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SUMMARY:peace\, love\, happiness & understanding  10/6/22
DESCRIPTION:  \nTHE OPEN ROAD \npeace\, love\, happiness & understanding \n  \nOctober 6\, 2022 \n  \nAmanda Waldroupe gave permission to reprint this article that was published by The Guardian (theguardian.com/us) on September 28\, 2022. \n  \nThe story of one US governor’s historic use of clemency: ‘We are a nation of second chances’ \nAmanda Waldroupe \n  \nLast October\, Kate Brown\, the governor of Oregon\, signed an executive order granting clemency to 73 people who had committed crimes as juveniles\, clearing a path for them to apply for parole. \nThe move marked the high point in a remarkable arc: as Brown approaches the end of her second term in January\, she has granted commutations or pardons to 1\,147 people – more than all of Oregon’s governors from the last 50 years combined. \nThe story of clemency in Oregon is one of major societal developments colliding: the pressure the Covid-19 pandemic put on the prison system and growing momentum for criminal justice reform. \nIt’s also a story of a governor’s personal convictions and how she came to embrace clemency as a tool for criminal justice reform and as an act of grace\, exercising the belief that compassionate mercy and ensuring public safety are not mutually exclusive. \n“If you are confident that you can keep people safe\, you’ve given victims the opportunity to have their voices heard and made sure their concerns are addressed\, and individuals have gone through an extensive amount of rehabilitation and shown accountability\, what is the point of continuing to incarcerate someone\, other than retribution?” Brown said in a June interview. \nNotable clemency acts \nWhen Brown\, a Democrat\, became governor in Oregon in 2015\, she received the power of executive clemency – an umbrella term referring to the ability of American governors and the president to grant mercy to criminal defendants. Clemency includes pardons\, which fully forgive someone who has committed a crime; commutations\, which change prison sentences\, often resulting in early release; reprieves\, which pause punishment; and eliminating court-related fines and fees. \nDuring the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic\, Brown was one of 18 governors across the US who used clemency to quickly reduce prison populations in the hopes of curbing virus transmission. \nShe approved the early release of 963 people who had committed nonviolent crimes and met six additional criteria – not enough\, according to estimates by the state’s department of corrections\, to enable physical distancing\, and far less than California\, which released about 5\,300 people\, and New Jersey\, which released 40% of its prison population. \nBut Brown’s clemency acts stand out in other ways. Brown removed one year from the sentences of 41 prisoners who worked as firefighters during the 2020 wildfire season\, the most destructive in Oregon history. \nShe has pardoned 63 people. Most notably\, she has commuted the sentences of 144 people convicted of crimes as serious as murder\, yet have demonstrated “extraordinary evidence of rehabilitation”. \nDemocratic and Republican governors in North Carolina\, Louisiana\, Missouri\, Kansas and Ohio have granted clemency for similar reasons. Yet Brown’s numbers are among the highest in the US\, and the impact of her decisions are profound: Oregon’s prison population declined for the first time since the passage of the state’s Measure 11 mandatory minimum sentencing law in 1994. \nMeasure 11 codified mandatory sentences for 16 violent crimes\, required juveniles over the age of 15 charged with those crimes to be tried as adults\, and ended earned time. Since its passage\, Oregon’s prison population tripled to nearly 15\,000 people and three new prisons were built. \nBrown also stands out for who she grants clemency to. Forty per cent of Brown’s commutations are Black\, in response to Black Oregonians being incarcerated at a rate five times higher than their share of the state’s population. Nearly two dozen other clemency recipients were convicted as juveniles. Many were sentenced to life without parole and other lengthy sentences. \n‘Eradicating racism and colonialism’ \nBrown’s acts reflect the governor’s values and beliefs. She accepts research in adolescent development showing people are not fully mature until their mid-20s. She was the first Oregon governor to visit the state’s women’s prison. She believes people are not defined by their worst acts and are capable of redemption. “We are a nation of second chances\,” she said. \nA voracious reader\, she cited books such as Just Mercy\, The New Jim Crow\, The Other Wes Moore\, and Picking Cotton as influences. Before holding elected office\, Brown worked as a lawyer representing families and children in the foster care system\, as well as people who violated their parole. She says she has always opposed Measure 11 as “a one-size-fits-all approach” that eliminated a judge’s ability to consider “facts and underlying circumstances of individual cases”. \nGeorge Floyd’s murder in May 2020 further galvanized her in “eradicating racism and colonialism” in Oregon\, she said. (The state’s first constitution made it illegal