September 22, 2024

In Western culture, Sunday is viewed as a day of rest, coming out of the Biblical creation story that ends on: "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." In other parts of the world, of course, there are other Creation stories, other calendars and other holy days. Monday usually marks the beginning of the week. Living in the U.S., I post on Sundays but as a (semi-retired) Minister, Sunday is mobile, sometimes marking the end of the week, sometimes the beginning, but always a day to affirm the Goodness of Life, and I encourage you to join me in that simple practice.

If your days include scrolling social media, online and TV news flashes, and radio broadcasts, it may be difficult to remember the spiritual significance of affirming the Good when conflict, tragedy, and threats from both nature and human drama dominate the news. So today I remind you to simply take a moment, a meditation, an outing, a prayer, even a conversation, to recognize, name, and appreciate the Good that continues. Savor it. Know it as genuine and as your understanding of the even larger, unfathomable reality of Good. Let (let, not force) any shadows that may fall around that Good dissolve. You don't have to take care of the shadows in this practice; this spiritual practice is to affirm and support the Good, the Beautiful and the True.

As part of my own practice today, I recognize the amazing work and dedication of the firefighters who have been battling 3 large fires in near Los Angeles: the Bridge, Line, and Airport fires. I dedicate this post to them as spiritual expressions of Good. The Line fire began during Labor Day weekend. The other two followed a few days later, as extreme heat hit these areas and the danger and scope rapidly spread. The bravery, dedication and skill of these firefighters goes beyond the term 'good', but rather, elevates to the realm of Spiritual Good, encompassing skilled firefighters and their support teams such as strike teams of engine and hand crews, water tenders, wildfire falling module units, and those manning infrared imaging and aircraft. In all, it is a massive effort that includes the circle of other states in an intricate, mobile necessity of trained, dedicated people and equipment. Spiritual Goodness further expresses through the Cal Fire website that meticulously and generously provides not only daily life-saving updates for those in the area, and but also conveys powerful messages of living in community. As the message from the Chief put it, "We are all here to help each other". The website clarifies daily closures and evacuations, listing shelters for residents, and shelters for large animals and small animals. As I write, these fires are now all over 56% contained. The weather this past week suddenly shifted to much colder, more moisture, and calmer wind.

Yes, the terrain, some structures and homes have burned. There have been injuries and loss of wildlife. Yes, the Line fire was arson, and the Airport fire crew suffered a transport rollover that insured several of the crew, some seriously. These are sobering events that we can acknowledge and recognize as loss. We have our social structures for justice, and our means of resilience and recovery. We have knowledge and prayer for healing. I maintain that the recognition of Good, even when coping with loss, opens new possibilities of continued and expanding Good. Not all of us can rest on Sunday, but we can find Good wherever we are. It maybe as simple as a bite of food, or a lovely smile, or a flitting butterfly, or a space of peace within our own hearts. Give it life, savor it, name it Good, and very Good. (Susan Nettleton)

Poetry https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/.../rainer-maria-rilke-i...

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

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

https://artandtheology.org/.../the-divine-will-by-jean.../

September 15, 2024

"CLARITY II'

The French say:

beau temps,

not a beautiful day

but a beautiful time.

The day can't be beautiful

but the time can be.

(Larry Morris, On this Sweet Earth)

After a smoky-sky beginning, this morning has given way to beau temps! I remember discovering the morning salutation "Quel beau temps!" many years ago, while staying at a quaint guest house on the French island Noirmoutier in the North Atlantic. The early morning had been misty, cold and gray, but by mid-morning, the clouds gave way to glorious sunshine, blue sky, and clean ocean air--beau tempe. The French hotel host that morning enthusiastically greeted me, with "Quel beau temps, and happily began to educate me (in English!) on the layers of its meaning. My meager French was self-taught, so I was open to his lesson. When I latter told the story to Larry Morris (who had actually taken French courses at UNM), it inspired the poem, Clarity II.

