Unfortunately, I won’t be back in the U.S. from Australia in time for tomorrow’s big “Hands Off!” National Day of Action. In fact, I don’t arrive back until Tuesday.
I’m sending good energy, however, to my many friends who I know will be participating. Some of these friends are seasoned activists, while others, like thousands of people across the country, will be taking their first steps into a protest setting. My hope and prayer is that tomorrow’s nationwide event will be a “sacred convergence,” one that facilitates a positive transformation both within all who gather and within the political life of the United States and beyond; a transformation that is deep and lasting.
Following is an excerpt from the guidebook message for this card.
Sacred convergence indicates a coming together of souls in alignment with a greater cause. . . . This oracle has come to you because you are part of a great sacred convergence happening now. . . . Turn towards those connections that feel nourishing to your soul, and learn to share yourself without fear. Just be. You do not have to force the planets to spin, nor the great cycles of the soul to happen. All that is required is that you show up for what is offered to you now. Do your part. Take your steps. Dance. . . . [A]llow the gifts of sacred connection to change your world [and thus the world].
Image: Card #11 (“Sacred Convergence”) in Rumi Oracle: An Invitation into the Heart of the Divine by Alana Fairchild. (Llewellyn Publications, 2016). Artwork by Rassouli.
In 25 hours of performance nonsense, lobby-paid shill of the Israeli regime Senator Cory Booker did not have a single word to say about the genocide in Palestine, one funded and defended by the very body he was addressing.
Outside the chamber, the slaughter continued throughout his speech.
Booker is not a voice of reason or decency. He is a supporter of genocide and a symbol of the corruption, deception, and decadence of the Congress – on both sides of the aisle.
Folks, I know we are desperate for heroes, fot people who recognize the urgency of the moment, and are willing to take even a symbolic stand. We need to work with just about anyone in order to stop Trump. At the same time, I have a hard time getting excited about Sen. Cory Booker, given his support for the likes of Yoav Gallant, indicted by the International Criminal Court for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
How do you speak for 25 hours straight without mentioning the genocide we are funding? Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been killed with our bombs and our tax dollars.
How can you claim to defend democracy here while supporting fascism elsewhere? Genocide is always the red line.
In writing about the Trump State Department’s response to the murder by Israeli forces of 15 medical workers from the Red Cross, Civil Defense, and the U.N., Caitlin Johnstone highlights the “only difference” between Democrats and Republicans in relation to Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Following is an excerpt.
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It’s plain as day that there’s absolutely no crime Israel could possibly commit that Trump’s State Department wouldn’t defend. Netanyahu could live stream himself kicking a baby Palestinian off a cliff and telling the camera he did it because he wants to commit genocide, and the next day [State Department spokesperson] Tammy Bruce would respond to all questions about the incident by yelling the word “Hamas!” with her fingers in her ears.
Bruce has a much easier job than her predecessor Matthew Miller, who under Biden was obligated to facilitate the Democratic Party’s role as the nice guy face of the U.S. empire. When the press would ask Miller about Israeli atrocities, he’d have to put on a whole show about how the Biden administration is in conversation with Israel and waiting for more information about these very serious allegations, all while fighting to keep his notorious smirk off his face.
To be clear, these two positions are not meaningfully different from one another. Pretending to care about very serious atrocity allegations while continuing to sponsor those atrocities is exactly the same as not pretending to care about very serious atrocity allegations while continuing to sponsor those atrocities. One is a pile of dead children with a smiley face sticker on it, the other is a pile of dead children with a frowny face sticker on it. The children are just as dead either way.
And you really couldn’t ask for a better illustration of the difference between Democrats and Republicans than this. The Democrats are just the polite, photogenic face of the bloodthirsty U.S. empire, while the Republicans are the empire unmasked. The Democrats commit genocide and ethnic cleansing while denying they’re committing genocide and ethnic cleansing, while Republicans commit genocide and ethnic cleansing without bothering to disguise what they’re doing as something else. One’s prettier, one’s uglier. That’s the only difference.
The Wild Reed’s 2025 Lenten series continues with a third excerpt from The Awakening of the Human Spirit by Inayat Khan. (For the first installment of this series and an explanation for why I chose this book, click here.)