for Black people to live on or own property in Oregon.) \nBrown’s use of clemency is “well within established tradition”\, said Rachel Barkow\, a professor at NYU School of Law and an expert on clemency. \nThe use of clemency has been virtually non-existent since the “tough on crime” movement began in the 1980s\, coinciding with Willie Horton committing rape while on furlough. \nBut for much of history\, presidents and governors regularly used clemency. Governors cited a prisoner’s “exceptional rehabilitation” or\, in exposing wrongful convictions\, listed witness recantation\, flawed evidence and police misconduct. “For one abuse of the pardon power\,” a 1911 Colorado Board of Pardon report noted\, “there are a thousand abuses of the convicting power.” \nAlexander Hamilton argued in The Federalist Papers that clemency is a necessary check on a justice system capable of leveling excessive punishment. Without clemency\, he argued\, “justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel”. \nThe push to curb Covid-19 via clemency eclipsed another\, growing movement. In August 2020\, the American Civil Liberties Union launched a campaign urging governors to use clemency as a “corrective tool” to mass incarceration. \n‘We’ve educated her’ \nBrown slowly became emboldened due to the work of a progressive lawyer and the legal clinic she directs. \nAliza Kaplan\, a lawyer and professor of lawyering at Lewis & Clark Law School\, founded the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic in 2015 to provide pro bono legal services to criminal defendants. By then\, Kaplan was well-known in criminal justice circles for co-founding the New England Innocence Project and working as the deputy director of the National Innocence Project. In 2011\, she moved to Oregon to join Lewis & Clark. Within years\, in addition to starting the clinic\, she helped launch an innocence project\, an organization challenging bad forensic evidence\, and another within the public defender’s office assisting people after their incarceration. \n“I don’t want to live in a world where we can’t believe people change and redemption isn’t possible\,” Kaplan said. “That’s too cruel of a world for me.” \nThe clinic launched its clemency project in 2016. Knowing Brown’s legal background\, Kaplan and Venetia Mayhew\, the project’s first staff attorney\, decided that the first applicants would be women\, people convicted as juveniles\, and those convicted of violent crimes and serving long prison sentences – people who\, Kaplan said\, “committed horrible crimes but have transformed”. \nMayhew interviewed clients at Oregon’s prisons\, wrote applications and oversaw clinic students assigned to applications. Clients “understood they had to talk about the crime and what they are most ashamed of”\, Mayhew said. “It was all about building trust. I spent time with them\, got to know them.” At the same time\, Kaplan took members of Brown’s staff to Oregon’s prisons to meet clients and other prisoners. \nThe clinic’s applications are unique. They are narratives\, drawn from interviews\, trial records\, police reports\, and prison records\, telling the story of a client’s life from childhood up to the crime\, their trial\, incarceration and work to change. “It’s not about blaming their history or background\, it’s part of understanding who they are\,” Kaplan said. “The legal system leaves out a lot of the personal stuff.” The applications include photos\, the applicant’s résumé\, and letters from family\, friends\, correction officers\, employers and volunteers. \nThe clinic’s early efforts were hit or miss. During her first three years in office\, Brown granted two pardons and one commutation. “It was heartbreaking\,” Mayhew remembered. “I felt like a snake oil salesman\, peddling hope.” \nIn 2018\, Brown’s numbers ticked up: she granted three commutations to people convicted as juveniles. \nIn 2019\, Kaplan and Mayhew published an article built from Mayhew’s research of every Oregon governor’s clemency acts\, proving clemency was not rare: governors regularly released up to a third of Oregon’s prison population\, recognized rehabilitation and corrected wrongful convictions. \nThat year\, Brown commuted a murder conviction for the first time\, in the case of a woman sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 25 years\, a sentence both the judge and prosecutor thought too harsh. \nAfter that\, Brown’s clemency numbers shot up: in 2020\, she granted 65 pardons and commutations; in 2021\, she granted 36. \nBrown approves approximately 7% of the applications her office receives. The clinic’s success rate is far higher: 45 of 179 applications have been approved (an additional 116 are pending; 18 have been denied). \nEach application tells an individual story. Collectively\, they exposed systemic inequities: of people who were exposed to drugs as children\, endured child abuse\, neglect and sexual abuse\, or became inescapably entrenched in gangs. \n“We’ve educated her\,” Kaplan reflected. “But she already had it in her.” \nMaking the world a better place \nOver time\, Brown and her legal counsel have created a six-month process to winnow out all but the 10% of applications that reach Brown’s desk. \nBrown’s decisions\, she said\, do not result from satisfying