September 1, 2024

September begins today and tomorrow is America's Labor Day--always the first Monday of September. Culturally, our Labor day weekend is seen as the end of summer, followed by settling in to work, school, and the seasonal changes ahead. Labor Day also now signals seasonal commercial shopping sales. Yet, this is a day to reflect that Labor Day, was officially created in 1894 to honor workers in a time when organized laborers began to gain power through collective bargaining and strikes.This was a time of struggle to improve pay, hours, work conditions, and fair treatment. Now, it is not only individual workers that we honor-- 21st century workers include groups, teams with collective skills, and necessary exchange with one another across varying jobs. And in 2024, the energy that sparked the labor movement now faces the as yet undetermined impact of A.I. on jobs and employment. With all the issues of Labor Day listed here, I'm am encouraging you to consider the spirituality of "work".

In our culture, work is closely connected to "job", a necessity we do in exchange for money and other benefits like health care, insurance, and/or retirement planning, and sometimes, depending on the job, social status. Work implies effort, often repetitious effort, and physical or mental, or even emotional exertion. Easy, simple, enjoyable action doesn't quite fit with the concept of work, although some jobs may be enjoyable and satisfying. Now consider your spiritual life and practice. Some paths of spirituality are indeed about work; a burden is placed on the individual to achieve physical and mental/emotional self-discipline. There are dualistic paths where failure or neglect predicts dire consequences. Even with relatively "soft" spiritual practice, we are called to self-confrontation about our behavior toward others and ourselves, and given techniques to change our attitudes and thought structures. My Sunday posts often include "suggestions" to open and expand your spiritual awareness. Sometimes there is effort (work) involved in the follow-through.

Really though, spiritual work has little meaning without the experience of Love. On a psychological level, Sigmund Freud is credited with the insight that the "cornerstone of humanness" is our ability to work and to love. Psychoanalysis in short is to heal and set free our capacity for both work and love. Poet Kahlil Gibran expressed this on a spiritual level as "Work is love made visible" (see the poetry links below). That shift of laboring from material need to laboring from Love is powerful. It is an aspect of a shift in our life viewpoint that "God", or our "Higher Power" or "The Universe" is our foundation of support--not our specific job. Life takes care of Life. "Work is Worship" is a phrase (and concept) found in all major religions, but grasping that the work that you do is your spiritual expression, cannot really be reduced to a phrase. All that you do is itself the greater creative flow of Life moving through you, as you, in the context of now. This week, as a spiritual experiment (not a duty), consider your work as a manifestation of Love. You are Loved and Life takes care of others through you. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://poets.org/poem/work-4 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57673/to-be-of-use

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../EnrichingEar/index.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Workof/index.html

August 25, 2024

This Sunday, as we enter the last week of August, I am encouraging you to review your sense of trust. It is a word that I often include in my closing thoughts in these posts. I remind you to trust in the larger spiritual field of Life. The general idea of trust underlies our view and belief in Good. At the same time, our idea of Life as Good is re-enforced by trust. From a dictionary point of view, to trust means that we have confidence in specific people, specific things, and specific events. The more we trust "specific" people, things, projects, and their integrity, character, and ability, the more we are willing to rely on them. The more positive experiences we have in trusting others, the more likely we are to extend trust to those we do not know well. It is the woven nature of trusted alliances and reliances that support a positive outlook of the day before us and our more distant future. But self-trust is also essential. If we cannot trust our own choices, decisions and follow-through--if we cannot rely on ourselves--then it is difficult to have mutually supportive relationships. Trust is a balancing act. Trusting the unknown and unproven can be foolish. It can also intuitive. Trusting the unknown, in whatever form, can spring from our deepest faith in God as the ultimate Source of all manifestations of Life. Our perceptions and judgements, our risk tolerance, our fear and courage, our trust and suspicions are multilayered. But the more we trust, the more positive options we find.

