The Wild Reed

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Marianne Williamson: Playing It Big

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine. . . . It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone, and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.

~ Marianne Williamson
Excerpted from A Return to Love
HarperCollins, 1992

In response to my previous post in which I shared Marianne Williamson’s thoughts on what she learned from running for president, “Percy” commented:

She could run for mayor of wherever she lives, and start there.

Implied in this statement is the sentiment that Marianne Williamson isn’t “qualified” to be president; that she doesn’t belong in a presidential race.

I thought of all of this when I recently watched André Duqum’s August 2023 interview with Marianne; and in particular, that part of it (starting at 5:00) in which she addresses the sentiment that I believe underlies Percy’s comment and others like it.

This hour-long interview is part of Duqum’s Know Thyself podcast, and is entitled “Heart-Centered Leadership: A New Political Paradigm with Marianne Williamson.”

And, yes, since this interview Marianne has suspended (though not ended) her presidential campaign. Regardless, this insightful and hopeful interview remains both inspiring and relevant.

We live in prisons of our own making. The thinking of the world tells you that you are a being within a cage. It can be terrifying to think that we are bigger than that. And then the ego mind says it’s arrogant to think like that. Well, from a spiritual perspective, what’s arrogant is to think that you’re the small self [of the ego mind]. Yet God doesn’t create small selves; God only creates greatness. So we have arrogance and humility upside down.

And it’s interesting because, running for president, one of the things I see is, “How dare you! . . . Who thinks you can do that?” . . . Well, the U.S. Constitution.

[And yet] the affront, not just to the patriarchy or anything like that, but the affront to the ego mind! Because I see as much of that “How dare you!” from women as from men.

It’s such a testament to the belief that “[not just anyone] should be able to do that.” Well, actually, everyone should be able to do that.

~ Marianne Williamson
August 29, 2023

NEXT:
Minnesotans Launch Super Tuesday Push
for “Suspended But Not Ended” Candidate
Marianne Williamson

Related Off-site Links:
Marianne Willamson Ran on a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights, Why Won’t Biden Embrace It? – An Interview with Historian Harvey Kay – JENerational Change (February 22, 2024).
How Marianne Williamson Rises Without Mass Media Attention – Thu Pham (Diggit Magazine, February 19, 2024).
Candidate Marianne Williamson Exits Presidential Race – Mark Moran (United Press International News, February 7, 2024).

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Saaxiib Qurux Badan

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Finally . . . a “Significant Snowfall” Across Southern Minnesota

Last night and this morning saw the Twin Cities and much of southern Minnesota transformed into a veritable winter wonderland.

Following is how Andrew Krueger of Minnesota Public Radio News reports on “by far the largest snowfall of the season for many locations” throughout the state.

Much of southern Minnesota woke up to a rare sight Thursday – rare for this strange winter, at least: a significant snowfall.

A winter storm dropped more than a half-foot of snow on parts of the region, by far the largest snowfall of the season for many locations.

The snow exited the state early Thursday, leaving icy roads and a handful of school delays in its wake. It was a welcome sight to people who’ve been waiting to get out sledding and skiing – including organizers of the World Cup cross-country ski races that’ll bring elite athletes from around the world to Minneapolis this weekend.

. . . The National Weather Service reported 6.9 inches of snow as of midnight at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport – that’s a record for Feb. 14, and nearly double the amount of snow the airport had previously received the entire winter.

The season total before Wednesday in the Twin Cities was just 7.3 inches. It now stands at 14.2 inches – which is still more than 20 inches below normal, and more than 40 inches less snow than the Twin Cities had received at this point last winter.

What Marianne Williamson Learned from Running for President

The following was first published February 9, 2024 on Marianne Williamson’s substack, Transform. Titled, “It’s More Simple Than It Appears: It’s Not Complicated; It’s Corrupt,” it was Marianne’s first substack posting following her February 7 suspension of her presidential campaign.

__________________

What did I learn running for President?

What I learned is that in the midst of a complicated drama involving money, power, and their relationship to politics, lies a fundamental basic theme. The major political parties are shills for the corporate matrix whose financial interests control this country.

The Republicans are worse, given that they are controlled through the auspices of one man, but being better than the Republicans on this issue is a very low bar.

In order to ensure no one gets past the velvet ropes to run as a challenge to the corporate control of this country, the DNC acts like a barker at the door. The party – along with its media minions and an assortment of “useful idiots” in the form of petty political operatives – is ready to beat up and throw to the sidewalk anyone who dares seek entrance to the inner sanctum from whence flows corporate power over Washington.

