Equinox is a living mystery infused with life/death/life force. A wheel goes around and around. A spiral evolves.
Snakes who shed their skins know the truth of ancient mysteries. Belly to dust. Skin to soil. Soil to soul.
We turn and churn and are woven within and without. This life, a temple for remembering, a vessel for transformation, a song of becoming.
Seasons. Opposites. An ancient cross before the church said so, marking points on a map, on the songline of a year. Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter.
Each season a seasoning. An entering. A kind of mating call. To listen. To the beloved. Within and beyond. To the sacred keeper of time. To the Sophia in natura. To the divine intelligence. To the Divine.
We shed stories like snakes shedding skins. We court shadows. We court the light. In fall, the letting go. But also, the striving for light. Holding stars in our eyes, in our hearts. We believe more than the stories they tell us.
We are the new stories growing new skins.
I rest in God today.
This thought will bring me
the rest and quiet,
the peace and stillness,
and the safety and deep healing
I seek.
I rest in God today.
This thought will carry me
through storms and strife,
past discomfort and pain,
past loss and death,
and onward to the certainty of God.
This is a day of peace
for I rest in God today.
And while the outer world
is torn by winds of confusion and fear,
my rest remains completely undisturbed.
Mine is the rest of truth;
the truth of God’s transforming Love.
I trust that when I open myself to this Love,
I have no burdens, no anxiety,
no fear of the future and no past regrets.
It is in God’s timelessness that I rest.
And so I close my eyes and surrender into
the stillness of this present moment.
I let this time of rest reassure my mind that all is well.
I let my mind be still and thankful
for this awareness, this healing.
No more fearful thoughts will come
now that I rest in God.
As I enter into this time of rest,
I surrender to God anything that causes distress.
I open myself to the presence of God
within me and all around me.
I rest in this presence and trust that
my time with God will make a difference.
My circumstances may remain the same
but I will be changed.
Such is the miracle of God’s transforming love,
ever present, here and now.
I rest in God today.
Mr B, you are a wildebeest at heart! 💜 Get out there and ride till your heart is full of freedom, fresh air and nature!
One of my favorite places to which I enjoy riding my bike, “Kongoni,” is a spot on the river bluffs below the University of St. Thomas. It’s a very peaceful place to sit, reflect, journal, and pray. Sometimes I simply sit in the warm sun and watch as the swallows dart back and forth across the great river. Occasionally, a barge – ladened with gravel or sand – will pass slowly by.
The sight of the nearby Lake St./Marshall Ave. Bridge and the dull and distant roar of planes from the airport, are often the only reminders that one is in the midst of a major metropolitan area. It’s quite amazing, really.
In St. Paul Schools, Gender-Neutral Bathrooms
Have Proven Safer for All Students
By Elizabeth Shockman
Minnesota Public Radio News
September 22, 2023
In 2016, Johnson Senior High School in St. Paul made a choice that was ahead of its time: to remove gendered bathrooms and install single-occupancy, gender-neutral restrooms.
It’s now a topic of political debate in many places, but while some are questioning whether schools should have gender-neutral bathrooms, Johnson Senior High School has had them long enough to have answers on the impact they have on students.
When you walk through the front door of the building, the bathrooms, in black and green tile, are one of the first things you see. They’re integrated into the hallway: a line of completely private stalls with floor to ceiling doors and no see-through gaps.
The sinks are communal and the door locks have indicators on both the inside and outside to show whether or not a stall is occupied. There’s a wheelchair-accessible stall with sinks for ritual washing and a small closet for students who want to use the stalls for prayer.
It’s simultaneously more private and more open than the typical gendered American public school restroom.
Tom Parent, who is executive director of operations for the district, said the design was intentional and new.
“It was a flipping of the mentality from an institutional, ‘How do we provide this amenity at the greatest quantity?’ to ‘How do we do this in a way that actually meets the needs of kids developmentally in the school culture as a whole?’” Parent said.
The gender-neutral restrooms are now the model not just at Johnson, but at 14 schools in the district – including elementary and middle schools.
“We heard from the student leadership group here about the negative impacts that the bathrooms had on the school experience,” Parent said. “Kids didn't feel safe or respected (with the old model). They avoided going to the bathroom all day, because they didn't feel like that was a spot where they could feel safe and supported.”
Char Alexander [right] is a sophomore at Johnson. She said the school’s old restrooms were dark and dingy.
The huge gaps under the doors sometimes made her feel unsafe – kids sometimes passed their phones underneath. School leaders said the restrooms were places where bullying, vandalism and smoking sometimes happened.
