On Looking Up

I'm guilty of forgetting to look up.

I walk through a horizontal world where things are flat and long. But we live in both dimensions. Things stretch far beyond where my eyes naturally land. Buildings rise just floors above my eyeline.

There are lines that connect this human dimension with others—thin antenna bodies reminding us that this single line of sight misses the fifth and sixth stories.

We can look down too, into the earth. What's down there? How much have you really thought about it? The vertical extension—all those bones below, all that dark matter above, and here you are looking at your phone again.

Above and below.

Most of it outside our eyeline.

Above and below.

An Independence Day Blessing

We are privileged to be here briefly.

In the infinite expanse of the universe, our existence is an improbable gift.

Of the little we control, we choose what action we take and what holds our attention.

May we approach our days with care and responsibility.

May we tend to what's in our power with care.

May we be wise in granting our attention.

May we always be free.

Anger Dragons

As a human, you experience emotions like feathers—they touch your face, frame the corners of your experience, invade your body.

Anger generates in us for what isn't true but ought to be. For what is deserved and denied. For ego and power winning over dignity, over common good. For a system that lets people with money hurt others indiscriminately. For the foolish shows we make trying to display power, to prove we will win. For what's denied the essential work of ending suffering—work that seems only to increase it. Anger for the feeling that each action generates more uncertainty than the last.

Despair and anger must be felt to find their place. Where do they go?

I believe they need somewhere to be reckoned with—where we hold bad actors accountable, say no to what hurts us even when it offers someone else luxury. Anger for people dying stupid deaths. For what they're trying to do with our data, our private information. For tactics that prey on human loneliness to steal what's ours.

Your anger needs a place to go. If it sits there without company, without home, without tether, it unleashes dragons we don't want or need. Dragons that don't serve us.

Instead, we can give our despair and anger somewhere to go.

A place with us where it is seen and listened to.

What is it trying to say?