And we should not be fooled. The will of the people cannot exist in an amicable marriage with the purveyors of corporate tyranny. Either power lies in the hands of the people, or it lies in the hands of corporate lobbyists. When corporate money controls the way a party operates, the way mainstream media filters information and the way social media manipulates public opinion, we the people become quaint and powerless bystanders to the swirling forces that rule our lives.

The greatest challenge of our generation is to break the back of the soulless corporate behemoth that now holds Washington hostage, for it has weaponized the US government against the people of the United States. The acquiescence of so many to the DNC’s shadowy, Wizard of Oz-like directive that no challenge will be tolerated to its decision that Biden is the chosen one and that’s it – in some cases in the naïve belief that if Biden is reelected and the Democrats get two more seats in the Senate, then they could pass a version of Build Back Better and all will be well! – tells us everything we need to know about our ability to stage the peaceful revolution from within the party.

We must break the corporate duopoly and 2024 is the time to do it.

Even now, the President cannot remember that Macron is alive and Mitterrand is dead, Helmut Kohl was not Angela Merkel, and President Sisi governs Egypt and not Mexico. But I assure you, the corporate machine will pay no heed. It will, if necessary, replace one playing card with another like a magician well-practiced in his or her trickery.

The Republican and Democratic parties of my youth no longer exist. They have been hollowed out from within by the undue influence of corporate money, leaving America with two major categories of disturbed citizens. One is a majority now shackled by invisible chains of economic insecurity. Translation: “That should be enough to shut them up.” The other is a minority of decent Americans on both Left and Right who are ourselves economically unshackled, yet aware it’s a serious problem that so many are. Translation: “Keep them distracted by meaningless preoccupations, and punish severely anyone who dares question what’s happening.” Both are flummoxed in disbelief that things have gotten this bad. Some of us are numb, and some of us are about to blow.

Hundreds of millions of people live lives at risk of irredeemable damage because the juggernaut of privatization views their well-being, indeed their lives, as essentially dispensable. One way or the other, this will not stand. In the words of John F. Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” Whether that revolution is peaceful or violent is up to us.

As a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, I tried to wage that peaceful revolution. There is no doubt in my mind that the desire to break the chains of corporate tyranny is a desire shared by millions of Americans. Our opponent is a wily one, audacious and even cruel. But the desire for freedom that lives in our hearts – freedom from the controlling hand of corporate dictates over our health care, our food, our safety, our education, our environment, indeed over the avenues to either war or peace – is a power that has illumined this country since its inception. Such power right now is inadequately harnessed for political purposes, but the story of America is in no way over. A sleeping giant is about to awaken and all of us must be its awakeners.

Let us not be defeated; let us be creative. While some have suggested I “go rest” now, I have little desire to do so beyond enjoying the luxury of sleeping in my own bed for longer than two days in a row. There is no time to lose. And while I don’t at this point have a formal role in staging the peaceful revolution, I still have the power of the pen at my command and I intend to use it.

– Marianne Williamson
“It’s More Simple Than It Appears:
It’s Not Complicated; It’s Corrupt”
Transform
February 9, 2024

NEXT:
Marianne Williamson: Playing It Big

Related Off-site Links:
Candidate Marianne Williamson Exits Presidential Race – Mark Moran (United Press International News, February 7, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Ends Campaign to Secure Democratic Presidential Nomination – The Guardian (February 7, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Ends Second Presidential Bid After Nevada’s Democratic Primary – Brendan Le (People, February 7, 2024).

UPDATE: How Marianne Williamson Rises Without Mass Media Attention – Thu Pham (Diggit Magazine, February 19, 2024).

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

“This Beloved Quickened Dust”

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Photo of the Day

Related Off-site Links:
The Lost Winter of 2023-24 – Minnesota DNR (February 9, 2024).
Above-normal Temps Will Linger – Ron Trenda (MPR News, February 10, 2024).
After Super El Niño Charged Minnesota’s Warm Winter, 2024 is Set to Bring La Niña – Sven Sundgaard (Bring Me the News, February 9, 2024).
Warm Winter Could Mean Ecological Ripple Effects on Minnesota Forests and Wildlife – Gracie Stockton (MPR News, January 31, 2024).
Minnesota’s Cold is Getting Much Warmer – Sven Sundgaard (Bring Me the News, January 15, 2024).