Earlier this week, I sat at the computer, listening to the sound of a neighbor's lawnmower. The extreme heat had receded for a few days; the sky was clear blue and that sound reminded me of the freedom of childhood summers. Suddenly, the lawn mower stopped and there was silence, followed by 2 loud popping sounds, followed by more silence with a deep stillness all around. Involuntarily my body tensed. I went to the window, but hedges blocked my view. Everything held still and silent. Then the lawnmower briefly began again, but then stopped. More sharp popping, then more deep silence. I finally exhaled as the lawnmower started up again. This time, it continued the job, moving through the neighbor's backyard, then stopping in completion. OK, it was now obvious that something in the mower misfired. But that space of fear, as I heard the "pops" explode the silence, was something else--not rational--best named collective fear. Collective fear creeps into consciousness when society has repetitive threats. It is the ancient call of alert, announcing danger to the tribe--our primitive warning system. That fear response is not well integrated into our phenomenal modern communications and warning systems. But primitive collective fear is leveraged and fed by human agendas that aim to disrupt, destabilize, and feed conflict, rather than communal safety.

Trust in 2024 then is complex, because our world is complex as we move through a time of technological advances and climate shifts, not just in our "territory", but across the planet. We are emotionally susceptible to all sorts of claims, threats, predictions, and promises. Taking this week to clear your mind and rest in your own inner Trust and Truth, is another step to Peace. (Susan Nettleton)

Poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../trust-56d22ce3845d0 https://besharamagazine.org/news.../poems-for-these-times-4/ http://www.phys.unm.edu/~tw/fas/yits/yits.html

August 18, 2024

Today's post is an excerpt of this morning's Zoom talk.

This morning I am speaking on The Path of Adaptability. I have been mulling this idea this summer of reckoning)--the election shifts and intensity, the climbing heat, and storms, the wars and protests, and a significant resurgence of Covid. Yet, how we frame these events is critical to our own sense of self and agency. I see my role as offering a spiritual perspective for human struggles, expressed through an individual sense of self and agency. When I say agency I mean our ability to act, to take action, to have a way of response and interaction as an individual, but in my view, we do not just act as an individual, because we also act in the greater context of collective. Today we are looking at the option of adaptability--in the face of collective, even global change. There are other options: conflict and resistance, denial, hunkering down while rehearsing the longed-for-known and familiar. My stance is that solution to the changing environment is what it has always been, humanity adapts. Today, I am focusing on our capacity to adapt, by cultivating a conscious spiritual intent of adapting to change, participating in the most productive way we can as a spiritual path. So let me define adaptability as our capacity and/or our willingness to change (or be changed) or adjust to varying conditions and circumstances. We can include in that words like being flexible, versatile, ready to respond to the unpredictable, a willingness to alter the plan or product or... resilient, pliant, fluid. You can shift gears in your plans, in your ideas, in your movements, words, even mood when necessary. ...

Our belief systems are what partially shape our adaptability. rigid ideas limit creative shifts and novel responses. Rigid spirituality narrows the possibilities for guidance and support. My sense is that adaptability, at least for me, is dependent on the larger spiritual intelligence, you could name it intuition and sometimes it is intuitive, but often it is some triggering sense that a situation requires something other from me than the habitual routine. It is the unexpected that often brings a shift into conscious spiritual mode. Despite my best intention, I do not always consciously move around in spiritual mode; that is why I meditate. For me, meditation includes trusting that direction and "the way" comes as it is needed, even if I forget that. Even if my meditation wanders, it has spiritually opened a way to meet the unexpected events of the day.