a checklist\, but a “totality of circumstances”. Applicants’ expressions of accountability and remorse are critical. “It’s not just ‘I understand\, and I regret\, and I feel remorse’\,” Brown said. “How is that lived? What are the actions to show that?” \nShe values a “lifetime commitment” to community service\, inspired by her mother’s decades of volunteering for the American Cancer Society. It is proof applicants “understand what they have done and are committed to making the world a better place”\, Brown argued. \nBrown also gives a lot of weight to applicants’ plans post-release. \n“They want him to succeed if she grants it\,” Kaplan said. Kaplan spoke via telephone with a clinic alumna\, now working as a public defender\, on an early June afternoon. Brown’s counsel requested a more detailed release plan – a strong sign the application is moving forward. \nThe application was open on Kaplan’s laptop. Beyond her laptop\, taped to a window in her office\, a piece of paper reads “Imagine”. Another\, at her office entrance\, says “Empathy”. \nLeaning forward toward the phone\, Kaplan rattled off potential questions: family he could live with\, jobs he wants to apply for\, exercise. “The more detail\, the more we can show what his life could be like\,” she said. \nA release plan\, submitted in July\, included information about plans to join a gym to work out and play pickup basketball games for stress relief\, living with two relatives\, and applying for jobs at a nearby ferry. \nIf the application makes it to Brown’s desk\, it will receive thorough consideration. She is known to read the applications carefully. “They’re incredibly extensive\,” the governor said. \n“How do you plan to deal with your sobriety?” Brown said at an interview with one of the clinic’s clients in 2020. “What kind of job do you want to get?” \nWhen the interview ended\, Brown granted the client clemency. \nEveryone present began crying\, Kaplan remembered. \nInspiring hope \nBrown says her clemency acts are “part and parcel” of recent criminal justice reforms in Oregon. \nIn 2020\, Brown supported the end of non-unanimous jury decisions in criminal cases when she signed on to a brief\, written by Kaplan\, urging such a move in the US supreme court case Ramos v Louisiana. In doing so\, she opposed her own state justice department. (Oregon and Louisiana were the two states left using such juries\, which convict criminal defendants without a unanimous vote and have racist origins.) \nIn recent years\, the Oregon legislature passed laws redefining aggravated murder and restricting death penalty eligibility\, broadening expungement and allowing district attorneys and defendants to petition to change a prison sentence. \nIn 2019\, legislation gutting Measure 11’s provisions relating to juvenile offenders passed\, in recognition of supreme court rulings\, based on decades of research in adolescent development\, ending harsh sentences for people under 18. \nBrown made that law retroactive when\, last October\, she signed the executive order commuting the sentences of 73 juvenile offenders. They “are capable of tremendous transformation”\, Brown wrote\, citing research in adolescent development. \nIt wasn’t the first time clemency was used to make a law retroactive: in 1974\, the legislature passed a new criminal code\, and the then-governor\, Tom McCall\, commuted the sentences of 48 people to prevent “disparity” and “unequal treatment”. \nBrown’s executive order prompted a firestorm of media coverage. The fiercest response came from Kevin Mannix\, a lawyer\, former Republican state legislator\, and author of Measure 11. Representing two district attorneys and three crime victims\, Mannix sued Brown in January\, attempting to overturn the group commutations related to Covid-19\, the firefighters and the executive order. \n“The governor is not the super legislature\,” Mannix argued in a June interview. He said the “process” dictates the governor not “decide on a broad brush”\, and that “the victim is heard and the district attorney is heard”. \nMannix thinks “there may be individual cases” where prisoners show rehabilitation. “I don’t want to say no one is capable of rehabilitation\,” he said. But those convicted of violent crimes\, he believes\, should be “incapacitated” and “taken off the streets”. \nThe lawsuit and local media coverage galvanized criticism from district attorneys that Brown’s decisions lack transparency and that she is disregarding crime victims. State law requires district attorneys to keep victims apprised of defendants’ appeals\, as well as submit statements to the governor’s office in response to clemency applications. \nBrown has acknowledged victims of violent crime are “traumatized – sometimes violently and irreparably”. Her office recently hired a victim’s advocate to work directly with victims. Her clemency reports also reveal that not all victims oppose clemency: some are neutral\, while others are supportive. Victims opposed to clemency “have been given more attention in the press”\, said Mary Zinkin\, founder and executive director of the Portland-based Center for Trauma Support Services. “They do not represent all crime survivors.” \nDue to the controversy\, Kaplan and Mayhew regularly receive hate mail. Soon afterward\, Kaplan