Monday, September 30, 2024

Peter Kalmus on Fossil-fueled Climate Change and Hurricane Helene

The southeastern United States has been devastated by Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane which made landfall last Thursday (September 26) in the Big Bend region of Florida, near the city of Perry, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (220 km/h).

As of today, a total of 133 deaths have been attributed to Helene. The storm triggered coastal storm surges, catastrophic flooding, and tornado damage. Entire neighborhoods across Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee and North and South Carolina have been submerged in water.

Earlier today, climate activist and climate scientist Peter Kalmus was interviewed on Democracy Now! Following (with added links) is part of what he shared about the connections between fossil-fueled climate change and monster storms like Hurricane Helene.

____________________

The planet’s overheating. It’s irreversible. It’s caused by the fossil fuel industry. And the reason I say “industry” specifically, not “fossil fuels,” is because this industry has been systematically lying and blocking action for almost 50 years, for decades and decades. And they’ve said publicly, testifying in front of Congress, that they plan to continue systematically blocking action.

And this will get worse as the planet continues to get hotter. It’s getting hotter every day. Every day we continue burning fossil fuels and allowing this industry to continue spreading disinformation and blocking action, the planet gets hotter. Hotter ocean fuels these storms, causes them to intensify more rapidly, causes them to get much more powerful. And a hotter atmosphere, because we’re living on a currently overheating planet – hotter atmosphere holds more water, so we get these intense, intense rainfalls, which cause the sorts of flooding that’s happening right now.

I think that this is the most evil thing that it’s possible to imagine, that fossil fuel executives and lobbyists will continue to lie so that they can line their bank accounts more at the irreversible expense of our planet and the future of humanity.

I feel desperate as a climate scientist. I’ve been sounding the alarm since 2006. Other scientists have been sounding it for far longer, Dr. James Hansen in the ’80s, even back before that. And we've been completely ignored. You get politicians, even like President Biden, even Democrats, [are] saying things like, “We listen to the scientists.” And then [at] the last presidential debate, we had Trump saying this is a hoax . . . and then Vice President Harris saying, “Climate change is real, but we’re going to expand fracking.” And that’s the cause of climate change. So, we’re living in this strange dystopia where scientists are being completely ignored.

So, I personally don’t know what else to do. I’ve tried a lot of different kinds of activism. Civil disobedience has by far been the most effective, the most effective in building the movement, inspiring other activists. We need the public to have two things before we’re going to be able to act, before we’re going to hold these politicians to account. We need urgency, and we need cause. And the public, in my opinion, doesn’t know those two things. They don’t have the sense that this is existentially urgent, that this is irreversible. However hot the planet gets, that’s how hot it’s going to stay for the rest of our lives, for our children’s lives, grandchildren, many, many generations. And they don’t know cause. There’s a lot of confusion.

This is caused by the fossil fuel industry. So, if we want to stop this, preserve what we can, we need to know that that’s the cause, that they’re blocking action. And we have to target that. Financing from the banks is a huge part of this. They’re still expanding new fossil fuel projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline in my state [of North Carolina] and in Virginia, which is creating natural gas for export that we don’t even need in America, just so these fat cats like Joe Manchin can get more rich. People don’t understand this. And they need to know urgency. This is irreversible. These storms, heat waves, floods, crop failures, migrants – all of this destabilization is going to get worse. It seems like we’re, as humans, more interested in blowing each other up than being grateful and preserving this absolute jewel of a planet that gives us, all of us . . . literally everything. And it seems like we’re not able to get our act together.


For Democracy Now!’s full interview with Peter Kalmus, click here.


Related Off-site Links:
Endless Stream of Climate Disasters Bolsters Demand to “Make Polluters Pay” – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, September 30, 2024).
Climate Movement Says “Hurricane Helene Must Be a Wake-Up Call” – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, September 30, 2024).
Three Climate Priorities World Leaders Must Champion at the UN and Beyond – Rachel Cleetus (Union of Concerned Scientists, September 23, 2024).
Fossil Fuel Industry Propaganda Blamed as Record Heat Scorches Planet – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, August 8, 2024).
Why Science Backs a Fossil Fuel Phase Out – Timmon Wallace (Common Dreams, December 12, 2023).
“Cabal of Oil Producers”: Climate Scientist Kevin Anderson Slams Corporate Capture of COP28Democracy Now! (December 7, 2023).
Big Oil Wins Big at COP28 in Dubai – Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan (Democracy Now!, December 14, 2023).
“Tragically Historic”: The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani on the Failure of Yet Another U.N. Climate SummitDemocracy Now! (December 18, 2023).

