. Here is where my contemplation snagged. I questioned, is dentistry natural?

The simplest definition of natural is that which is found in, or produced by, nature. We can add, that which conforms to nature--not something artificially changed, or conditioned. But natural can also be defined as that which is in agreement with human nature. Can human nature be artificially changed or conditioned? There are many attempts to do so. Animals in general have inherent ways of natural self-care. Culture refers to groups of humans with shared practices that include personal care and health practices, "natural" to the culture, to the group. Yet modern culture can churn out all sort of products and practices that take us further and further away from nature. On the other hand, relying on only a narrow definition of nature, cuts us off from the gift of human intelligence, discovery, and creativity that spur life forward.

What I was left with was a line of poetry that floated through my mind as the hygienist continued to scrape, "I Thank you God--for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes..." I couldn't place the poem, but later, I looked it up, and found the e.e.cummings poem. (link below). It was all I needed. This week, consider your own natural movement and rhythm in your every day live. Sense what is natural for you, sand what is not. Let the natural lead. (Susan Nettleton)

For Poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/C/cummingsee/ithankYouGod/index.html https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/N/Nirmala/itishere/index.html https://allpoetry.com/poem/12402226-The-Natural-Way-by-Zakariyya