Adaptability and creativity are linked processes. Adaptability in the natural world, reveals the phenomenal creativity of life and history tells us not all adaptations end up being useful. Although we have learned a great deal over the centuries of knowledge, we don't know everything. Navigating shifts in climate that involves the entire planet, and it's entire human population that is dependent on conditions of nature, is daunting. Maladaptation is a real thing, in other words, making changes, even with the best of intentions in the long run could turn out to have been misguided or cause further problems. So adaptability, which often requires creativity, also requires resiliency--the ability to recover from and learn from mistakes (our personal ones, and ones of the larger social order) and keep moving forward. At the root of this discussion, I am talking about the consciousness and creative possibilities that you are a part of. You do not have the personal power to make everyone do what you think they should be doing. But, you are an aspect of this planet, this time, the place, the situation. How you respond does matter. Your ability to envision and to adapt, and be creative matters. How you go about these next few years , the attitudes and beliefs, the ideas you cultivate, matter. I am urging you to consider what adaptability means for you personally, but also what your adaptability contributes. (Susan Nettleton)

Poetry from today: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54897/the-layers https://allpoetry.com/All-Watched-Over-By-Machines-Of...

https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/.../lao-tzu-we-are-river... https://wordsfortheyear.com/.../the-poet-dreams-of-the.../

August 11, 2024

oday, I turn our attention to the human quality of patience. Patience is one of the concepts that we humans have developed as a way to counter the frustration we feel when we fail to to conquer or mold the tendencies of things, people, and circumstances. We also frustrate ourselves with out own behavior, and depending on the culture, we are told that sometimes, we need to be more patient with ourselves, although cultural expectations can also demand perfectionism and painfully shun failure. Our focus today is to consider patience from a spiritual perspective that really is a form of surrender to a larger spiritual reality. In all major religions, scriptures and teaching stories address patience and usually with some sense of balance between human striving for spiritual connection, and living in the world of human relationships. Wikipedia gives a straightforward definition of the word: "Patience is the ability to endure difficult circumstances." How we experience the parameters of "difficult" varies with our stories, our current mood and expectations, and even physical factors (like physical pain or other limitations of the body and our neurological processes). And really patience includes expectation; without an expectation of good, of resolution, of fulfillment, there is no frustration.

This morning, I caught myself in a wave of frustration. Frustration is the feeling we have when something or someone prevents us from fulfilling our goal or felt need. It was a morning of miss-steps, text interruptions, and unexpected chores slowing me down--I wanted my coffee and I wanted it in my prized Santa Fe coffee mug that was lounging in the sink with a few unwashed jars headed to recycling. I don't know why I pictured that mug; I suspect it seemed to be a self-soothing image meant to finally launch me into the day's work. As I rinsed out the cup, I knocked it against one of the plastic jar lids and the lid rolled over, snuggled into the drain circle, blocking the drain. This sink tends to attract circular objects. I pried it up with a fork and it flew up and landed in the mug--completely sealing the cup this time. I tried to pry it out, but it sunk deeper in to the mug, its hard yellow plastic firmly wedged in the bottom. With growing irritation, I used every trick I knew to uproot it. Impossible! Years of meditation have brought me that dual quality of mind that both acts and watches the process; watches the frustration, watches the over-reaction, says to let it go, but at the same time another aspect of thought, refuses to let it go. It is the will that rises to conquer the material world--this time, with a justifying thought of the evils of plastic--even though the jar lid was headed for recycling. I reminded myself that there were other mugs, right there in front of me. But the incredible frustration that the lid simply would not bow/bend to my hand blinded me; I couldn't make that shift to letting my failed will, simply dissolve. Until, I just sat down and meditated.