UPDATES: Helene and Other Storms Dumped a Whopping 40 Trillion Gallons of Rain on the South – Seth Borenstein (AP News, October 1, 2024).
Youth Arrested Demanding VP Debate Question on Climate Emergency – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, October 1, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Memes of the Times
COP28: “Mend It, Don’t End It”
Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson Joins NYC’s March to End Fossil Fuels
Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – July 7, 2023
“Smoke Plume” in Minneapolis
Capital Weather Gang: Quote of the Day – June 7, 2023
Frances Moore Lappé: Quote of the Day – May 22, 2023
“It Is in Our Hands”
George Monbiot: Quote of the Day – July 21, 2022
Declaration of Interdependence
Biophilia, the God Pan, and a Baboon Named Scott
Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – July 1, 2021
The Stakes Have Shifted
The Link Between Destruction of Biodiversity and Emerging Infectious Diseases
Something to Think About – February 10, 2020
In Australia, “the Land As We Know It Is No More”
Greta Thunberg: Quote of the Day – September 23, 2019
Five Powerful Responses to the Amazon Fires
Greta Thunberg: Quote of the Day – March 16, 2019
As the World Burns, Calls for a “Green New Deal”
Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – August 29, 2017
The People’s Climate Solidarity March – Minneapolis, 4/29/17
“It Is All Connected”
Standing Together
Standing in Prayer and Solidarity with the Water Protectors of Standing Rock
The Paris Climate Talks, Multilateralism, and a “New Approach to Climate Action”
Rachel Smolker: Quote of the Day – September 19, 2014
Superstorm Sandy: A “Wake-Up Call” on Climate Change
Chris Hedges: Quote of the Day – May 31, 2011

Image: Hurricane Helene as a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane while nearing landfall near Perry, Florida on September 27, 2024 (late on September 26 locally). (Photo: ABI imagery from NOAA’S GOES-16 satellite)


September Vignettes


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Eternal Summer
Saaxiib Qurux Badan – September 21, 2024
Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”
Protesting Weapons Manufacturer and Genocide Enabler General Dynamics
Progressive Perspectives on the Harris–Trump Presidential Debate
Black Pumas – “Conjuring New Charms from Familiar Elements”
Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living at a Time of Spiritual Evolution”
Summer’s End
September Vignettes (2023)

Images: Michael J. Bayly.


Sunday, September 29, 2024

Archangel Michael


It’s the feast of St. Michael the Archangel today, and to mark the occasion I share the above artwork by Talon Abraxas and the following excerpt from an online piece by Olga Rezo.

Archangel Michael is the leader of all Archangels and Angels. With His blue flaming sword, Archangel Michael can free you from your bad karma, negative energy and restraints that bind you to other people, situations and memories from the past. He can give you strength, power and protection from the devastating thoughts, feelings and deeds of others. . . . If somebody is sending you negative thoughts or thoughts that confront your own will, your strength is going to weaken and this can undermine your success in life. Kindly ask Archangel Michael to stand between you and the sender of those negative thoughts and to protect you. That is the way to turn the negative into positive. Archangel Michael will make you braver and more resolute, so that you can resolve your problems more easily. He will strengthen the will of God in you, as well as the power of faith. Both of these qualities will feed your inner strength, and your motivation will become noble and selfless.

. . . [Ask Archangel Michael to pray with you] to be released from the emotional and other chains that bind you to other people or circumstances from the past. Pray so that you can be filled with love, and realize within yourself the power of Light. Feel this light in your heart [and trust its power to strengthen, guide, and protect you] from all the thoughts that are not compatible with the untainted Divine plan for you.

Olga Rezo
Excerpted from “The Seven Rays of Light – Blue Flame
SunnyRay.org


For more of St. Michael the Archangel at The Wild Reed, see:
The Archangel Michael as Gay Icon
St. Michael the Archangel: Perspectives and Portraits
Michaelmas (2008)
St. Michael: Archangel, Spiritual Warrior, Icon of Homoerotic Love
St. Michael, “Wave Maker”

Image: Talon Abraxas.