The new bathroom model isn’t perfect – sometimes an inconsiderate classmate will leave a mess. But Char said the new bathrooms feel more inclusive, not just for gender nonbinary students.
“It’s also inclusive to people who just don't feel like they want to go to the bathroom where the stalls are open,” she said.
Char said the newer bathrooms feel cleaner, lighter, more open, easier to access and safer. She also said the lighting makes them a preferred spot to film TikTok videos.
“The lighting in the bathrooms is actually amazing,” Char said. “The bathroom TikToks are very real whether you do them off the sink or whether you do them in the mirror. Or the actual stall itself. The lighting falls on you really good.”
St. Paul school leaders said the number of kids who felt unsafe in restrooms was reduced by more than half when they changed the design to gender-neutral single-stall facilities.
There are fewer students smoking in bathrooms, less vandalism, less bullying, fewer lines and more kids washing their hands. When districts around the state were dealing with broken plumbing and soap dispensers from the Devious Licks social media trend a few years ago, Johnson Sr. High saw no vandalism.
Assistant principal Kevin Davis said the new model is better than what the school had previously.
“This is far more accessible to kids . . . nobody has to wait anymore . . . a lot of our staff use them too because of the convenience, really,” Davis said.
“Now that you have a space where people are actually using it, yes, you go through so many more paper towels and much more toilet paper because kids are much more comfortable being here. And so it does take a little more effort on a custodial crew to make sure that we’ve got this clean, beautiful space that kids can use.”
“Trans advocacy is advocacy for everyone”
A group of Minnesota lawmakers this last session worked to get money to schools that want to install gender-neutral restrooms in their schools. State Rep. Alica ‘Liish’ Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, sponsored the legislation, arguing it would “destigmatize as well as support” students.
“That’s good for LGBTQ students as well students that have accessibility needs . . . students with physical disabilities, (students who are) caretakers of a different gender, families with small children – the list goes on and on,” Kozlowski said.
The bill, which was passed as part of a larger omnibus package, provides grants of up to $75,000 per site to help schools cover the cost of renovating or constructing single-stall, gender-neutral restroom facilities.
Duluth Public Schools will be one of the first recipients of the grant money. School officials there said that they will start the planning and design process next year, and that the plan is to get input from students on how the restrooms should look and function.
Bill sponsors argued gender-neutral, single-stall restrooms would be particularly beneficial in making schools safer and more inclusive for LGBTQ+ students.
“It was really important to us to say that we have a right to be free from harassment, free from anything other than being able to use the bathroom in peace,” said State Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, who was part of the coalition of lawmakers that prioritized the bill.
A 2013 national school climate survey of thousands of LGBTQ+ students found nearly two-thirds of transgender students avoided using school bathrooms because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable, compared to only 40 percent of all other student groups.
For Finke, legislation that prioritizes trans students is beneficial for all students.
“Trans advocacy is always advocacy for everyone,” she said.
Back in St. Paul, students and school officials said the gender-neutral bathrooms weren’t just safer for non-binary students, they were safer for everyone.
“Good design is good design,” said St. Paul Public Schools communications specialist Ryan Stanzel. “And inclusivity is about everything.”
. . . and resting your mind
Step out of time and rest your mind.
I’m often asked,“How do I still and quiet the mind?” Here are a few of the practices I've discovered over the years that I’ve found to be helpful. I hope they prove helpful to you as well.
Notice that when you bring your full focus and attention to any activity, i.e. reading, writing, meditating, or even watching TV, you are aware of only that activity. I’ve found that it is just about impossible for the mind to be present with God AND at the same time engaged with the thinking mind of the ego. I’m either present, here and now with God, OR my mind is occupied with the ego’s worries and problems. I call this “time traveling.” It is when the mind travels to past regrets or future worries instead of being present, here and now.
When you direct and place your focus and attention on this present moment, the mind becomes oblivious to all other thoughts and thinking activities. The mind “naturally” quiets itself when we keep our awareness present, and fixed in the here and now with God. This is also referred to as “mindfulness” and/or “Be Here Now.” Keeping your awareness “present” is key to a still and quiet mind.
Being “present” is part of the mind training I’ve found so valuable in A Course in Miracles. Some of the ways I’ve utilized and found helpful in keeping my mind in a state of present-moment awareness are prayer, saying a mantra, and meditation. I also say the rosary or recite the lesson titles in the table of contents in the [ACIM] Workbook. Anything that keeps the mind fixed and focused fully on the present moment has worked for me. Anything we find to be captivating will work. It just needs to hold our attention long enough for our monkey mind to settle down.