After meditation, I had my morning coffee in a lovely mug someone had recently sent me. It was indeed comforting. Spiritual patience is about surrendering our narrow frameworks when they are not working. It is a turning to the larger dynamic of life and having the patience to let that unfold and reveal itself. Sometimes the process reveals itself as frustration v.s. patience in things that seem so minor. They hardly justify a fierce battle to liberate something like a cup, when the larger world is struggling with seismatical issues. Yet, the mind has it's way of reaching for small control as we give way to the larger Life. The ancient aphorism, "As above, so below", teaches us that our spiritual life is not just about astounding spiritual experiences of the grandeur, the immensity, of the cosmos, but the unfolding day, learning to move with the movement of the day, patient with ourselves, as well as others and the material world. Surrender. This week consider the quality of patience. In what way are your small battles with the Way things are, actually bringing you new insight into our changing world. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://zenmoments.org/have-patience-lao-tzu/

https://www.poetryverse.com/rumi-poems/because-cannot-sleep

https://thewellnessalmanac.com/.../patience-a-poem-for.../

August 6, 2024

Announcement to all!

Hillside will hold a Zoom Service, Sunday, August 18, 2024 with Dr. Susan Nettleton

Topic: The Path of Adaptability

Date: August 18, 2024

Time: 11:00 AM Mountain Time, 10:00 AM Pacific Time

If you are not on our email list for Zoom service and would like to attend, please email us at Hillsideew@aol.com or through the contact page on our website: Hillsidesource.com or message us on Facebook with your email address.

August 4, 2024

August brings a new month; tomorrow is a new moon--time to consider newness of life! Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) is known for several revolutionary philosophical ideas and in particular his analysis of causation. He questioned the inevitable tendency of human beings to see life events in terms of cause and effect, and instead, offered the explanation that causality was a habit of thought, arising from an assumption that connection, or "constant conjunction"or repetition of two events appearing together, must mean one caused the other. Hume saw that one can ever actually verify that one event caused the other. But in essence we have a kind of agreed upon assumption, derived from inductive reasoning, that assumes the future will resemble the past. With inductive reasoning, we generalize causation ("this caused that") and precepts out of repetitive observations, probabilities, comparisons and analogies.

It may seem contradictory to write of newness of life in early August, 2024, with the work of an 18th century philosopher, but today I am writing about the stories we create over time through connecting events and experiences. Hume's ideas on our construction of causes are very much active today. I am actually pointing you to the possibility of creating a new story (or stories) from this day's (or this summer's) moments, that continues to unfold in newness of life.

Notably, back in Hume's final year in August, 1776, the official completed version of America's Declaration of Independence was being signed (August 2, 1776), although the formal public announcement was declared on July 4. How is this relevant? It isn't, unless my mind--or yours--weaves the events of Hume's work, his iconoclastic rejection of causation, around the events of the original 13 colonies in their determination to break free from England. Hume wrote ‘the mind has a great propensity to spread itself on the world', i.e. we project our feelings and ideas onto the world without being aware that it is projection. We assume one event caused another.

Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson, considered to be the main author of the Declaration of Independence, rejected Hume's work for political reasons, not philosophical. He considered Hume's "History of England, dangerously biased toward Tory views of conservative political ideas that could undermine American independence. Yet, he admitted that it was so well-written that without those biases, it would be "the finest piece of history which has even been written by man." Instead, Jefferson opted to promote a plagiarized copy, politically re-worked by another author, which Jefferson deemed, "Hume, republicanised." {J. Jefferson Looney, Daniel P. Jordan Editor, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, https://www.monticello.org/.../the-finest-piece-of.../}

Religious beliefs and spiritual teachings readily give us simplified ideas of cause and effect based on culture and traditions. As Hume described, perception of cause and effect is filtered through the mind that "spreads itself on the world", generating perception, assumptions, interpretation and answers out of the past. You could see this as human illusion, or as a wondrous process of Life encountering Life, with infinite creativity, bringing order through name and meaning, extending the creative process Itself. As U.G. Krishnamurti said, "Every event is an individual and independent event. We link up all these events and try to create a story of our lives." It is difficult if not impossible to see every event as independent of every other event--it is in the linking of events that we sustain identity, relationships, and society. We create the story of the world. But when we catch a glimpse of that other form of time, of unlinked independent events, a door to freedom opens. The stories we, or others, or the culture has fixed for us, are changeable. What story do you choose now? (Susan Nettleton)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../tell-all-the-truth...

https://sacredmoves.com/poetry/for-a-new-beginning/

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../when-i-heard-the...