Saturday, September 28, 2024

Anna Blaedel on the “Guidance of North Stars”


Over at enfleshed, Anna Blaedel has written a piece that beautifully and powerfully captures so much of what, collectively, we're going through. It's entitled “Under the Guidance of North Stars,” and is reprinted (with added links) in its entirety below.

______________________


Last night I dreamt of hurricane winds rushing through groves of olive trees. Though it did not storm where I live, so many storms are gathering, intensifying. In my dream, the sound was chaotic, loud, disorienting. Heartwood groaning under unrelenting, chaotic pressure. Ancient branches cracking like thunderclaps. The trees were crying, howling, moaning. A signal, a summons, a song. Within the tremendous intensity of the storm, a whisper: The trees know how to heal.

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of sitting in a sacred circle, part of a tender collective listening deeply into our lives to attune to the liberatory rhythms of wholeness, healing, and pleasure. What, and who, do you love most of all? What people, what values, what ideas, what experiences constitute the core, the throughline, the pulsing heart of all you hold precious, sacred, irreplaceable?

We were invited to imagine these things as our North Star. More than a destination, North Stars reveal possible ways. More than a map from point A to point B, they help us orient to the many ways we might make, and find, our way – through storms, in chaos, into healing.

There is raw power in knowing what, and who, you love, cherish. There is raw power in tapping into what, and who, guides and orients your life. There is raw power in confronting what, and who, guides and orients our collective life.

Last week was the autumn equinox. Darkness and light, rebalancing. Seasons, shifting. It is a season of shedding and seeding. Rupture and possibility.

Next week begins the month of Tishrei. Within Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah ushers in the holy days of the new year. It is a season of realigning. Toward sweetness, and accountability, and healing, and the raw and tender possibilities which emerge from reorienting, repatterning.

This last year has been a year of rupture, of pain. Of genocide, unfolding. Of storms, escalating. Of olive trees, crying out. Of watching elected leaders, including ones I voted for, sending billions of dollars of weapons of war to slaughter children, and elders, and mothers, and poets, and olive trees.

Prentiss Hemphill asks, “What will it take for us to heal?” This question, they suggest, reveals where we are headed and how we might get there.

We are witnessing the consequences of generations of occupation and displacement. Of violent disregard for precious, beloved life. Of collective life oriented toward the North Stars of profit, power, domination, and control. “What will it take for us to heal?”

Cara Page and the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective teach us that our spiritual and healing practices are necessary to our survival, and that our care for each other is – always, always – political.

Marcellus Khaliifah Williams should still be alive. His poem, “The Perplexing Smiles of the Children of Palestine,” should be read, by him, aloud, in schools full of books and not guns, in buildings that have not been bombed into dust.

“in the face of apex arrogance
and ethnic cleansing by any definition . . .
still your laughter can be heard”

Pain can consume us. Grief can suffocate breath. Unhealed trauma, ongoing rupture, endangers precious life. “What will it take for us to heal?”

In the days and weeks to come, as storms literal and metaphorical bear down, may you find shelter under trustworthy North Stars. May you practice aligning your life with what is precious, irreplaceable, and beloved. May we practice aligning collective life with what is precious, irreplaceable, and beloved. May we scream, and weep. May we hold, and be held. May we rage, and breathe, and sing. May our dreams bear sweetness, even when they are haunted and haunting. May, still, laughter be heard . . .

Anna Blaedel
“Under the Guidance of North Stars”
enfleshed
September 26, 2024


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Stasha Ginsburg on the Living Mystery That Infuses the Equinox
Phyllis Bennis: “We Can Never Give Up Hope”
Autumn: Season of Transformation and Surrender
A Time of Transformation
Autumnal Thoughts and Visions (2022)
Autumn . . . Within and Beyond (2021)
Autumn . . . Within and Beyond (2018)
Autumn . . . Within and Beyond (2016)
O Sacred Season of Autumn
“Thou Hast Thy Music Too”
Autumn Psalm
“This Autumn Land Is Dreaming”
Autumn’s “Wordless Message”
Autumnal (and Rather Pagan) Thoughts on the Making of “All Things New”
Brigit Anna McNeill on Hearing the Wild and Natural Call to Go Inwards
Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations


Friday, September 27, 2024

Keiynan Lonsdale

Something special for "music night" this evening at The Wild Reed. . . .