You will discover what works best for you. It does not have to be spiritual. When my peace is affected by physical pain, I’ve been known to binge-watch a Netflix series as a way of dissociating my “thinking mind” from the physical pain long enough for healing to occur. I don’t even have to “let go” of the pain because the pain actually “lets go” of me. As my mind is fixed in the present, the pain dissolves and disappears from my awareness. When I “pay it no mind,” it is the same as remembering the words of Jesus, “I will forgive and this will disappear.”
It does not take long for the mind to quiet itself when it has been captivated by God in a state of present-moment awareness. This is also the state of mind where I practice forgiveness, ask for guidance and healing, rest in God, and “Choose Once Again.” It is the place of miracles, communing with Jesus, and where holy instants occur with our brothers/sisters and our Holy Spirit. It is that state where the world disappears and only Love remains. Practice makes Progress. 😍
Hundreds of thousands of protesters around the globe took to the streets over the weekend calling for an end to the burning of fossil fuels. Climate actions took place in the Philippines, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sweden, Germany, the United States and across dozens of other countries and cities worldwide.
Here in New York, an estimated 75,000 protesters joined a massive march Sunday following days of peaceful actions targeting banks and other institutions involved with the fossil fuel industry.
The tens of thousands of people who filled the streets of midtown Manhattan sent a clear message to the world and leaders coming to the city for the U.N. General Assembly this week: End fossil fuels.
As part of more than 200 actions around the world leading up to the first-ever United Nations Climate Ambition Summit this Wednesday, more than 700 grassroots groups together called on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency, stop all federal approvals for new fossil fuel projects, phase out production of fossil fuels on federal public lands, and build a new clean energy future.
Speakers at the massive march’s rally included New York Democratic Congressmember Jamaal Bowman, environmental justice activist Susan Lavigne, former Irish President Mary Robinson, actor Susan Sarandon and climate scientist Peter Kalmus.
“Every little bit of fossil fuel we burn makes the planet a little hotter,” warned Kalmus, while Bowman and Robinson condemned fossil fuel investment as “subsidizing” the planet’s “own self-destruction.”
Added Kalmus, “This is a task of cosmic importance. . . . We are on the brink of losing absolutely everything.”
Dear Michael,
Today I’m marching with lots of our East Coast volunteers to participate in the March to End Fossil Fuels Parade in New York City.
I’m old enough to have experienced what it means when an idea becomes a movement, which over time then becomes a power that simply will not be stopped. And ending fossil fuels is at such a point today. A critical mass of people at last seem to understand that when it comes to fossil fuels the era of extraction must end, so a new era of green energy can begin.
To make this transition, it will not be enough to simply invest in green energy. It’s not enough to go clean if you’re still investing in dirty. We must begin right now to ramp down fossil fuel extraction, not ramp it up the way both Presidents Trump and Biden have done.
It’s time for a World War II level mass mobilization for a just transition from a dirty economy to a clean economy, and as President I will preside over that.
“But wait a minute, Marianne,” one gentleman said to me one day. “I make over 6 figures at my job working for Big Oil. Are you telling me to go install solar panels for $15 an hour?”
“No Sir, I’m not,” I told him. That’s where the word “just” comes in to the concept of a just transition. Many thousands of people who work at least indirectly for fossil fuel companies have the technological, research and manufacturing careers sorely needed in a green economy. I will work tirelessly with the fossil fuel companies – as long as they will work with me – to partner in the single greatest industrial transition in modern American history. In doing so, we will create jobs, we will create profits, and we will create a safer and more livable planet.
In the meantime, I will immediately upon taking office declare a Climate Emergency. Why? First of all, because there is one. But more importantly, because as your President I will not be pussy footing around. During my administration, the U.S. government will refuse to bow down to any oil producer, foreign or domestic. We’re not staying stuck, and we’re not going backwards. We’re going a create a Green Century for ourselves and our children.
Every time I give a talk on the campaign trail, I ask people to raise their hand if they are a young person or have heard a young person say the following: that under normal circumstances they would be thinking about having a child but that given the state of the environment today they don’t think it would be a responsible thing to do.
Never does less than 1/3 of the room raise their hands – and at one talk recently a majority did!
That’s it. We’re going to listen to our young people. They want a better life, and they deserve it.
I hope you will work as hard as we are – as a donor, a volunteer, a friend of the campaign – to amplify this message so we can get it done.
