When you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.

–Thich Nhat Hanh

…imagine what these places (our neighborhoods) could be if they were experiencing their full potential.

— Steve Holt, “The Spirituality of Placemaking”

The death knell of the Confederate flag and the events leading up to it have triggered a lot of pondering for me. Flags are generally the repository of meaning for a collective.

The taking down of the Confederate flag signifies that the collective of the United States is publicly rejecting what that flag stood for– slavery, apartheid, and its related violence. Some have projected other values upon it; we can be assured that these people were not African Americans.

A flag is merely a piece of cloth; it is the energetic that is projected onto it by the collective that makes it significant.

A flag is particularly strong to collective projections. I remember that during the Vietnam War the US flag held a strong projection of support for the war because supporters had flag decals on their cars. I was not one of them.

Even now, the American flag means different things for different people. I hope and pray that the bulk of the collective begins to take a good look at our country in the world, with the aim that other countries will look upon it with positive feelings because we have proved ourselves to be worthy.

One of these days there will be a world flag that a larger collective will project common meaning upon. I hope I see that happen.

In the meantime, I especially like prayer flags, like the ones in a yard in our neighborhood.

Tell me the landscape in which you live and I will tell you who you are.

~Ortega y Gasset

I took this picture last evening. Today I looked at it for my nature meditation, because I was profoundly moved by it. I am still trying to find a word for the way I have been moved. Since I cannot find one at this time, all I can do is thank the dandelion for teaching me something that rings profoundly in the depths of my heart.

Most Alaskans are familiar with the Tlingit tale about how Raven brings the sun, moon, and stars. I keep returning to it, and have placed metal garden symbols around our deck to embrace that space with its reality.

Myth seems intangible to the modern mind. When the mind tries to grasp myth, it attempts to turn it into a mental belief, because that’s how the mind works. However, to connect with the living essence of myth, we need to transcend the workings of the ordinary mind. The ordinary mind cannot grasp myth. Rather, the mind must be swallowed by myth (by becoming still and being open).

When we touch the reality of myth, it can bring us to our knees. It fills us with awe. When we are able to allow this to happen, we become embraced by a world far more expansive than we would ever have imagined and we become alive in a whole new way.

There is no need to create a quarrel between science and myth. Science is a mental process and myth is a soul process. That said, I believe that the two are at times able to concur.

My bones are mountains.
My tears, rushing rivers.
The earth’s crust is my skin.
Trees adorn my head.
The sun, moon, and stars are in my eyes.
The ether of the Universe is my breath.

~Anya Phenix

You are here
for something far bigger
than just hoping you make it through life.

You are here
to raise the energy of the planet,
one day at a time,
one person at a time,
starting with yourself,
and to do so
in great Joy
and with focused purpose.

Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you.
— Rumi