UPDATE: Rate of Global Warming Reaches All-Time High, Report Shows – Edward Carver (Common Dreams, June 5, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – July 7, 2023
• Winter Vignettes
• Brigit Anna McNeill on “Winter’s Way”
• Winter Beauty
• Winter Light
• Winter . . . Within and Beyond (2020)
• Winter . . . Within and Beyond (2019)
• Winter . . . Within and Beyond (2017)

Image: Michael J. Bayly (Wood Lake Nature Center, Richfield, MN).

Friday, February 09, 2024

Eckhart Tolle on Silence and Stillness

My “season of listening” continues.

One writer whose words I’m using as a guide throughout this season is Eckhart Tolle who in his book Stillness Speaks, writes the following.

When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.

Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.

~
Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which these words are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world.

You are that awareness, disguised as a person.

~
The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.

Whenever there is some silence around you – listen to it. That means just notice it. Pay attention to it. Listening to silence awakens the dimension of stillness within yourself, because it is only through stillness that you can be aware of silence.

See that in the moment of noticing the silence around you, you are not thinking. You are aware, but not thinking.

~
When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.

~
Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.

~
When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness, you become still yourself. You connect with it at a very deep level. You feel a oneness with whatever you perceive in and through stillness. Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love.

~
Silence is helpful, but you don’t need it in order to find stillness. Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noice arises. That is the inner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself.

You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of stillness.

~
Any disturbing noise can be as helpful as silence. How? By dropping your inner resistance to the noise, by allowing it to be as it is, this acceptance also takes you into that realm of inner peace that is stillness.

Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is – no matter what form it takes – you are still, you are at peace.

– Eckhart Tolle
Excerpted from Stillness Speaks
Hodder & Stoughton, 2003
pp. 3-6

NEXT:
Eckhart Tolle on Going Beyond
the Thinking Mind

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• A Season of Listening
• Time to Go Inwards
• A Prayer of Anchoring
• Today I Will Be Still
• Cultivating Stillness
• Inner Peace
• A Sacred Pause
• Aligning With the Living Light
• Mystical Participation
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• 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
• Resting in the Presence of the Beloved
• Active Waiting: A Radical Attitude Toward Life
• Threshold Musings
• Brigit Anna McNeill on Hearing the Wild and Natural Call to Go Inwards
• Brigit Anna McNeill on “Winter’s Way”
• To Dream, to Feel, to Listen
• The Most Sacred and Simple Mystery of All
• The Source is Within You
• Forever Oneness
• In the Midst of the “Great Unraveling,” a Visit to the Prayer Tree
• As the Last Walls Dissolve . . . Everything is Possible

Image: The Center for Reflection and Renewal at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, MN. (Photo: Michael J. Bayly)

Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Forever Grateful

I will be forever grateful for Marianne Williamson’s genuinely progressive voice and political platform in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

I’m also grateful, and honored too, that I got to play a part in Marianne’s run for president – by making a monthly financial contribution to her campaign, by being involved with the group Minnesota for Marianne Williamson 2024, by promoting and documenting her campaign and its platform here at The Wild Reed, and by traveling to New Hampshire last month with my friend Kate to campaign with and for Marianne.

Thank you, Marianne, for your deep commitment to justice and democracy, and your inspiring vision of transformation and hope for the United States and the world. 💗

Following are two communications from Marianne announcing the suspension of her 2024 presidential campaign. One is a written statement, the other a video message. Both are inspiring. Indeed, as my friend Kate said to me earlier this evening, “Just when you think she can’t top herself, she does.”

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you don’t win :) . . .

I appreciate greatly all the incredible people who accompanied me on our political journey over the last ten months. While the level of our failure is obvious to all, a level of success is real nonetheless. We articulated deeper, more authentic truths than those regularly acknowledged by the political establishment. And I’m not only glad we did that; I’m proud of it. We spoke for those most ignored in America today and whose wounds are most in need of healing. I wish I could have reached them. I know we would have provided hope.

I will never be able to fully express my gratitude to those who who supported the campaign – as donors, as volunteers, as team members, and more. I hope the blessings you have shown me will be reflected in your life many times over. There are memories of support and kindness that I cherish, carrying an emotional fragrance that will linger in my heart forever.

In the final analysis, I think the only real failure in life is that which we fail to learn from. I have learned so much already and I know that I will learn more. Processing this experience will be an ongoing journey and forgiveness will guide me as I move through it. I will not allow the mental torment of all the woulda shoulda couldas to tie me to the past, but rather I will keep my eye on the larger story. In ways I cannot yet see, none of this will have been in vain. There are hidden gifts that have only just begun to reveal themselves.