received a thank you card signed by the dozens of inmates at a men’s prison. Kaplan and her colleagues\, one wrote\, “is inspiring a lot of hope inside these walls”. \n‘Prison cleaned me up’ \nBrown’s office has received more than 2\,100 clemency applications since 2020 –100 times more than five years ago. \nIn January\, Kaplan and her students wrote a “step-by-step guide” to clemency that circulates in the prisons. And there are more lawyers than ever telling their stories; clemency is now a major part of pro bono work at four large law firms\, and more than a half-dozen lawyers – graduates of Lewis & Clark or mentored by Mayhew\, now in private practice – represent dozens of clemency cases. \n“People just see that word ‘murderer’\,” said Patty Butterfield. “But did that person [Brown] is letting out change their life in prison? Did they clean up their act?” \nButterfield received clemency in April 2020. Butterfield was 74 years old – one of the oldest people in Oregon’s prison system. She had served 23 years for shooting her abusive boyfriend during a fight\, injuries which later killed him. \nIn prison\, she maintained a spotless disciplinary record and became a mother figure to younger female prisoners. “I changed my life\,” Butterfield said. “Prison cleaned me up\, gave me a sense of worth again.” \nShe began crying as she recalled Mayhew calling to tell her she had been granted clemency. She now lives in central California with friends\, who have given her free rein of the garden. “I love doing yard work here\,” she said. \nIn March\, a county judge upheld Brown’s Covid-19 and firefighter commutations but halted the parole hearings for the juvenile offenders. Brown appealed\, the Oregon court of appeals heard oral argument in June\, and\, in early August\, issued a 44-page opinion entirely rejecting Mannix’s case. Mannix has asked the Oregon supreme court to review the decision. The court has not yet indicated whether it will. \nThe recent controversy does not dissuade Brown\, who leaves office in January\, from continuing to grant clemency. She said: “I have the ability to make these decisions” – just like all governors before her.
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/peace-love-happiness-understanding-10-6-22/
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SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  10/15/22
DESCRIPTION:photo by Kim Stafford \n  \n  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nOctober 15\, 2020 \n  \nWhy the Beach? \n  \nHalf the horizon is ancient: no wires\, no roads\, no \ndevelopment. Maybe a boat out there tracing lonesome. \nWaves make a roar\, a whisper\, a heartbeat. People \nare here to be here. They walk barefoot\, like children. \nChildren run wild. Weather rules it all. Something \nbigger is in charge of you. And every night\, she \nreasserts her sovereignty. And every night\, she \ncleans up. Yesterday’s tracks are gone\, even \nthe dance of a dog’s joy. Lots of soaring goes on— \ngulls\, crows\, pelicans\, maybe a kite\, maybe your gaze\, \nyour spirit spiraling the sky. Each day an old man \nwalks to pick up litter. Each day an old woman walks \nto find the perfect stone. You can walk without a plan. \nYou can sing the wind. You can cry in peace. You can \nremember being small. You can be small beside immensity. \nYou can be the simple you. When you said\, “I’m \ngoing to the beach\,” no one said\, “Why?” \n  \n—Kim Stafford \n* \n  \n#321  Be There For Breakfast \n  \n“”When you eat your breakfast\, even if it is just a small bite early in the morning\, eat in such a way that freedom is possible While eating breakfast\, don’t think of the future\, of what you are going to do. Your practice is to simply eat breakfast. Your breakfast is there for you; you have to be there for your breakfast. You can chew each morsel of food with joy and freedom.”  Thich Nhat Hanh (from Your True Home) \n  \nA few years ago I was hiking with several women friends\, and they were talking about a streamlined new model of a Vitamix blender/food processor. “You can put anything in there to make a breakfast smoothie\,” they said. “Kale\, arugula\, garlic\, blueberries\, yogurt\, zucchini\, ice cream…you name it. All these good -for-you foods blended so you can’t taste a thing except something like a sort of vanilla milkshake flavor. Better yet\, you can just drink it down in a minute and be out the door!” \n  \nI thought about that for a minute\, kind of confused\, and said\, “But I like to CHEW my food!” And it’s true; I love the squish of blueberries and the crunch of an almond and the squeeze of a raisin and the creamy splash of almond milk — well\, you get the picture.  \n  \nPlus it’s about fifteen minutes of time when I don’t have to do anything except eat food. Nor do I do much talking to my husband when I am eating breakfast\, because that can totally suck away my concentration\, my attention to that luscious bowl of cereal and fruit and nuts. \n  \nI might have trouble paying attention to a number of other things in life\, but paying attention to breakfast is not one of them. \n  \n—Jude Russell \n* \n  \nI love Thomas Traherne. I often start my day by reading his poems and meditations. Here are a couple of his meditations: \n  \n48  \nLove is so divine and perfect a thing\, that it is worthy to be the very end and being of the Deity. It is His goodness\, and it is His glory. We therefore so vastly delight in Love\, because all these excellencies and all other whatsoever lie within it. By Loving a Soul does propagate and beget itself. By Loving it does dilate and magnify itself. By Loving it does enlarge and delight itself. By Loving also it delighteth others\, as by Loving it doth honor and enrich itself. But above all by Loving it does attain itself. Love also being the end of Souls\, which are never perfect till they are in act what they are in power. They were made to love\, and are dark and vain and comfortless till they do it. Till they love they are idle\, or mis-employed. Till they love they are desolate; without their objects\, and narrow and little\, and dishonorable: but when they shine by Love upon all objects\, they are accompanied with them and enlightened by them. Till we become therefore all Act as God is\, we can never rest\, nor ever be satisfied.  \n  \n49  \nLove is so noble that it enjoyeth others’ enjoyments\, delighteth in giving all unto its object\, and in seeing all given to its object. So that whosoever loveth all mankind\, he enjoyeth all the goodness of God to the whole world: and endeavoreth the benefit of Kingdoms and Ages\, with all whom He is present by Love\, which is the best manner of presence that is possible.  \n  \n(from Centuries of Meditations\, Second Century) \n  \npeace\, love & happiness to y’all \n—Johnny \n* \n  \nLife is amazing. And then it’s awful. \nAnd then it’s amazing again. And \nin between the amazing and the awful \nit’s ordinary and mundane and routine. \nBreathe in the amazing\, hold on through \nthe awful\, and relax and exhale during \nthe ordinary. That’s just living \nheart-breaking\, soul-healing\, amazing\, \nawful\, ordinary life. And it’s \nbreathtakingly beautiful. \n  \n—LR Knost\, from The Idealist Facebook page\, sent by Jason Beito \n* \n  \nAshes and mist\, \nMemories and smiles\, \nTears. \nUnexpected joy\, \nAcceptance and fate \nFulfilled. \nSo much gained\, \nout of a life lost\, \nUnderstanding. \nGood times echo\, \nBad times too\, \nTogetherness. \nThe love we all \nHave\, \nIs never ending\, \nIt has no boundaries\, \nAnd if there are boundaries\, \nLove breaks them all. \n  \nLove you mom. \n  \n—Rocky Hutchinson \n* \n  \nHere are some excerpts from Michel Deforge’s meditation journal. The numbers refer to meditations in Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh. \n  \nSeptember 5\, 2022  #353  Why Hurry to the Grave? \n  \nThis is a curious question. I wonder…how many of us are hurrying towards the final conclusion? It’s kind of a cop-out—to run pell mell ahead towards an obvious end. Some cheat and check out early. Some live life at an aggressive pace\, most failing to participate in the few brief precious moments as they fly by. It’s almost as if they are in a hurry to find out what’s next. Which would be great\, except for one thing. No one has reliably and credibly done so and revealed what is the next step after death. So\, why hurry? \n  \nMore importantly: why not slow down and enjoy the moments we have NOW? Is it not in our best interest to not only live a rich\, textured\, deeply rewarding life\, one where it is possible to savor each moment\, instead of scratching our noggins wondering\, “What just happened? Was I there?” It is certainly possible to live robustly and not have clue one what going on\, or why. Many do this\, or hope/believe they do. I propose that the age-old addage “stop and smell the roses” was coined by one who realized life was warping past him and\, somehow\, this was the cause of life’s dissatisfaction. For a moment\, maybe\, he did settle and renewed his energy\, vitality\, spirit\, inner self/being. We too can do this with mindfulness practices—simply focusing on the relaxing act of breathing and allowing awareness to expand and welcome everything. \n  \nSeptember 7\, 2022  #355 Your Suffering Needs You \n  \nThây aks us to think of suffering as a pet\, one needing attention. I like this. Wouldn’t any compassionate being attend to the needs of an animal (pet) which could not attend to its own needs? Of course. Look at all the people up in arms about having pets (and children) unattended in hot summer cars (ovens). I think it’s possible to do better for our own suffering. I’ve seen lately\, having created anxiety for myself over an aversion I developed\, that suffering is self-imposed. No one creates suffering for me. Suffering occurs as part of my response to events\, regardless of who initiated the events. Suffering is merely a state of mind—one way of seeing events unfold\, never as they are. Suffering is self-inflicted\, by choice. (Active or passive\, known or unknown.) We can end it any time with a different choice. \n  \nBut\, Thây here is asking us to “take care of” self. It’s more than your suffering that needs attending. We also have bodies\, minds\, sensations\, emotions: these all will benefit from attention and compassionate treatment. It is so very easy to get tied up chasing life experiences that a time out to care for mind and body are either neglected entirely\, or provided only cursory attention to resolve immediate needs. For example\, a “quick shower\,” a “brief meditation\,” a “hasty meal. I’m not suggesting that we always drop everything (frequently) and take a “spa day.” Yet…what would it hurt to have a regular mindfulness practice of more than 5-15 minutes? Or\, to plan a soothing hot shower\, maybe after a rigorous physical exertion. (We don’t have bathing tubs or I’d suggest a long hot soak!) A mindfulness practice is not just the time spent sitting on a cushion in meditation practice—it’s more than this. I see an opportunity to bring awareness (even if informally) to any thing I do…. \n  \nSeptember 8\, 2022  #356  The Buddha’s Highest Teaching \n  \nThis is an idea for which I have little to say. Maybe that’s good. In the end\, each of us must find our own way. Whatever path (or stage of the same one) we are on\, it is the personal decision that commits to and follows the path. Our only certainty is that\, at some future point\, the road will end for each of us\, or we’ll transition to another “plane” to continue our journey—no one really knows. \n  \nPain\, although unpleasant at the time\, is important. It reminds us to be present NOW. Nothing keeps me focused on the present like pain. If I don’t attend to NOW\, looking ahead or behind too much\, pain will happen and bring me back to this. Pain—temporary discomfort to sharp\, searing\, stabbing fire—is only temporary. The challenge I faced this past operation [for a hip replacement] is to welcome pain as the friend it is\, instead of an enemy to be feared. Pain reminded me to breathe. It was a stream I had to pass (wade) through—one which I could not go around. The only way is through\, with breathing. \n  \nPain is our teacher\, providing experiences of what to do/not do—essentially teaching each of us attentiveness to NOW. Some lessons are unavoidable. They make us more resilient when other pains arrive. Still\, it’s: “Just breathe!” That’s the solution. Pray\, chant mantra\, meditate\, exercise\, move with purpose and extreme focus—be in the “flow”—all of this in preparation for attention to NOW. When I lose my NOW-focus\, pain isn’t far behind to bring me back home. Maybe that’s Thây’s\, or the Buddha’s\, point: we’re never too far away that we can’t get back with a breath or two. \n  \nSeptember 9\, 2022  The Simple Act of Walking \n  \nI’ve oft heard others grouse that “back in the olde days” life was more…(whatever they miss). But what if what we miss is the relaxed pace of life? The solution is simple—become a Luddite! No! Walk! \n  \nAs one who recently was restored to the gift of walking\, relatively pain-free—(my second surgery now looms)—I realize I forgot how wonderful walking can be. Although I am limited to a 1/16 mile concrete track/walkway—(check TRCI out at Google Earth)—being able to walk for any length of time is a treat. Now I can stroll\, or meander\, get some exercise\, or just stand outside and breathe…. \n  \nWalking takes time. As a result\, life operates at a slower pace. Yet we yearn for this pace. \n  \nThe solution is easy: Walk more! Make it a choice\, preferably a happy one. Revel in your ability to stroll\, promenade\, wander\, roam. Breathe. Smile. Be aware of your surroundings. And above all\, enjoy a walk! Do it for me!! \n  \n—Michel Deforge \n* \n  \nOctober 10\, 2022 \n  \nToday is the recognition and celebration of Native Americans\, known now as Indigenous People’s Day. This is only the second year our state has officially designated the second Monday in October for this holiday. It is not only an honoring of Native American’s past but a pause for the present and future generations suffering from loss of lives and language and culture and years of institutional oppression. \n  \nDriving out to Two Rivers has become a meditation for me on the presence of these ancestors and those still here struggling. The Columbia River and the expanse of the Gorge time-worn hills has a way of making my heart and mind expand with spaciousness. Passing through Celilo and Umatilla and further on toward Joseph or Warm Springs we know so many stories and become affected once again by their stories. Their present story is more than casinos or being devastated by past trauma. Oregon has many Indigenous communities across the state; it is home to nine federally recognized tribes\, mostly confederated which include many tribes. Native organizations and communities now partner with their own voices and their own leaders\, with a variety of cultural centers from universities to Arts Councils. \n  \nAs part of our mindfulness community\, we can share a sacred practice in the Buddhist tradition\, called Touching the Earth. Its focus is on spiritual awareness\, recognizing and connecting with our ancestors of our blood family\, our spiritual family\, and our ancestors of this land. \n  \nHere are Thay’s words for touching our ancestors of this place we live. To begin\, you might want to make an altar with something from your blood ancestors or spiritual ancestors\, and something from the earth. Take a few breaths in and out. Feel your feet\, or your whole body lying down—supported by the Earth. Feel the spaciousness of your mind and heart\, as we practice for our own understanding of interbeing and for peace for all beings. \n  \nFrom Thich Nhat Hanh’s book\, Creating True Peace: \n  \n“In gratitude\, I bow to this land and all of the ancestors who made it available.” \n  \n(Sound a bell if you have something at hand\, or maybe hum a deep tune\, then touch the earth.) \n  \n“I see that I am whole\, protected\, and nourished by this land and all of the living beings who have been here and made life easy and possible for me through all their efforts. I see Chief Seattle\, Dorothy Day\, Cesar Chavez\, Martin Luther King\, Jr.