It’s the beautiful music video for Nigerian-Australian singer-songwriter Keiynan Lonsdale’s recently released “piano version” of his 2018 song, “Kiss the Boy.” (To hear the original version and view its music video, click here.)

I don’t know about you, but I much prefer – musically and visually – this latest version of Lonsdale’s “Kiss the Boy” . . .




. . . I’m scared to show just how I feel
’Cause people talk
Don’t want to worry ’bout whatever
Just got to know your deal
See, half the time I’m wondering if this is real
Why not say somethings on my mind if I feel love
But when the moments right I freeze
That’s how I know my heart is his

If you want to kiss the boy
Then you better kiss the boy right now
You ain’t got to be afraid of the words you want to say right now
’Cause love is a game we deserve to play out loud
So you want to play then you better kiss the boy
Oh, you better kiss the boy right now

. . . I might not say the one thing on my mind cause it’s too tough
But we lose our chance when we don’t try
On second thought yeah, I think I might

. . . Don’t want to hide, don’t want to hide
Most of my life I’ve been terrified
Spending my days always questioning
Am I wrong to love a man
I realise I realise ain’t gotta hide this heart of mine
I’m gonna fight just to let you know to open
Your light and let it glow

So if you want to kiss the boy then you
Better kiss the boy right now (Oh, yeah)
You ain’t gotta be afraid of the words you
Want to say right now (You gotta say it, baby)
’Cause love is a game we deserve to
Play out loud (We deserve our love)
So if you want to play then you better kiss the boy
Oh, you better kiss the boy right now
If you want to kiss the boy
Then you better kiss the boy right now


For a “behind-the-scenes” look at the making
of the above music video, click here.



Related Off-site Links:
Keiynan Lonsdale on His Single, “Kiss the Boy” – Rose Riddell (Coup de Main Magazine, May 29, 2018).
Keiynan Lonsdale Performs Hits from Rainbow Boy on Billboard Live at-HomeBillboard (October 11, 2020).

Previously featured musicians at The Wild Reed:
Dusty Springfield | David Bowie | Kate Bush | Maxwell | Buffy Sainte-Marie | Prince | Frank Ocean | Maria Callas | Loreena McKennitt | Rosanne Cash | Petula Clark | Wendy Matthews | Darren Hayes | Jenny Morris | Gil Scott-Heron | Shirley Bassey | Rufus Wainwright | Kiki Dee | Suede | Marianne Faithfull | Dionne Warwick | Seal | Sam Sparro | Wanda Jackson | Engelbert Humperdinck | Pink Floyd | Carl Anderson | The Church | Enrique Iglesias | Yvonne Elliman | Lenny Kravitz | Helen Reddy | Stephen Gately | Judith Durham | Nat King Cole | Emmylou Harris | Bobbie Gentry | Russell Elliot | BØRNS | Hozier | Enigma | Moby (featuring the Banks Brothers) | Cat Stevens | Chrissy Amphlett | Jon Stevens | Nada Surf | Tom Goss (featuring Matt Alber) | Autoheart | Scissor Sisters | Mavis Staples | Claude Chalhoub | Cass Elliot | Duffy | The Cruel Sea | Wall of Voodoo | Loretta Lynn and Jack White | Foo Fighters | 1927 | Kate Ceberano | Tee Set | Joan Baez | Wet, Wet, Wet | Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy | Fleetwood Mac | Jane Clifton | Australian Crawl | Pet Shop Boys | Marty Rhone | Josef Salvat | Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri | Aquilo | The Breeders | Tony Enos | Tupac Shakur | Nakhane Touré | Al Green | Donald Glover/Childish Gambino | Josh Garrels | Stromae | Damiyr Shuford | Vaudou Game | Yotha Yindi and The Treaty Project | Lil Nas X | Daby Touré | Sheku Kanneh-Mason | Susan Boyle | D’Angelo | Little Richard | Black Pumas | Mbemba Diebaté | Judie Tzuke | Seckou Keita | Rahsaan Patterson | Black | Ash Dargan | ABBA | The KLF and Tammy Wynette | Luke James and Samoht | Julee Cruise | Olivia Newton-John | Dyllón Burnside | Christine McVie | Rita Coolidge | Bettye LaVette | Burt Bacharach | Kimi Djabaté | Benjamin Booker | Tina Turner | Julie Covington | Midist/Wasim | Durrand Bernarr | Cold Play


Thursday, September 26, 2024

Something to Think About . . .