July 28, 2024

After the last few weeks of rollercoaster politics, I was thinking about the concept of influence and raising questions in myself about how human beings have learned the trick of influencing each other. I was mulling over both our susceptibility to being influenced and our ability to shape the opinions and spark the action of others. There is a science of influence through which we humans have learned to measure and understand this ability to impact and indeed manipulate others. In circling around the issue of influence, I considered the cultural as well as spiritual ramifications, but the focus of this Sunday post suddenly shifted with an unexpected memory.

Around 8 years ago in Albuquerque, I brought some visiting friends to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center during the Center's year long 40th Anniversary celebration. The place had undergone renovations and established a new permanent exhibit entitled "We Are of This Place: The Pueblo Story". The intent was to honor Pueblo land and "all living things". It is an interactive exhibit of Pueblo history, resilience and tradition. When we entered the exhibit, there was an immediate sound of a drum beat, followed by intermittent recorded singing/chants. At first, I was focused on the visual display, but the drum beat was unrelenting. It began slow and steady, speeding up at times, the singing fading in and out with the rhythm of the drum. At some point, I had to just close my eyes and let the drum beat, resonating inside me. I suddenly understood: the drum was the beating heart of the community. This revelation was like a lightning bold that left me breathless. At first, I understood it as an unexpected insight into Pueblo life. The atmosphere, the sum effect of the visual gallery, and the drum,--mostly the drum-- sparked insight that decades of Albuquerque life, working with Pueblo people, attending Native American dances, and general study had not revealed. How could I have never understood this? So there is another layer here of realization of how little we grasp of history, of other cultures, of vibrant life all around us for years and years, until something cracks open consciousness. Now the memory of the drumming brings a smile. The heartbeat of the tribe...community is a shared heartbeat.

It may seem that such a concept is only valid for an ancient culture, or for the intimacy of a small, close-knit community or family, or one's closest friends and companions, butt I ask you to reconsider the possibility that human beings, collectively, have a shared heartbeat.

Medically, we measure pulse--centuries of heartbeats have given us a range of normal as well as measures of dangerously fast, or dangerously slow, or arrhythmic heartbeat. We have learned that the heart's electrical system controls the electrical impulses that cause your heartbeat, rhythm and conduction. Science now envisions our hearts and brain as circuitry. We know relationships and emotions impact the circuitry, along with growing evidence that music also effects our blood pressure, heart rate and breath. Our physical hearts obviously do not all beat all at the same rate at the same time. When I write of a collective heart, a Universal heart, it is partly metaphor and partly mystical, mostly undiscovered, this heartbeat of Life, that resonates within. Rather than fretting about being overly influenced or cultivating our personal power to influence others, we could envision, we could discover, One, Communal Heart sustaining and directing us. In speaking of his own shattering realization that there is no [separate] self to be realized, my teacher, U.G. Krishnamurti said, "What you are left with is the pulse, the beat and the throb of life."

This last week of July, consider trusting that we each play a part in a Living Circuitry of Good.

(Susan Nettleton)

Poetry: https://allpoetry.com/.../15695579-Healing-Power-of-the...

https://poets.org/poem/paul-robeson

https://www.poetryverse.com/walt.../crossing-brooklyn-

July 21, 2024

As summer heat carries on across the country, with shifting storms, and shifting political news, I am mulling over restorative practices. Restorative is an interesting word. It is a specific aspect of healing that by definition makes a person feel better--recovers energy or abilities--when they are tired, sick, injured or even overwhelmed. Restorative implies what is damaged or depleted can be made whole again.

