No Compromise…

“To be your own shaman, you must be responsible for recognizing and nurturing the needs of your soul. This entails honoring and connecting with your soul-self and honoring and following your soul path. When you take good care of your soul, the energy of your soul is readily available for health, happiness, well-being, living your life fully, and pursuing personal growth and spiritual evolution.” Colleen Deatsman and Paul Bowersox – Seeing in the Dark

Photo by Kate Stetler Holgate, Used by Permission

 

At some point on the path that now trails behind me, not too distant, I reached a place inside, a level of growth that insisted I not compromise my still-forming vision – unless I was forced to do so by some crazy emergency situation. So far, so good. At times it has seemed inevitable, that compromise and capitulation to some hefty life challenges, but there have been plenty of last minute reprieves. Soon, I’m convinced that even the haunt of last-minute, almost-had-to-give-upness will be gone.

But in the meantime, one thing I cannot compromise is what I do for a living and how. And even where. I prefer from the home so I can be here when my kids get home. I insist on working with people who are committed to personal growth and transformation, to creativity and generosity. A spiritual, soulful focus is a must. And so it is, and a wealth of opportunity, growth and challenge. How do we get here? To this point of no-return? By insisting on getting real, staying real and allowing radical grace to erase the old programs of automaton, rigid conformity to norms and status quo, by embracing a path of growth, of awareness, and of authenticity, releasing control and fear.

It’s not easy. I’ve not “arrived” but I feel a kinship with all things transformed and transforming and what a feast this life has become, even at the worst moments. It’s all good…

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Sanity Revisited…

“True sanity entails in one way or another the dissolution of the normal ego, that False Self competently adjusted to our alienated social reality…and through this death a rebirth, the ego now being the servant of the divine, no longer its betrayer.” —R. D. Laing

jruthkelly4 Comments

Bah, hmmm…

Life is good.
Even when the bah bug bites.

photo by my daughter...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even when the fatigue is so surreal you wish you could melt into the ground and grow up to be a flower in the next life.
Even when the solutions to the problems are not yet found.
Even when the hardships keep kicking your loved ones around.
Even when your rhyme is so tied up in Dr. Seuss-land
you can’t reach past the fingers pounding words from hands
driven by the drive-by moment
long enough to stop their relentless repetition of sound found in the pound-go-round.

Hey, that wasn’t too bad, in spite of the land/hand stretch.

This is a crazy post
because it’s a crazy life right now and I’m truly very grateful for that fact.
And had to say so.

Peace, y’all…

[This was originally posted with the following highly adorable image: http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw64gfV2cs1qkcj67o1_500.jpg but i’m coming out of the tumblr-induced cloud and will not post images from tumblr any more!]

jruthkelly6 Comments

While All Else Clamors

What was that I just felt,
smelled fleeting,
heard
whispering?

What was that wash of
release from
tension
tension life never asked me
to know?

What was that pleasure seeping in? What if…?

What if life is perfect
right now?
What if the dust bunnies
in the corner
two days after cleansweep
are a reminder of the inevitable tide of
life washes, rolling all over us,
inviting the pound of
full blast loving,
kicking up dirt, crumbs and mirth
even while we scramble to do more than
survive?

What if life is beautiful today?
You? Me? Today? Now?

What if the lines under your eyes,
lil splotches on those thighs,
etch a beauty only soul can define
and only
the soul-centered can recognize
and what if nothing else
about your appearance matters?

What if there’s nothing you need to do
for this beauty to emerge
nothing to do but live,
love,
flow in authentic,
grace-centered beingness?

What if everything is alright, right now,
even while most things are upside down,
bleeding out, on the edge,
protesting on the street corner,
what if the sum of it all is…
precious perfect,
in the middle of turmoil, loss,
advocacy, pain, anxiety?
What if there’s a place deep within,
eternal boundless space pulsing,
resonating with peace, fullness, rest
perfection…
while all else clamors?

What if with a simple shift inward, past the noise,
‘round the self-hatred corner,
beyond the decrees against you,
down below fathoms immeasurable,
sounding past everything else…
a silent feast of unsullied, incorruptible grace
awaits to be found, carried within every footfall
of protest and dance, rest and tryst?

Go there.

jruthkelly2 Comments

Kill Selfhood = Kill Empathy = Kill Troy Davis

RSAnimate’s productions get 5 of 5 stars from me pretty much every time. This 10 minute bit of Jeremy Rifkin’s Empathic Civilisation is worth every second and reflects beautifully on how the internet is providing an outlet for our soft-wiring towards empathy. Case in point: Troy Davis. The world saw, the world came running. Solidarity. But the Georgia Board of Paroles missed a few steps in the selfhood stage maybe? They couldn’t see past their agendas for “justice” and political posturing.

I realize this issue was about more than empathy. And for some it wasn’t as much about Troy Davis as it was about the barbaric reality of the death penalty itself. For others, it was simply a miscarriage of due process, of justice. But in the final analysis, our ability to experience empathy is what mobilized us. What if this were my son, my neighbor, my grandchild? So, we look at the failure of the Georgia Parole Board and how their adherence to their rules blinded them to the inaccuracy in their verdicts. So, what kills selfhood? Many things. But one things stands out to me today: The abortion of radical grace. We need radical grace in order to develop with healthy boundaries and a sense of self without shame. We need radical grace in order to be motivated to move beyond our destructive habits.

So what is radical grace? Radical grace is a revolutionary force of understanding and empathy whereby we facilitate merciful justice in order to inspire and facilitate opportunity for change, healing or closure in and for others, so that we might ALL THRIVE. Sometimes radical grace wields fierce, and even brutal words in the face of tyranny, oppressive deceit and corruption. Why? Because it is inspired by the empathetic response. Tyranny, deceit, corruption all divorce us from our humanity, from the value of selfhood and the habits of radical grace. We instinctively snarl at their destructive tools and that, that is radical by sheer virtue of the fact that we’ve been told from grade school to high school and on that we must NOT disrupt the status quo or we risk being branded.

Go ahead, brand me. Brand me radical grace activist, radical truth advocate, radical status quo disruptor. Why? Because our lives, our living, our loving, all…all are so profoundly precious.

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