Image: An al-Risala Scouts’ ambulance burns in the town of Sohmor in the Western Beqaa District of Lebanon as a result of Israeli bombing – September 23, 2024. (Source)

Related Off-site Links:
Lebanon Burns: Israel Expands Genocide Beyond Gaza – Mnar Adley (Mint Press, September 26, 2024).
“Hell Is Breaking Loose in Lebanon”: Israel Rejects Ceasefire Proposal as U.N. Chief Calls for PeaceDemocracy Now! (September 26, 2024).
“Lebanese Civilians Are Paying the Price”: Israeli Strikes Kill Nearly 600, Displace Tens of ThousandsDemocracy Now! (September 26, 2024).
To Stop Israel’s Expanding War, Biden Must Heed a New Demand: Arms Embargo – Brian Garvey (Common Dreams, September 26, 2024).
Netanyahu Has to Be Forced to Stop – Branko Marcetic (Jacobin, September 26, 2024).
Sen. Bernie Sanders Unveils Resolutions to Block U.S. Arms Sales as Israel Rejects Cease-Fire Call – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, September 26, 2024).
Beirut Suburbs or “Hezbollah Stronghold”? U.S. Media Parrots Israeli Propaganda to Justify Bombing Civilians – Séamus Malekafzali (The Intercept, September 25, 2024).
With All Eyes on Gaza, Israel Bulldozed “Mile After Mile” of West Bank – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, September 25, 2024).
Omar El Akkad on “the Privilege of Instantaneous Forgetting” – Christopher Bollen (Interview, July 23, 2021).

UPDATES: Israeli Strikes Displace 140,000 Kids in Lebanon as Netanyahu Vows to Keep Bombing – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, September 27, 2024).
Report from Beirut: Israel Is “Targeting Everyone” in Bombing Campaign, Killing 700+ in Just DaysDemocracy Now! (September 27, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Protesting Weapons Manufacturer and Genocide Enabler General Dynamics
Yousef Munayyer: Quote of the Day – August 30, 2024
Breaking Down Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech on Gaza
John Cusack: Quote of the Day – July 26, 2024
Phyllis Bennis: “We Can Never Give Up Hope”
Kyle Kulinski: Quote of the Day – May 23, 2024
Naomi Klein’s Powerful Words on Israel’s and the West’s Ongoing Gaza Genocide
Outrage and Despair
“This Is a Genocidal Project”
“A Genocide Has Been Normalized”
Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
More Voices of Reason and Compassion on the Crisis in Israel and Gaza
Josh Paul: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
Phyllis Bennis: Quote of the Day – March 28, 2024
Michael Fakhri: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2024
Sabrina Salvati: Quote of the Day – January 2, 2024
Christmas 2023 – Reflections, Activism, Art, and Celebrations
Jehad Abusalim: Quote of the Day – December 8, 2023
Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
Something to Think About – October 12, 2023
Eric Levitz: Quote of the Day – October 11, 2023
Phyllis Bennis: “If We Are Serious About Ending This Spiraling Violence, We Need to Look at Root Causes”
“Nothing About Today is ‘Unprovoked’”
“The Mistreatment and Discrimination Against Palestinians Is Not Unprecedented. It’s Baked Into the Foundation of the Political System in Israel”
Progressive Perspectives on the Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian “Nightmare” (2021)
Something to Think About – July 29, 2018
Noura Erakat: Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
For Some Jews, Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
David Norris: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014


Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Butch Ware: “You Can Actually Vote Your Conscience”

Every effort to protect Team Blue, to protect the Democrats from facing accountability for the evil that their own hands have wrought is equally evil. If you are trying to shield them from the electoral consequences of 200,000-plus deaths in Gaza, of 11 months of genocide, of increasing police murders [of Black people] in every single year since they have been in power, of sending troops in riot gear in Democratic-controlled states to crack kids’ heads [as they protest U.S. support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza] . . . then you are part of the problem.

Wake up and unplug from the propaganda machine. Everyone is fearmongering around Trump as though fascism is not already here. . . . I have entered this fight alongside a lifetime humanitarian, peace activist, ecological conservationist and moral leader, Jill Stein, in order to shake America out of its stupor. You have more choices than just blue militarized fascism or red militarized fascism. You can actually vote your conscience, vote Green.