In yoga, restorative refers to a type of relaxation that includes the body as well as the mind. Gentle muscular stretches are held for several minutes, while the body relaxes, supported by pillows, bolsters and other props. Mental processing slows to focus on the breath. This seemingly contradiction of simultaneous relaxation and stretch, increases physical flexibility, releases muscle and emotional tension, lowers blood pressure, improves cardiac rhythm, and reduces physical pain. It's interesting that Westerners, in the push to achieve more mastery in yoga, or more athletic strength or skill in exercise or sports, often focus on self-coercion to summon success, resisting the idea of gentle restoration of the body.

In the Western Biblical tradition, there are multiple references to spiritual restoration that leads to physical healing and renewal in life circumstances, including relationships, prosperity, and a sense of meaning, The first passage I memorized in the Bible as a child was the 23rd Psalm that begins with the metaphor of God as the Shepherd who cares, and "makes me (us all) to lie down in green pastures. He leads me by still waters. He restores my (each) soul". As I child, this image of green pastures and still waters brought me immediate peace, even though I didn't understand the historical context. Now, after years of reflection on this Psalm and it's layered historical and metaphysical meaning, these lines still bring Peace. In the context of 2024 and global climate change, there is new meaning in our collective need for green pasture and still waters with an added understanding of restoration and the critical role of nature's capacity to soothe and heal.

Yet, "restoration of the soul" is not to be confused with the idea that life must stay the same, nor return to what it "used to be". Life is movement, and Life is not locked in to one form, or expression. Life is boundless. It is our human capacity to flow with changing times--with Life's boundless possibilities and our own creative ability to respond to events--that is in need of restoration. If you are tired and depleted, if you slip into despair, or just feel over-burdened, consider a time of restoration, a time of rest, ease and nourishment, rather than neglect or force. Sundays, or these remaining days of summer, in spite of heat, storm, or news still hold a space for your deeper soul restoration. Let go. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://www.bible.com/bible/114/PSA.23.nkjv

https://bestselfmedia.com/restoration-a-poem/

https://onbeing.org/.../john-odonohue-for-one-who-is.../

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../of-history-and-hope

July 14, 2024

This past week, circumstances brought me to the local California DMV without an appointment. The building was highly digitalized, complete with QR codes, text messages involving more codes, a large mounted screen flashing upcoming alphabetic/numerical coded-clients, alphabetized staff cubicles, a triage gatekeeper worthy of an ER, and of course we, the drivers, lined up and then seated in rows before the screens and counters. I knew I'd have to wait, but that kind of waiting is always an opportunity for meditation, especially a meditation on waiting itself, which is my subject today. One of my favorite Buddhist quotes is from Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha. In the story, circumstances eventually lead the future Buddha, Siddhartha, to seek a job. The potential employer questions Siddhartha about his "credentials" for the job and Siddhartha replies simply : "I can think, I can wait, and I can fast." I have written various pieces on that powerful quote, as condensed attributes of the spiritual life. At the DMV, "I can wait" was at the top of theses skills.

Meditation in a packed room of"strangers" is quite different than meditation in your own quiet, dedicated space and practice. The waiting space at DMV was vibrant with activity. Along with the visual pull of the large screen with number codes displaying changing rounds of applicants, a second screen flashed California public programs, while code numbers were simultaneously announced by a robot voice. Those waiting were a cross section of American life with multiple languages, styles, ages, and handicaps. An elderly man sitting next to me was watching a movie on his cell phone, volume full on!. I was prepared for the wait, but rather than sit with my work I brought or my book, I chose meditation to have a moment to acclimate. No one seemed to notice my closed eyes, quiet breath, or stillness. The screen rotations and announcements carried on shifted; the noisy cellphone movie continued. In meditation, the sounds were no longer a nuisance. I was waiting for my turn.