\, and all the others known and unknown. I see all those who have made this country a refuge for people of so many origins and colors\, by their talent\, perseverance\, and love—those who have worked hard to build schools\, hospitals\, bridges\, and roads\, to protect human rights\, to develop science and technology\, and to fight for freedom and social justice. I see myself touching my ancestors of Native American origin who have lived on this land for such a long time and known the ways to live in peace and harmony with nature\, protecting the mountains\, forests\, animals\, vegetation\, and minerals of this land. I feel the energy of this land penetrating my body and soul\, supporting and accepting me. I vow to cultivate and maintain this energy and transmit it to future generations. I vow to contribute my part in transforming the violence\, hate\, and delusion that still lie deep in the collective consciousness of this society so that future generations will have more safety\, joy\, and peace. I ask this land for its protection and support.” \n  \nThank you for your practice and may we become more Native to this place as our Mindfulness evolves\, \n  \nwith love\, \n—Katie Radditz \n* \n  \nPrayer For the Great Family \n  \nGratitude to Mother Earth\, sailing through night and day– \n  and to her soil: rich\, rare and sweet \n    in our minds so be it. \n  \nGratitude to Plants\, the sun-facing light-changing leaf \n  and fine root hairs: standing still through wind \n  and rain; their dance is in the flowing spiral grain \n    in our minds so be it. \n  \nGratitude to Air\, bearing the soaring Swift and the silent \n  Owl at dawn. Breath of our song \n  clear spirit breeze \n    in our minds so be it. \n  \nGratitude to Wild Beings\, our brothers\, teaching secrets\, \n  freedoms and ways; who share with us their milk; \n  self- complete\, brave\, and aware \n    in our minds so be it. \n  \nGratitude to Water: clouds\, lakes\, rivers\, glaciers; \n  holding or releasing; streaming through all \n  all bodies salty seas \n    in our minds so be it. \n  \nGratitude to the Sun: blinding pulsing light through \n  trunks of trees\, through mists\, warming caves where \n  bears and snakes sleep–he who wakes us– \n    in our minds so be it. \n  \nGratitude to the Great Sky \n  who holds billions of stars–and goes yet beyond that– \n  beyond all powers\, and thoughts \n  and yet is within us– \n  Grandfather Space \n  The Mind is his Wife. \n    so be it. \n                      \n                         after a Mohawk prayer. \n  \n—Gary Snyder (sent by Jeffrey Sher) \n  \nI have always experienced this poem as a meditation though I do not have a formal practice. The sense of gratitude pervades my life: I look out my kitchen window and witness a hummingbird feeding on the last of the hot lips salvia and am filled with awe and gratitude. Taking a shower and having the luxury of clean hot water and once again I feel a deep sense gratitude. I think of the wonderful friends I have been fortunate to have over the years and am flooded with gratitude. There are so many moments in life that are worthy of a moment’s reflection upon how fortunate most of us are. Gratitude is the response to the gift we have been given. \n  \n—Jeffrey Sher
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-10-15-22/
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DTSTAMP:20260426T133448
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SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!: Neruda\, Mistral\, García Márquez\, et cetera 11/6/22
DESCRIPTION:Gabriel García Márquez \n  \n  \n \nGabriela Mistral \n  \n \nPablo Neruda \n  \nBeloved Bibliophiles! \n  \nOn Sunday\, November 6th\, at 3 pm (PST)\, our topic will be: Neruda\, Mistral\, García Márquez\, et cetera. We’ll talk about our favorite Spanish language authors\, including these three Nobel Prize winners\, read poems\, and so on. \n  \nHere’s the link:  \n  \nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058 \n  \n  \nI hope to see you there!  \n  \npaz\, amor y felicidad  \nJuanito en Guanajuato
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-neruda-mistral-garcia-marquez-et-cetera-11-6-22/
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20221115
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CREATED:20221115T214609Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221116T190448Z
UID:3413-1668470400-1671062399@openroadpdx.com
SUMMARY:Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue  11/15/22