[T]he Democrat Party has already lost the swing states of Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, ISPU, has publicly available data, that the Democrats certainly saw before I saw it, that indicates that in [these three key swing states] Joe Biden received 65% of the vote in 2020, and the Democrats are polling under 15% in those states now. They could not have won the 2020 election without those swing states, and they could not have won those swing states without Muslim voters. Those voters are gone. They are not coming back. Dead man walking. The Democrats cannot win.

. . . [The] Yaqeen Institute will release [data] this week [showing] that over 53% of the Muslims that they surveyed nationwide are now supporting third-party candidates, with something like 80% of those going to the Green Party, that the support for the Democrats in the Muslim community is at 15%, and it’s at 4% for Trump. So, this effort to try to pin an inevitable defeat of the Democrats upon third-party candidates or upon Muslims is at best disingenuous, and for those with a clear sense of moral integrity, it is obviously gaslighting.



Related Off-site Links:
Vote Against Genocide; Vote for Jill Stein – Doug Rogers (River Reporter, September 25, 2024).
Dr. Butch Ware: American Muslim Political Power, Ending Genocide, and Voting Green PartyThe American Muslim Dialogue Podcast (September 22, 2024).
Jill Stein’s VP Candidate Butch Ware Stuns Liberal Talk Show HostsDangerous Ideas with Lee Camp (September 21, 2024).
Dr. Butch Ware on His Green Party Vice Presidential CampaignBlack Agenda Report (September 20, 2024).
Green Party Candidate Jill Stein Selects Dr. Butch Ware as Running MateNewsNation (August 16, 2024).

UPDATES: “Democrats Lost the Muslim Vote”: An Interview with Jill Stein and Butch Ware – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, September 26, 2024).
“Voting for Democrats is Wasting Your Vote”: An Interview with Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware – Briahna Joy Gray (Bad Faith, October 3, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The “Green Smoothie” Option
“Americans Deserve Choices”: Jill Stein on Breaking Points – 4/30/24
Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – September 12, 2024
Butch Ware: “I’m Not Here as a Spoiler”
Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate Butch Ware in Minneapolis
Demolishing the False Narrative About Jill Stein and the 2016 Election
Peter Bloom on the Unmasking of the “Democratic Charade”
When Democrats Undermine Democracy
Politics 101
Something to Think About – August 15, 2024
Voices on the Issues That Really Matter
“It’s a Systematic Slaughter That We’re Funding”
Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
Breaking Down Kamala Harris’s DNC Speech on Gaza
Progressive Perspectives On an American Coronation
Marianne Williamson: “‘Vote Blue No Matter Who’ Is Not Enough to Win in November”
Centrist/Corporatist Democrats Have Just Launched “Left Punching” Season
Progressive Perspectives on the Crisis in U.S. Electoral Politics
Hope Over Fear: Voting Green


Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Meditation and the Life of Nonviolence

Peacemakers throughout history testify to the need for quiet meditation if we are to live the nonviolent life of peace.

The [ministry] of the nonviolent Jesus, according to Luke’s account, begins with him sitting in silent prayer by the Jordan River. In that quiet time of contemplative listening and opening to the Spirit of peace, he heard that he was God’s beloved [Luke 3:21–22]. In this sacred space, he was able to take that message to heart, to claim that truth as the core of his identity.

Like the nonviolent Jesus, we too need to sit still in silent meditation and open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit of peace and let the God of peace call us God’s beloved. We need to give God permission to love us, name us, and claim us if we want to be disarmed, healed and freed to practice loving nonviolence.

That is why quiet meditation is so crucial to the life of nonviolence. In that silent meditation, we can hear God say to us, “You are my beloved.” We learn who we are, we remember who we are, and we are strengthened once again to be who we really are. In that strength and confidence, we feel liberated from our inner violence and freed to get up and walk outside into the world of violence to offer the hand of peace and nonviolence.