Among those gifts are seeds I know we dropped into the hearts of many – those who will in their own time, in their own way, carry our ideas forward. Although as of today we are suspending our campaign, our platform – with its deep dive into so many issues – will remain on Marianne2024.com. I hope future candidates will take what works for them, drinking from the well of information that we prepared. My team and I brought to the table some great ideas, and I will take pleasure when I see them live on in campaigns and candidates yet to be created.

I wish I could give a personal hug to every person who encouraged me on this journey. So many had faith and believed in what was possible. While we did not succeed at running a winning political campaign, I know in my heart we impacted the political ethers. As with every other aspect of my career over the last forty years, I know how ideas float through the air forming ever new designs. I will see and hear things in different situations and through different voices, and I will smile a small internal smile knowing in my heart where that came from.

I am wishing you all the love in the world, with a thanks more sincere than you can possibly imagine. May love yet prevail, in our hearts and in the world

With endless gratitude,

Above: Marianne Williamson speaking at Soel Sistas in Nashua, New Hampshire on Saturday, January 21, 2024. With her is Rep. Jonah Wheeler, a Democrat who serves Hillsborough County District 33, which encompasses Peterborough and Sharon, NH. Jonah assumed office in December of 2022. He was just 19-years-old when he was sworn in, making him one of the youngest state legislators in the United States. (Photo: Michael J. Bayly)

NEXT:
What Marianne Williamson Learned
from Running for President

Related Off-site Links:
Candidate Marianne Williamson Exits Presidential Race – Mark Moran (United Press International News, February 7, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Ends Campaign to Secure Democratic Presidential Nomination – The Guardian (February 7, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Ends Second Presidential Bid After Nevada’s Democratic Primary – Brendan Le (People, February 7, 2024).

Saaxiib Qurux Badan

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan – December 3, 2023
• October Afternoon

Monday, February 05, 2024

Quote of the Day

[It’s] not lost on me that a black queer artist and a white country singer came together to sing a song about belonging.

America is starved for connection across divides and that performance shows how much music has the power to heal

– Katie Crosby
via X
February 4, 2024

Related Off-site Links:
Tracy Chapman Performs “Fast Car” Live for First Time in Years at 2024 Grammys with Luke Combs – Joseph Hudak (Rolling Stone, February 4, 2024).
Tracy Chapman Earns Rapturous Standing Ovation After Rare Live Performance of “Fast Car” with Luke Combs – Jaden Thompson (Variety, February 4, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• In a Historic First, Country Music’s Latest Star Is a Queer Black Man
• Lil Nas X, the Latest Face of Pop’s Gay Sexual Revolution
• Nakhane Touré’s “Tortured Journey to Clarity”
• Nakhane’s Hymn to Freedom
• Rahsaan Patterson: Standing Within His True Light
• Ocean Trip
• Remembering Little Richard, 1932–2020
• Remembering Prince, “Fabulous Freak, Defiant Outsider, Dark Dandy” – 1958-2016
• David Bowie: Queer Messiah
• Dusty Springfield: Queer Icon
• The Potential of Art and the Limits of Orthodoxy to Connect Us to the Sacred

Image: Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs perform “Fast Car” at the 2024 Grammys. (Photo: Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Sunday, February 04, 2024

Marianne Williamson in Nevada – 2/4/24

NEXT:
Forever Grateful

Related Off-site Links and Updates:
Marianne Williamson on Running for President, Challenging Biden and Calling for a Gaza Ceasefire – Democracy Now! (January 23, 2024).
Supporter of Biden Primary Challenger Marianne Williamson Launching New Super PAC to Boost Bid – Zachary Leeman (The Messenger, January 31, 2024).
Williamson Encourages Nevada Voters to Become Democrats for a Day – 2 News Nevada (February 3, 2024).
Marianne Williamson: This Idea That Everything is Rosy is Not the Experience of Majority of Americans – Cavuto Live (February 3, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Tops Dean Phillips in South Carolina Primary – Chris Cameron (The New York Times, February 4, 2024).
A Democrat Beating Biden May Be Impossible. Is Nevada Marianne Williamson’s Last Chance? – Jacob Solis (The Nevada Independent, February 4, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Says DNC Trying to “Suppress” Her Campaign – Jeff Burbank (Las Vegas Review-Journal via The Seattle Times, February 5, 2024).
Marianne Williamson Talks About Her Political Run for U.S. President 2024 – NinonSpeaks (via YouTube, February 5, 2024).