Meditation comes in infinite forms. Reflecting on how meditation has changed for me over the years, I realized one of the biggest shifts s came when I stopped orchestrating some inner event or experience. Rather, sitting has become a gentle shift to what I can only call the meditative mind as it moves away from the calculating mind. The calculating mind is a mind that plans and maneuvers, it designs, interprets and judges. It "adds things up", that is, it reaches conclusions. It is a significant aspect of human intelligence, often self-serving. Over the years, my sense of meditative mind has changed from an abstract emptiness, or a thought stopping stillness, to a kind of waiting. It is like the way you wait for a friend that you know is on the way, and will soon walk through the door. Or while sitting with a friend, you wait for them to speak, because you sense they have something to tell you, and you don't want to disrupt, or take over the conversation. Or, when all conversation has stopped, you simply share a connection. The calculating mind may still hang around and intrude, but it can be spotted and gently silenced.

The patience to wait develops over years of observation. You discover answers, guidance, direction, connections, are not obligated to only reveal themselves in mediation. Times of turning inward can yield unexpected clarity and serendipitous events later, while out in the bustle of everyday life. So the conversations around me, the robotic announcements, the cell phone movie's voices next to me, don't matter. It's all life. The quiet center speaks through all, navigates around all, or waits its turn--later today, tomorrow, months, years from now. This is the fabric of life in which we all have our part--wherever you are headed today, or this week, you are an aspect of that fabric. All the upheaval of recent events are also aspects of that fabric. Meditation gives us the where-with-all to move with the flow of life. It brings the patience, trust, expectation, directive that requires going with, rather than arguing against, or fighting, resisting and/or ignoring the movement of Life. We can wait.

For poetry: https://allpoetry.com/.../8625707-Life-by-Juan-Ramon-Jimenez

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../Isaidtomysou/index.html

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../NowIBecomeMy/index.html

July 7, 2024

The first week in July 2024 has been turbulent, coming on the heels of the Presidential debate with all its controversy and aftermath, exuberant 4th of July celebrations amid extreme heat across the Southwest (and world), and the earliest-forming Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record, Beryl. Here outside L.A., we watched the local 4th of July parade with kids, flags, streamers and candy give-aways, marching bands and local officials --a definite throwback to small town life, affirming strong roots and a stable future despite the 90 degree heat. While personal fireworks are banned, surrounding cities sponsored fireworks that boomed late into the night. Friday brought heavy traffic; Saturday turned still. That stillness seemed to deepen in the silence of meditation.

The stillness brought to my mind the Biblical passage, Kings 19, 11-13. The prophet Elijah, fearing for his life in a religious/political war, hides in a wilderness cave. God tells him to come out in the open as He passes by. As Elijah starts, there is a tremendous wind that shatters the mountain rocks, but God was not in the wind. "After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there came a still small voice. 13 When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his coat and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. Then a voice said to him, “Elijah! Why are you here?”

The story continues with Elijah's new mission, but the power of this passage, metaphysically, is the still quiet directive of the inner 'voice' that matters, not the drama which fed Elijah further fear. It is the inner voice within, in a time of withdraw into stillness, after all the spectacle, that leads him out of the cave and back to place his part in life. The inner voice challenges him to remember the part he has been given in unfolding events, "Elijah! Why are you here?" On one level a fearful Elijah is hiding in the cave; on another level, he has withdrawn in spiritual solitude, to seek guidance for his next move. Can both be true? Yes, we live as people in a delicate world of culture and human society, but we remain expressions of a greater unfoldment of Life Itself.

This week I also came across my copy of Garrison Keillor's poetry anthology: Good Poems for Hard Times, which seemed fitting for this week. It's a mix of complaint and upliftment, the material world and it's difficulties and joys, along with existential and transcendent resolve. The poetry links below are poems from that volume that speak of both levels. Consider today and as you read them, your inner response to the question, "why are you here?" this July 2024. (Susan Nettleton)

For Poetry, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse...

https://allpoetry.com/The-Planet-On-The-Table https://exceptindreams.wordpress.com/.../24/254-the-future/

https://hellopoetry.com/poem/14511/just-now/