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Ripening is a desirable result, and it is the aim of every object in life to ripen and to develop; therefore in the awakening of the soul one may recognize the fulfillment of life’s purpose. . . . The moment the soul has awakened, music makes an appeal to it, poetry touches it, words move it, art has an influence upon it. It no longer is a sleeping soul; it is awake and it begins to enjoy life to a fuller extent.
It is this awakening of the soul that is mentioned in the Bible: unless the soul is born again, it will not enter the kingdom of heaven. For the soul to be born again means that it is awakened after having come on earth; and entering the kingdom of heaven means entering this world in which we are now standing, the same kingdom that turns into heaven as soon as the point of view has changed. Is it not interesting and most wonderful to think that the same earth that we walk on is earth to one person and heaven to another? And it is still more interesting to notice that it is we who change it from earth to heaven. This change comes not by study or by anything else but the changing of our point of view. I have known people who seek after truth, study books about it, even write many books about philosophy and theology themselves, and in the end they were standing in the same place as before. That shows that all our outer efforts are excuses; there is only one thing that brings one face to face with reality, and that is the awakening of the soul. . . . It is not for the outer world to help us understand life better, it is we ourselves who should help ourselves.
Then there is a further awakening, a continuation of what I have called the awakening of the soul. And the sign of this awakening is that the awakened person throws a light, the light of the soul, upon every creature and every object, and sees that object, person, condition in this light. It is their own soul that becomes a torch in their hand; it is their own light that illuminates their path. It is just like directing a searchlight into dark corners that one could not see before, and the corners become clear and illuminated; it is like throwing light upon problems that one did not understand before, like seeing through people with x-rays when they were a riddle before.
As soon as life becomes clear to the awakened soul, it shows another phase of manifestation, and this is that every aspect of life communicates with this person. Life is communicative, the soul is communicative, but they do not communicate until the soul is awakened. Once a soul is awakened, it begins to communicate with life.
. . . Those who are awakened become guiding lights not only for themselves but also for others. And by their light, often unknowingly, their presence itself helps to make the most difficult problems easy. This makes us realize the fact that [each one of us] is light, as the scriptures have said, a light whose origin, whose source, is divine. And when this light is kindled, then life becomes quite different. . . . [Awakened ones speak] a universal language, a language of vibrations, a language of feeling, a language that touches the innermost sense. . . . [They are] able to communicate with the innermost being of another person [because they know] how to communicate with themselves, their awakened selves.
The personality of an awakened soul becomes different from every other personality. It becomes more magnetic, for it is the living person who has magnetism; a corpse has no magnetism. It is the living who bring joy, and therefore it is the awakened soul who is joyous.
And never for one moment think, as many do, that a spiritual person is a sorrowful, dried up, long-faced person. Spirit is joy, spirit is life; and when that spirit has awakened, all the joy and pleasure that exist are there. As the sun takes away all darkness, so spiritual light removes all worries, anxieties, and doubts. If a spiritual awakening were not so precious, then what would be the use of seeking it in life?
A treasure that nobody can take away from us, a light that will always shine and will never be extinguished – that is spiritual awakening, and it is the fulfillment of life’s purpose.
NOTE: Each post in this series is accompanied by Sufi music. Today it is an instrumental piece called “Echoes of the Divine” from the YouTube channel Blueberry Meditation. I find this music perfect for times of meditation and prayer. Perhaps you will too.
I’m concerned that Bernie and AOC’s important words and activism will be for nought if an unspoken goal is the sheep-herding of disillusioned voters back into the Democratic Party, a party that continues to show itself unwilling and incapable of embodying the progressive populism needed to defeat Trump’s authoritarian populism. Indeed, the Democratic establishment is hostile to such progressivism. We need a new party, an authentic grassroots party of, by and for the people; a party that’s not part of the corporatist/oligarchic duopoly. This is the logical next step of the rhetoric and activism of the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, and yet the tour’s initiators and speakers simply aren’t going there.
This past Saturday, March 22, podcaster Sabrina (“Sabby”) Salvati shared a video segment that focused on the same concerns that I raised in my comment above. It’s a 30-minute segment that’s well worth watching.