I knew 'quel' translated to the exclamative 'what!' and 'beau' meant beautiful, but I learned that 'temps' has two meanings: it can mean 'time', in a general sense, (like "take all the time you need") but it also has evolved to mean weather. There is some speculation that the words 'time' and 'weather' were originally associated through ancient systems of measuring time, like the sundial. Predictable, periodic times of changing weather developed the concept of seasons, with distinct challenges and delights. "Time" extended to include fluctuating social conditions as well, giving us such ideas as "hard times"/"temps difficile"and "better times"/"meilleurs temps". Today, I encourage you to consider how you habitually greet the day and label "the time(s)" we live in.

The California Covid surge this summer, the horrendous heat waves of September, the current fires here in L.A. County and across the country, and all the added conflicts and challenges around the globe do not easily meld into a time of beauty. This, I think, is what Larry meant when he wrote "the day cannot beautiful". We humans carry the weight of social issues and the consequences of conflict with nature and each other. Yet, there are always alternative ways to view life. We have the capacity to re-name our reality. Because Life is immeasurable, there is life hiding within life: birth hiding within death, peace hiding within conflict, love hiding within fear, resilience hiding within failure, and beauty--depending on how you define and experience it--everywhere. If only for today, greet the beauty inherent in time and in timelessness. My favorite way to greet the day is the adage: "As the sun makes it new, day by day, make it new, yet again, make it new." Find or refine your own morning greeting. Why not Walk in Beauty and Newness of Life? Quel beau temps! (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../WhenWorld/index.html

https://henryehooper.blog/navajo-traditions-prayer-poems/

https://gladdestthing.com/poems/daybreak

September 8, 2024

Today I am still reflecting on my commitment to adapt to Life's changes in the 21st century as a key principle of my spiritual life. My sense is that the larger spiritual framework of Life, name it God, or a Power, Presence, and Intelligence Un-named, guides and directs creative adaptation, expressing through me, and you as we respond to It. This past week brought new challenges in the form of extreme heat. I grew up in Houston, and even decades ago, there were times of humid, muggy days over 100 degrees. Then I moved on to Albuquerque, where the desert-like dry heat of summer surpassed Houston. This week's heat-wave in L.A. County, has gone beyond the peaks of those days, with severe heat warnings and scorching afternoons (outside and indoors in air conditioning not designed for extreme conditions)! With my grandchildren in need of rides home from school this week, I was pushed outside at mid-afternoon peak temperatures. After 1 day of the building afternoon heat, and warnings of daily escalation, I realized I had to pay close, physical and spiritual attention and that this was an exercise in adaptation.

That same evening, a friend sent me an Instagram clip of Thích Nhất Hạnh from the monastery he founded, Plum Village. In the clip, the gentle Buddhist master spoke of a very simple practice of meditation, with a focus on breath: "Breathing in, I am calm, I relax; Breathing out, I smile. Calming; smiling", or he offers alternatively, you can say, "I listen, I listen deeply. This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home. Breathing in I establish myself in the present moment; breathing out I know this is a wonderful moment...Present moment; Wonderful moment."

The text explains that this is known as a gatha, a short "poem" recited as spiritual practice to bring the mind into harmony with the breath. This practice is also linked to a meditation bell as a reminder to stop and breathe the "poem". The post is a invitation to the plumvillageapp, which has it's own structure for the bell, but for me, this was all a reminder that meditation, like breath, is something I take with me, wherever I go--be it in extreme heat, pleasant weather, or winter freeze. Reminders come from everywhere, like my friend who spontaneously sent the video clip.

The next day, after my own practice of meditation--an inner availability, an inner deep listening--it became clear that the extreme heat requires simplicity--that translates to some very practical ideas--short after-sunset runs to the grocery as needed, simple warm-it-up-in-the-microwave meals, and take-out, lots of home-made ice in the freezer, a small cooler of drinks with ice for the grand-kids on the drive home, conserve the electricity, pay attention to the city updates, check on one another, expect the Unexpected Good...simplify whatever can possibly be simplified; this too shall pass. Consider today, whatever your weather, the simpler path: Calming; Smiling. Present moment;Wonderful moment. (Susan Nettleton)

for Poetry: https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/.../BrightField/index.html

https://genius.com/Emily-dickinson-how-happy-is-the...

https://www.poetseers.org/.../thich.../thichp/to-meditate/

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-