See also: Marianne 2024 Official Site | About | Issues | News | Events | Donate

Thursday, February 01, 2024

The Call of Imbolc

– Art: Tijana Lukovic

Today is Imbolc, the ancient Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the return to spring. To this day, people continue to celebrate Imbolc and its emphasis on the seasonal changes in the northern hemisphere at this time of year; a time of growing light and emerging new life. People also recognize and celebrate how Imbolc's promise of new beginnings is experienced in their lives.

Traditionally held on February 1st, Imbolc occurs about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, and is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals – along with Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain.

Following are Brigit Anna McNeill’s wise and beautiful words on Imbolc. I especially resonate with her contention that Imbolc calls us “out from our inner worlds and into the light bringing the medicine of who we are.”

_______________

Imbolc is here, I love this beautiful time of year! The word imbolc means “in the belly” or womb.

This is the time where we feel the our energy shift direction a little, where the stirrings of life force and wild will are wanting to pull our energy up and out a little, where we may feel the want to stretch out of our dark fertile soil and just like the earth grow.

We are transitioning from winter and towards spring, and a whole new feeling begins to grow in the air.

The Celtic figure Brigit is always part of the story and representation of this day, as she was said to have come from the underworld today, stepping out from the dark inner places, carrying dandelions as the medicine she found there.

Dandelion helps people, by shifting inner stagnancy, to remember and feel again that wild life force that wants to live through us, it is the force and will that helps the medicine we are to flourish into our days, just as it does within the earth.

And Brigit herself, was a goddess of that life force and all it manifests; rebellion, rewilding, music, poetry, herbalism, plants, growth and recovery, and so dandelions are indeed her perfect beautiful flower.

This is the time bird song changes, tender shoots arise, our energy shifts direction a little and slowly slowly we too, just like Brigit, just like dandelions, snowdrops, nettles and bright garlic, are called out from our inner worlds and into the light bringing the medicine of who we are.

The snowdrops I see, the young nettles, the three cornered leek and the beginnings of wild garlic, are there not there as a sign of recovery, nor are they there because they have got over winter; they are there because of the tender way in which the land comes together, they are there because of these vital processes the wild moves through so life and medicine can thrive.

– Brigit Anna McNeill
via Facebook
February 1, 2024

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Imbolc: Celebrating the Freshness of New Beginnings
• Imbolc: Festival of Light
• Taking the High Road in Imbolc’s Time of Growing Light and Emerging New Life
• Farewell Winter
• Welcoming the Return of Spring
• Spring: “Truly the Season for Joy and Hope”
• In the Footsteps of Spring: Introduction | Part I | II | III | IV | V
• The Path Ahead
• Ed Simon on Why We Need a Pagan Theology

Related Off-site Links:
Leaning Into Imbolc: A Focus on Hearth and Home – Sheri Barker (The Wild Hunt, January 26, 2024).
February Is a Season of Purification and Rededication – Clio Ajana (The Wild Hunt, February 3, 2024).
Blessed Imbolc and Lughnassadh – The Wild Hunt (February 2, 2023).
Imbolc: The Gaelic Festival Explained – OghamArt.com (January 31, 2020).
How to Celebrate and Enjoy Imbolc, the Pagan Festival Marking Winter’s End – Kerry King (Metro, January 31, 2023).
The Magical Energy of the Great Celtic Festival of Imbolc – Colette O’Neill (Bealtaine Cottage, January 24, 2021).
Imbolc in the United Kingdom and Ireland – Liz Williams (The Wild Hunt, February 5, 2023).
Brigid and Darlughdach: Celtic Saint Loved Her Female Soulmate – Kittredge Cherry (QSpirit, February 1, 2023).

Opening image:Tijana Lukovic.
Image 2: Michael J. Bayly.

The Wild Reed

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Marianne Williamson: Playing It Big

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Saaxiib Qurux Badan

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Finally . . . a “Significant Snowfall” Across Southern Minnesota

What Marianne Williamson Learned from Running for President

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

“This Beloved Quickened Dust”

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Photo of the Day

Friday, February 09, 2024

Eckhart Tolle on Silence and Stillness

Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Forever Grateful

Saaxiib Qurux Badan

Monday, February 05, 2024

Quote of the Day

Sunday, February 04, 2024

Marianne Williamson in Nevada – 2/4/24

Thursday, February 01, 2024

The Call of Imbolc

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