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I have known my song all my life, and it has been an inner guide with no changes from my teen years into my 50s yet. It is fascinating how art helps connect us to ourselves.

Brother Pancho, Planet's Protector Physicist Poet. Hugs.

 Wow! Radical. Reminded me of Brother Pancho and his capacity to  just be love - unconditionally. 

 I write a lot and never cared to share it unless it was pried out of me by invitation or otherwise, mostly because as soon as it was written, it felt worthless to me. Sometimes I wrote just because I needed to get myself to the otherside of where I was and writing helped me get there. I am getting better at sharing what I write for pronouncing it worthless is also a judgment that I am ready to let go of. Let it flow - as is. One sided or Duality. Words or Silence in between words that renders them intelligible. 

At last night's Being American Circle with Aryae, I was thinking out loud about the challenges ahead, and this reading offers a remedy -- not an easy one -- but something to strive for atleast. Thank you. 

For 14 years I held back my reactions to all manner of anger fueled abuse from a partner (then an ex-partner) who marched to the drum of his inner demons. I raised our son, mostly alone, with a commitment to my value that a child have respect and love for his father. This practice changed me and my life in more ways than I can count. Now my only prayers are that the grown son and father find their own healthy equation in their relationship, and may the father's inner drum find a peaceful enough rhythm. I am blessed to have sufficient clarity on living for what I value. 

Thank you for broadcasting the circle. So much power in the words, even over the waves. It radiates out far beyond the 4 walls. 

 My story is that the universe was created with the sound OM and it is ever expanding, full of beautiful stars, and it is eternal. There is no old story or new story. The entire universe is within me, and the evidence is that my heart is always expanding, just as the astrophysicists universe outside is. We are one and the same.

 Recently, Audrey mentioned Adam Grant's book Give and Take - and mentioned the idea of 'closeted givers'. I liked the idea of outing the givers - because there is a large number of givers who prefer to remain anonymous and closeted. This silence is clouding the way the world may be experienced - so lets out the givers and make it okay to give so easily that it is normal and public - like all ordinary behaviors. 

So beautifully expressed. I had a similar exchange at work today when someone I work with made comments that were so far away from how I think and behave - that I was completely dumb-struck. I realized that we approach the world very differently. I paused. I accepted that the interaction was meant to teach me something that I needed to learn. I talked with someone who shared my values. It helped to heal the hurt I felt from being put down for my being. I found the courage to walk the path I was on, even if I had to go alone. I spoke my truth. I thanked the person for their candid feedback and said what I was going to do and why. I know I do not need her acceptance or approval, and I do not need for her to see the world the same way as I do. I am happy to have clarity on my choices, and that is a blessing. It frees me.     

Thinking is channeled, more easily to choosing what color shoes or what brand of ketchup, than to the choices about what am I doing now, who am I doing it with, what's the purpose of it all and why ?

Even my best friends tell me that no one our age has natural hair color anymore, and I simply smile and say I'll be a flag-bearer. I hold on to the experience when a little girl came up to touch my hair to tell me that she had only ever seen all white or all black hair, but never seen black and white hair on the same head.

I understand and agree with 1 & 2 but need a lot more to really understand 3. In my experience, I find that little children have that deep simplicity where they gravitate towards love and beauty without conscious effort. I can relate to them easily. Practicing simplicity in my own life is an ongoing effort that keeps peeling away at layers. I see women in high heels or hiding behind masks of makeup and wonder why they torture themselves so, but they probably see my lack of makeup as not loving myself enough to care for my appearance? I agree that there are no simple answers.

The purpose of education is to let you discover your own heart's drumbeat so you can march to it. Sadly, like the healthcare system, the education system too has stifled individual creativity in favor of conformity, and too many people get trained to do what they were never meant to, and then slavishly stay with it as it 'pays the bills'. I like the message "I AM ENOUGH". I'd like to add "I HAVE ENOUGH" to stop the compensatory over-consumption all around,

The idea of consuming suffering into oneself is a fresh one. I have never thought of it that way before. Suffering has consumed me for parts of my life. I have always surrendered to it because in my experience, striving against it does not work. The surrender induced state of paralytic catharsis is restorative even it takes it own time. I accept the enforced break from the constant striving of the other times. Stasis leads to a blossoming of creativity. I have liked the idea from an earlier reading here that pain is given but suffering is optional. Pouring suffering into a creativity may be linked to consuming suffering into oneself - maybe.   

 Your words nicely explain the limitations of words !

Yes, a richer vocabulary for love is desirable and would enrich our world. Everyone says Sanskrit has these words, but why do not share some of these so we can start using them? I am ready. I do not believe that thinking and feeling exist at the expense of each other, for in practice, it is impossible to find a perfectly (ir)rational thinker !

Love is selfless service - with a smile - at any age. When I was a little girl, I would gleefully help sweep and mop the house feeling pride in being trusted with adult jobs. When I was a young lady, I happily did all within my power to make my husband at the time happy. As a mother, I cleaned up and soothed the sick child, always with a smile, and continue to be the driver, the cook, the housekeeper and everything else that my young lad takes for granted ! I feel loved when someone enables me to be 'home' - where I can simply relax enough to breathe deeply naturally

 Righteousness is wrong ! That is a hard one to remember when I need it the most. Specially as a single parent.

I needed this today. Over the last four years, I have helped and enabled four colleagues establish a successful program and platform to train others in our shared expertise. At this fifth annual occurrence of our workshop, I stepped away to let them take it forward on their own, using much of what I had helped create. At the conference, I stopped by their session to visit and greet them. I just like to stay connected. Three of them greeted me warmly but one of them, the oldest who assumed leadership, ignored and snubbed my goodwill visit so completely that I was surprised and hurt. Last year I was explaining Indian food to her grand-daughter at the meal after our session and this year I did not even deserve a proper hello! What happened? Was she upset that I had not joined them and chose to do something new with another new group of colleagues? Did I do something wrong in not having interacted during the year at all (we are not co-located)? Am I hurt because I was seeking to be acknowledged for my contributions to the success of this workshop? I volunteered to step away and wished them all success in carrying it forward. I had no interest in being acknowledged as a contributor, but I did expect to be acknowledged as a person and a friendly presence who came with goodwill. The passage reminds me that I have shared all I could of myself. She simply sees me as a colleague whose job is done while I see her as a life long friend. I suspect that she has no radar to detect the friendship vibe. She is threatened by perceived competition when all I ever see is cooperation. She likes being a leader and I am more at ease being a ladder. There is more than enough work to keep us all busy. I wish her well and will still see her as a friend, in case she ever needs one.