The world’s refusal to sanction Israel is not an act of neutrality – it is an endorsement. Every bomb dropped on Gaza, every child buried beneath the rubble, every deliberate act of starvation, siege, and ethnic cleansing is carried out with the certainty that there will be no consequences. The impunity granted to this rogue regime does not just deepen the suffering of Palestinians; it unravels the very fabric of international law, rendering meaningless the principles meant to protect all people from atrocity. And in that unraveling, the world grows more dangerous. When justice is selective, when laws are bent to accommodate power, when genocide is excused with the language of self-defense, what remains to stop the next massacre, the next unchecked brutality? This is not just about Gaza. It is about the message sent to every nation, every despot, every future war criminal: that the powerful may do as they please, and the world will look away.
Who knows what tomorrow brings
In a world few hearts survive
All I know is the way I feel
When it's real, I keep it alive
The road is long
There are mountains in our way
But we climb a step every day
Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the worlds we know
Up where the clear winds blow
The Wild Reed’s 2025 Lenten series continues with a second excerpt from The Awakening of the Human Spirit by Inayat Khan. (For the first installment of this series and an explanation for why I chose this book, click here.)
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Happiness cannot be bought or sold, nor can you give it to a person who has not got it. Happiness is your own being, your own self – that self that is the most precious thing in life. All religious and all philosophical systems have in different forms taught humanity how to find it by the religious path or the mystical way; and all the wise ones have in some form or another given a method by which the individual can find happiness for which the soul is seeking.
Sages and mystics have called this process alchemy. The stories of the Arabian Nights, which symbolize mystical ideas, are full of the belief that there is a philosopher’s stone that will turn metals into gold by a chemical process. No doubt this symbolic idea has deluded people in both the East and West; many have thought that a process exists by which gold can be produced. But this is not the idea of the wise; the pursuit of gold is for those who as yet are only children. For those who have the consciousness of reality, gold stands for light or spiritual inspiration. Gold represents the color of light, and therefore an unconscious pursuit after light has made people seek for gold. But there is a great difference between real gold and false. It is the longing for true gold that makes people collect the imitation gold, ignorant that the real gold is within. A person satisfies the craving of their soul in this way, as a child satisfies itself by playing with dolls.
This realization is not a matter of age. One person may have reached an advanced age and still be playing with dolls, and their soul may be involved in the search for this imitation gold, while another may have begun in youth to see life in its real aspect. If one studied the transitory nature of life in the world and how changeable it is, and the constant craving of everyone for happiness, one would certainly endeavor at all costs to find something one could depend upon. Humanity, placed in the midst of this ever-changing world, still appreciates and seeks for constancy somewhere. People do not know that they must develop the nature of constancy in themselves. It is the nature of the soul to value that which is dependable. But is there anything in the world on which one can depend, which is above change and destruction? All that is born, all that is made, must one day face destruction. All that has a beginning has also an end; but if there is anything one can depend upon it is hidden in the heart of each one of us. It is the divine spark, the true philosopher’s stone, the real gold, which is the innermost being of all.
A person may follow a religion and yet not come to the realization of truth, and of what use is their religion to them if they are not happy? Religion does not mean depression and sadness. The spirit of religion should give happiness. God is happy. God is the perfection of love, harmony, and beauty. A religious person should be happier than one who is not religious. If a person who professes religion is always melancholy, their religion is disgraced; the form has been kept, but the spirit has been lost. If the study of religion and mysticism does not lead to real joy and happiness, it may just as well not exit, for then it does not help to fulfill the purpose of life. The world today is sad and suffering as the result of terrible wars; the religion that answers the demand of life today is one that investigates and gives life to souls, that illuminates the heart of humanity with the divine light that is already there; not necessarily by any outer form, though for some a form may be helpful, but by showing that happiness that is the desire of every soul.
As for the question of how this method of alchemy is practiced, the whole process was explained by the alchemists in a symbolical way. They said gold is made out of mercury; the nature of mercury is to be ever-moving, but by a certain process the mercury is first stilled, and once stilled it becomes silver; then the silver has to be melted, and the juice of an herb is poured onto the molten silver, which is thereby turned into gold. This, if course, gives only an outline, but one can find detailed explanations of the whole process. Many childlike souls have tried to make gold by stilling mercury and melting silver, and they have tried to find the herb, but they were deluded, and they would have done better to have worked and earned money.