John Dear
Excerpted from The Nonviolent Life
Pace e Bene Press, 2013
pp. 34–35


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Marianne Williamson on Cultivating Stillness
Diarmuid O’Murchú on the Human Capacity to Meditate
A Season of Listening
Eckhart Tolle on Silence and Stillness
Eckhart Tolle on Going Beyond the Thinking Mind
Eckhart Tolle on Being “Conscious Without Thought”
To Be Still
Stepping Out of Time and Resting Your Mind
In the Stillness and Silence of This Present Moment
The Beauty and Challenge of Being Present in the Moment
Today I Will Be Still
Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
Time to Go Inwards
Active Waiting: A Radical Attitude Toward Life
I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
A Sacred Pause
Aligning with the Living Light
Mystical Participation
Keeping the Spark Alive
In the Garden of Spirituality – Kabir Helminski
Seven Principles for Living with Deep Intention
Thoughts on Christian Meditation – Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
Happy Birthday, Mum! (includes Thích Nhất Hạnh’s thoughts on walking meditation)

Image: Artist unknown.


Monday, September 23, 2024

Summer’s End


This past Saturday, September 21, was the last day of summer, and I spent much of it with my friend Adnan.

It was a beautful day here in the Twin Cities, and after running a few errands, Adnan and I visited the Prayer Tree, a sacred place for me located by Minnehaha Creek in south Minneapolis.

Following are some images that Adnan and I took on the last day of summer. They’re accompanied by some writings that I find very meaningful. Perhaps you will too. Enjoy!


In many indigenous spiritualities, including the indigenous or pagan spirituality of Europe, any tree can be representative of the tree, that is, the World Tree or Cosmic Tree. In numerous religious traditions the World Tree is represented as a colossal tree which supports the heavens, thereby connecting the heavens, the terrestrial world, and, through its roots, the underworld. The Tree of Life, which symbolically represents and connects all forms of creation and is mentioned in the Judeo-Christian Book of Genesis, is an expression of the World Tree.

To get to the oak tree at which I regularly pray, one must go off the paved pathways. There is a track, but no doubt for many, it’s a hidden, unknown one. And yet it’s one that leads to the “Tree of Life.” All of this brings to mind the Beloved and Antlered One, “seeker of the forest’s hidden paths,” a powerful and beautiful way of acknowledging all the different, unorthodox ways that one can seek and find the Sacred.

– Michael Bayly
Excerpted from “The Prayer Tree
The Wild Reed
September 18, 2017





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





Seasons come and seasons go
No matter what we choose
A thousand names, a thousand roads
All lead to one simple truth
Thank you for life
Thank you for everything
I stand here in grace and gratitude
And I thank you

Olivia Newton-John,
Amy Sky & Steven Mackinnon

From “Grace and Gratitude” (2006)



Your light shines brighter with every step,
Courage born from trials, your soul’s depths.
The universe sees your heart’s desire,
Connecting you with love, like a burning fire.
Keep shining, dear one, you’re on the right path,
Guided by love, through life’s joy and aftermath.





Holy One, Your Mind created all that is, Your Spirit entered into it, Your Love gave life to it. And would I look upon what You created as if it could be made sinful? I would not perceive such dark and fearful images. A madman’s dream is hardly fit to be my choice, instead of all the loveliness with which You blessed creation; all its purity, its joy, and its eternal, quiet home in You.

– Adapted from Lesson 263
of A Course in Miracles



Great Spirit,

I pray for the fearful and broken world of humanity.
I pray that all may seek and find deep within,
the flame-like seed of compassion

May this compassion be lovingly cultivated
by each one of us so that it blooms
as desires and actions for justice,
community, and a sustainable world
for all living things.

And may the fragrance of this blossoming
be recognized and celebrated
as peace in our lives
and in the world.

Amen.



See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Summer’s End (2021)
Summer’s Parting Gift
Eternal Summer
An Invincible Summer
Summer Vignettes
“Everything Is Saturated With the Sacred”
The Mysticism of Trees
On This Momentous Day in U.S. Politics, a Visit to the Prayer Tree
In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
A Visit to the Prayer Tree (2023)
Prayer of the Week – March 17, 2019
The Prayer Tree . . . Aflame! (2018)
The Prayer Tree (2017)
In the Eye of the Storm . . . A Tree of Living Flame (2012)
September Garden
August Vignettes
July Vignettes
June Vignettes
The Summer of My Wildebeest-of-a-Bike (2023)
A Sacred Pause
Aligning With the Living Light
Mystical Participation
Being the Light
A Summer Sunset Psalm
In Summer Light
Summer Blooms
Summer Boy
Beltane and the Fire Within
The Sun Is All Around You
The Source Is Within You
Like the Sun
A Sacred Journey, a Pilgrim Path

Images: Michael and Adnan.