excuse me, is this my stop

 I think my heart is wanting to stop

this does not disturb me, it is ordinary

that at a certain age things get gone, gone,

and stop

what we think is less important than what we are

Former Senator says on msnbc: Donald Trump knows America better than any of us, grievance and anger.

There's so much to think about here.

• First, there is a new president-elect.
• Second, it is Donald Trump.
• Thirdly, for as long as he keeps his feet under him, we will be subject to the vicissitudes, ironies, and whatever trammeling control Mr. Trump and his cohorts lay on the country and individuals living therein.

Of course, now ungrieved and splayed of his constricted theatrical angry rhetoric, he might just loosen up and ease into the presidency with equanimity and compassionate leadership.

There is a lot to take in here.

And plenty of time to do so.

For those who enjoy quoting scripture:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?  

Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

-- Jeremiah 13:23,  NKJV

as morning arrives

 Breathing in

I know 

I am

Breathing in

Breathing out

I know

I am

Breathing out

Dwelling in this 

present moment

I know

This is

A wonderful

Moment

(Thich Nhat Hanh)

https://youtu.be/fOkphTWkY1Q?si=kdiUITzTE32k5ssW

He says: Without the muck there would not be the lotus.

Reality as it is

The here and the now

(If you long for what is true, 

what is called -- the kingdom of God.)

Even as, for many, mourning arrives.

election night

noodles and Swiss chard

chocolate tapioca

it's all good -- close eyes

widerspruchsfreiheit

 do not immolate yourself

if your choice isn't chosen

instead buy a banana muffin

extra large coffee and consider

how lovely absurdity can be

when no preference is actualized

when no-choice is wonderful choice

ah -- principled non-contradiction!

get your rest, wake up tomorrow

 Some worry the world 

will end tomorrow.

Some feel it rebegins.

Me? 

I sense we will learn

The mystical sense of life —

Pure gift

No repayment

Joy without obligation

relata

Rupert Spira in talk titled “What is Reality” used McGilchrist’s phrasing, “ The relationship comes before the relata “.

Here is McGilchrist’s thought:

 I take it that there is something that is not just the contents of my mind – that, for example, you exist. There is an infinitely vast, complex, multifaceted, whatever-it-is-that-exists-apart-from-ourselves. The only world that any of us can know, then, is what comes into being in the never-ending encounter between us and this whatever-it-is. What is more, both parties evolve and are changed through the encounter: it is how we and it become more fully what we are. The process is both reciprocal and creative. Think of it as like a true and close relationship between two conscious beings: neither is of course ‘made up’ by the other, but both are to some extent, perhaps to a great extent, ‘made’ what they are through their relationship.

The relationship comes before the relata – the ‘things’ that are supposed to be related. What we mean by the word ‘and’ is not just additive, but creative.

There is no one absolute truth about the world that results from this process, but there are certainly truths: some things we believe will be truer than others. The nature of the attention we bring to bear is of critical importance here. A maximally open, patient, and attentive response to whatever-it-is is better at disclosing or discerning reality than a response that is peremptory, insensitive, or – above all – shrouded in dogma.

(—Iain McGilchrist: “Consciousness is the stuff of the cosmos”

Reading | Ontology

Dr. Iain McGilchrist | 2021-11-21)

Jude sent Spira, Spira sent McGilchrist, all three send me to pondering.

A trinity of Monday evening.

Relata.

And https://youtu.be/mHzarUO6HFs?si=4v6Dez68KGz0EZtU

if you are feeling poorly

 If you wonder

Why the weight of

Oppressive worry

The weight of resonance

From everything that’s ever

Happened

Is still vibrating

Through our atmosphere

Through our minds —

Nothing ends

It all circles, returns, re-loops 

A cyclone of history

You are not crazy

You are a ligament of

History tying present 

With past, a resonating 

repetition bringing back around

What never went away

So, stay alert and strong

All the villains are circling,

All the saviors looming

Earth has seen it all

Staying underfoot, our steps

Have ground to make passage

It is our hearts and minds

Needing courage, wit, and grace

To withstand and forge through

The chaos

The devilish poseurs

The dark times overshadowing

the real issue with abortion

 In prison today 

(Along with laughter)

Talk about abortion

(Which isn’t funny)

Then the back and forth

In Lawrence of Arabia

Of whether or not

“It is written” around the

Saving and then the killing

Of young Arab man from desert

sand storm then shooting of tribal

member. 

We read “Pocket Catechism”

(Poem by Li-Young Lee, )

Deciding that “not-being, born”

Is too large a thought for

Abortion moral system or politics.

(Not that the poet is saying that)

Rather, saying with Lee:

“God bless the child that’s 

Got his own”

Thinking the main issue

(Our surmise)

Is fear of not-being

Born

you get what you need

 They sang that you can’t always 

get what you want

But if you try

Sometime

You just might find …

it is time

 Read poems

Vote

Cultivate silence

Hold a good thought 

look out, what is within, sees

Be happy

Vote 

If your candidate doesn't win, then

Be happy

Happiness dwells

nowhere else

but within you

la présence inexistante concerne tout

 Time has changed.

More light in the morning, less in evening.

From Psalm 66:

 Que Dieu ait pitié de nous et qu’il nous bénisse ! Qu’il fasse briller sur nous son visage, et qu’il ait pitié de nous,

Afin que vos voies soient connues par toute la terre, et que toutes les nations aient part à votre salut ! 

Que les peuples vous louent, ô Dieu ; que les peuples vous louent tous !

(— dupuis Psaume 66) 

Translated: 

2 May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us.

3 That we may know thy way upon earth: thy salvation in all nations.

4 Let people confess to thee, O God: let all people give praise to thee. 

(--Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition) 

 La présence inexistante concerne tout. 

(Inexistent presence concerns everything.)