The real interpretation of this process is that mercury represents the nature of the ever-restless mind. Especially when he tries to concentrate, a person realizes that the mind is ever-restless. The mind is like a restive horse: when it is ridden it is more restive than when it is in the stable. Such is the nature of the mind – it becomes more restless when one desires to control it. It is like mercury, constantly moving.
When by a method of concentration one has mastered the mind, one has taken the first step in the accomplishment of a sacred task. Prayer is concentration, reading is concentration, sitting and relaxing and thinking on one subject are all concentration. All artists, thinkers, and inventors have practiced concentration in some form: they have given their minds to one thing, and by focusing on one object have developed the faculty of concentration, but for stilling the mind a special method taught by the mystic is necessary, just as a singer needs to be taught by a teacher of voice-production.
The secret of this concentration is learned in the science of breath. Breath is the essence of life, the center of life, and the mind may be controlled by a knowledge of the proper method of [meditative] breathing. . . . When the mind is under perfect control and no longer restless, one can hold a thought at will as long as one wishes. This is the beginning of phenomena. Some abuse these privileges, and by dissipating the power thus obtained, they destroy the silver before turning it into gold. The silver must be heated before it can melt, and with what? With that warmth that is the divine essence in the heart of all, which comes forth as love, tolerance, empathy, service, humility, and unselfishness, in a stream that rises and falls in a thousand drops, each drop of which could be called a virtue, and all coming from that one stream hidden in the heart of each one of us, the love element; and when it grows in the heart, then the actions, the movements, the tone of the voice, and the expression all show that the heart is warm. The moment this happens a person really lives, they have unsealed the spring of happiness that overcomes all that is jarring and inharmonious, and the spring has established itself as a divine stream.
After the heart is warmed by the divine element, which is love, the next stage is the herb, which is the love of God. But the love of God alone is not sufficient; knowledge of God is also necessary. It is the absence of the knowledge of God that makes a person leave their religion, for there is a limit to their patience. Knowledge of God strengthens a person’s belief in God and throws light on the individual and on life. Things become clear; every leaf on a tree becomes as a page of a holy book to one whose eyes are open to the knowledge of God. When the juice of the herb of divine love is poured on the heart, warmed by love for one’s fellow humans, then that heart becomes the heart of gold, the heart that expresses what God would express. [None of us have seen God, but we have seen the effects of God’s transforming presence in our lives and the lives of others], and when this happens, then verily everything that comes from such a person comes from God.
NOTE: Each post in this series is accompanied by Sufi music. Today it is an instrumental piece called “As You Start to Walk on the Way, the Way Appears” from the YouTube channel Buddha’s Lounge’s RUMI Spiritual Music Live Stream. I find this music perfect for times of meditation and prayer. Perhaps you will too.
Above: Fairy Bower Falls – Thursday, March 13, 2025.
Above: Back in Goulburn – Saturday, March 15. I’m pictured with my friends Kerry, Max and Sandra at Goulburn Railway Station about to board the southbound XPT to Melbourne.
I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe.
Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.
On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.
"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William
"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB
"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip
"Your posts about Catholic issues are always informative and well researched, and I especially appreciate your photography and the personal posts about your own experience. I'm very glad I found your blog and that I've had the chance to get to know you."– Crystal
"Thank you for taking the time to create this fantastic blog. It is so inspiring!"– George
"I cannot claim to be an expert on Catholic blogs, but from what I've seen, The Wild Reed ranks among the very best."– Kevin
"Reading your blog leaves me with the consolation of knowing that the words Catholic, gay and progressive are not mutually exclusive.."– Patrick
"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter
"I ran across your blog the other day looking for something else. I stopped to look at it and then bookmarked it because you have written some excellent articles that I want to read. I find your writing to be insightful and interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Keep up the good work. We really, really need sane people with a voice these days."– Jane Gael
"Michael, your site is like water in the desert."– Jayden
