Microcosms

Good morning,

This little girl is teething.  I didn't have much down time at all yesterday.  She has learned to nap in my arms.  And I love the solid little weight, the trust as she collapses completely against me.  I only have a week left.  I feel like I have been here forever, but I feel like I am in suspended animation because I am not at home.  Strange feelings.

Your questions stay with me a lot.  They have also been in my heart.

Why do we (humans) break the spirit that is divinely given?
Why do we feel that we can improve upon a spirit that is created in the image of the Divine?
Who are we to be so important?

Again, I wonder what happened to us.  I saw a weird article earlier today.  It speculated that there were strains of humans and some were vegan.  Those died out during the ice ages when foods became scarce.  The lines that survived lived near the shores and fed on flesh.  There is something in me that does not want to eat meat, and that eats less and less all the time.  I don't drink milk, and the dairy foods that I do use are some raw cheeses and way too much ice cream.  Of course, that's more about chocolate than dairy.  The only meat I eat is poultry.  I was completely vegetarian for many years, but I started feeling cold all winter.  I just couldn't get warm.  So I trained myself to eat chicken and turkey, and I am warmer now.  But every time I read about industrial agriculture, I get sick.  The way humans treat animals makes me nauseous.

I was reading an essay by a woman who was defending meat eating.  She started out by saying that Of course, it does involve sacrifice. But I want to know how we can sacrifice something that is not ours.  The base belief of her philosophy is that we own the animals.  We believe we own the land, the seeds, our children, and with recent developments, it is becoming very obvious that underneath it all, we believe that men are in charge and that they also own the women.

Something had to break the human spirit to allow this whole belief system to be okay.  Did you know it was becoming a crime to feed the homeless and the hungry in many cities?  What happened to the human spirit?  We could start a protest.  Everyone should carry an extra sandwich in case they meat someone who is hungry.  We should make compassion common, and we should make the greedy grasp the wealthy men have on their wealth a sin and a crime.  I would love to do a photo essay of wealthy people eating next to poor people eating, or not.  The First Nation people said the leader is the first to give.  That would be a good tag line.

I had a psychic experience while here.  I had a moment where I could hear the souls of the people weeping for what is being done to the land.  I asked what I need to do.  Partly it is this.  Being openly vulnerable, trying to understand what happened.  What happened to us is an understandable microcosm of what is happening to the Earth.  We shine the Light on us, and the Light shines on the larger and smaller versions of the same story.  The differences in size, the Light shining - it was a beautiful image.

But I have been trying to analyze violence for years.  And I have to write about it.  Maybe here, maybe in another venue.  I am waiting for way to open.

I appreciated reading about your evolution.  I think a big moment for me was finding Friends.  The woman who insisted I go to Al-Anon was a Quaker mama!!

Swallowing pride... Your post led me to really think about this phrase.  Why swallow it?  Upon swallowing we can digest it and it becomes part of us.  A student proposed that the body is really a transformation factory.  Perhaps this happens on the emotional level also!  So, pride transformed becomes...what do you think?  And is pride good or bad?  I think it is good, until we use it to stiffen ourselves so much that we can't accept anything.  I will be thinking about this!!

Time for me to get back to work.  Then everyone will be up and off to another busy day...

I love you, have a sweet day!!

Clare