DEFUND THE POLICE? If you’d like to understand the historical underpinnings of calls to “defund the police,” and the basis of the claim that police brutality against Blacks is hard-wired into the system, this episode of the podcast Throughline explores the origin and history of policing in the United States. Here's what it's about: Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. A truth many Americans are acknowledging since the murder of George Floyd, as protests have occurred in all fifty states calling for justice on his behalf. But this tension between African American communities and the police has existed for centuries. This week, the origins of American policing and how those origins put violent control of Black Americans at the heart of the ... [Continue Reading]

Turning Toward: Saturday Ceremonies to Hold, Honor, Grieve, Love, and Bless From my friends at Commonweal: "These are frightening times that we are living in – in some ways unprecedented, and in some ways a continuation of so many painful threads in our history. We are outraged at the murder of innocent people of color through acts of violence; this is hitting hard at a moment of pandemic that leaves us isolated, vulnerable, and grief-filled. Many of us have been struggling to find how to hold all of it – the anger, the sadness, the love, the hope – and to bring all of it to bear in who we are and what we stand for in the world. To support us all in this process, I would like to invite you and your communities to be with us at two community rituals this Saturday, June 6, one at ... [Continue Reading]

RESOURCE FOR UNDERSTANDING RACE IN THE UNITED STATES Terrific resource in helping all of us sort out the tangled history of race in our country and what we can each do to effect change and heal these long-standing wounds. From the folks at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture: Click here to access this resource. "Since opening the museum, the number one question we are asked is how to talk about race, especially with children. We recognize how difficult it is to start that conversation. But in a nation still struggling with the legacies of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and white supremacy, we ... [Continue Reading]

I love following Krista Tippet and her wonderful project, On Being. Her offices are in Minneapolis, and the newsletter she sent out this weekend addresses the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police last week, and the violence roiling her city, and cities and communities across the country. The links in her newsletter thoughtfully address the institutionalized racism that is tearing our communities apart. I am passing on her email and links in their entirety because she’s provided valuable resources for anyone who wants to look beyond the evening news and the headlines to understand the dynamics underlying the rage, frustration and grief currently playing out across our country. “The Covid-19 virus — a product of the natural world, spread by human contact — has indeed uncovered ... [Continue Reading]

A powerful story from the team at The Daily about how catastrophe can lead to community transformation. The story of the Great Alaska Quake of 1964 has important lessons for our time. Have a listen to the story of a true heroine: Genie Chance and the Great Alaska Earthquake “There are moments when the world we take for granted changes instantaneously — when reality is upended and replaced with the unimaginable. Though we try not to think about it, instability is always lurking, and at any moment, a kind of terrible magic can switch on and scramble our lives. You may know the feeling.In 1964, it happened to Anchorage, Alaska, and to a woman named Genie Chance. Today, the author Jon Mooallem tells her story — and the story of the biggest earthquake to hit North America in recorded ... [Continue Reading]

WISDOM FROM TARA BRACH ​Another beautiful dharma talk from Tara Brach in her series, Sheltering in Love. I found this one particularly inspiring this morning. "We get on this full time vulnerability management mode trying to protect to protect ourselves from uncertainty by tensing against life itself, and that is suffering." --Tara Brach https://youtu.be/fmGSCUb98Uw ANOTHER GREAT PLACE TO SHARE YOUR ARTISTIC EXPRESSION Thanks so much to my wonderful book coach and mentor, Joshua Townshend-Zellner for turning me on to this great resource Safer at Home: Stories and Art "As we continue to live through these unprecedented times, LA County Library wants to help you connect socially while still staying physically apart. Stories and art have always helped us share our ... [Continue Reading]

I just happened on this fantastic online activist gathering which arrived in my inbox. I was planning to do something else and immediately got sucked into watching this whole amazing hour of music and powerful responses to the question, “How do we harness our rage for social and political action?” The Revolutionary Love Project “We know the only way through this global pandemic is to turn towards each other, not on each other. The Dream Corps believes that we must ground our political and cultural efforts in love and call people up as we combat hate, heal our wounds, and fight for the soul of the country. You can join us to hear Valarie Kaur read from her forthcoming book, See No Stranger: A Memoir and ... [Continue Reading]

Remember the Isolation Journals that I introduced you to the other day? Here’s a great interview with its founder, Dani Shapiro: Click here to access this resource. I thought you'd like this episode of The Way We Live Now that I listened to on Stitcher Radio. (Download the FREE Stitcher Radio app here.) Here's what this episode is about: A writer and cancer survivor, leaning on lessons she learned while battling leukemia in her 20s, now helps others make ... [Continue Reading]

Here's yet another wonderful talk by Tara Brach in her series, Sheltering in Love. I always love sending you these so you can listen to her wonderful and inspiring words. In this dharma talk, she addresses all the ways we sabotage ourselves with harsh self-judgment. I love her voice and her deep compassion. I always feel seen and heard when I listen to her. I listen to Tara Brach every week. I thought you’d appreciate her insight in this particular talk about “the trance of unworthiness.” https://youtu.be/osB1zRQ3TGQ An upbeat, enjoyable optimistic story from the folks at the Rough Translation podcast from NPR: One hundred and eighty recovering COVID-19 patients. One Jerusalem hotel. Secular, religious, Arabs, Jews, old, young. Their phones are out, they're recording. And the ... [Continue Reading]

A beautiful talk about using fear as our teacher in the time of pandemic and in the rest of our lives. With The founder of Zen hospice, Frank Ostasesk. From the folks at Upaya Institute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlKxljzz5lE If You’d Like to Step Far Beyond the Headlines and take a deep dive into, the different levels of trauma facing us as a species—individual, ancestral, and collective—how it creates separation and societal fragmentation—and what is required for deep healing. A deep and thoughtful conversation about healing collective trauma and how understanding the cosmos can illuminate new paths for healing. With modern mystic Thomas Hubl and cosmologist Brian Swimme. Put on by the California Institute of Integral ... [Continue Reading]