DESCRIPTION:  \n  \nAtmopadesha Satakam of Narayana Guru \nVerse 5 \n  \nWorldly people\, having slept\,  \nwake and think many thoughts\, \nEver wakefully witnessing all this shines an unlit lamp\, \nPrecious beyond words\, that never fades; \nEver seeing this\, one should go forward. \n  \nOpen Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue \n  \nNovember 15\, 2022 \n  \nJohnny and Nancy are taking a break in their Guanajuato casita\, so I am writing to you today from home in Portland.  I love how your contributions of stories and poems have many creatures trotting  through them.  I have just returned from a drive through the middle of Oregon – walking in the Painted Hills\, looking for the Honey Mushroom\, learning some of our devastating past history and how small towns are redeeming some of it by what they save. People were kind\, helpful\, available all along the way.  We waved and sent best wishes as we stopped on the Columbia banks near Two Rivers on the way home.   \n  \nRose this morning\, to such a gorgeous day\, leaves drifting down in a breeze like dry rain drops.  The trees are trying to turn gold and red\, but most are hanging onto summer greens. Even though it was freezing this morning! On my early morning walk\, the lawns and meadows were bright white with frost.   Still in the magic of it\, I sense a sigh of relief in the air too now that voting is over and we are finding a new path forward.    \n  \nThay would have loved to read our newsletter too! Thank you for sharing your practice. In gratitude\, Katie \n  \nA Brief Comment on This Month’s Cover \nAtmopadesha Satakam\, Verse 5 \n  \n(Atmopadesha Satakam or “One Hundred Verses of Self-Instruction” is a wisdom text composed in the late 19th century by Narayana Guru\, a contemplative master of the Advaita Vedanta tradition.) \n  \nWorldly people\, having slept\, wake and think many thoughts; \nEver wakefully witnessing all this shines an unlit lamp\, \nPrecious beyond words\, that never fades; \nEver seeing this\, one should go forward. \n  \nThis is a verse of practical instruction about the rhythm of psychological transformations that all people undergo on a daily basis. Emerging from a deep slumber\, where there is no thought\, we find ourselves either in a dream state\, with its fantastic contents\, or we wake up and encounter a physical world\, one which triggers a stream of related thoughts\, imaginations and memories. Our thoughts come in an endless\, seemingly irresistible flow\, one after the other\, sometimes through association with other thoughts\, and sometimes just “out of the blue”. Our thoughts are pleasurable or painful or neutral\, and they shape our lives for good or ill\, seemingly often without our consent or control. As the Buddha noticed centuries ago in the Dhammapada: “what we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday…our life is the creation of our mind.”  We experience our thoughts sequentially\, but if we could somehow step back and visualize an entire day’s worth of thoughts\, they might collectively resemble a cloud of birds or school of fish\, with individual perceptions\, conceptions and imaginations sometimes strongly but often barely related with one another. After a period of busy mental activity\, our energy is spent\, sleep eventually returns and the cloud of thoughts subsides. \n  \nNarayana Guru doesn’t say that we should manage or suppress our thoughts or aim to improve them; instead he makes a simple observation: thoughts are objects of a pre-existing self-founded awareness\, without which they could never arise. Here he paints the metaphoric picture of a lamp\, perhaps the kind of hanging oil lamp with cotton wicks familiar to people in South India. The lamp is unlit\, and “never shall go out again”. Interestingly\, light itself is invisible\, as is awareness. The Guru identifies this light\, this awareness\, as the very basis of thought and our fundamental nature. \n  \nThis basic observation can help us recognize that we contain what the Buddhist meditation teacher Chogyam Trungpa called “a source of tremendous sanity”. “Ever seeing this”\, becoming familiar with this truth and cultivating an identity with this simple awareness\, can place our thoughts\, whatever they may be\, in an entirely new and peaceful context. It’s a powerful mode of practice. \n  \n– Andy Larkin \n  \nThe Moth Vote \n  \nNo more streetlights! (Let them all go dark). \nWe will have the moon. The minnow vote: \nNo more herons! We will glitter free. \nRivers agree: Go around the opposition. \nButterflies in solidarity: Don’t pin us down.  \nSkunk’s campaign slogan: It makes scents. \nThe race for top turtle got off to a slow start:  \nEasy does it. In the possum campaign\, scandal \ngot no traction: We all sleep around. Nail-biter? \nCliff-hanger\, dead-heat\, re-count\, run-off? \nThat’s the law of tooth and claw. But in  \nthe end\, mud won by a landslide. \n  \n– Kim Stafford \n  \nThe World Calls to Us \n  \nAn owl cuts wild ascents and swoops against the dusk \nas plaintive hooting rises out of the surrounding woods— \nnight’s denizens alive on our hillside. \nOne evening with light shadowing the Coast Range \na great horned owl stood at the top of a Douglas Fir\, \ncommanding the view—still\, so still—staring at us. \nNo other sounds\, no other birds on the currents\, simply the one owl\, \nan envoy of import speaking clearly. He rose and left\, stately \nand languidly\, only to come later in the same tree with the same call. \nAnother time we heard wings glide through the air\, \nangle lower\, fly closely overhead\, soft underside \ngleaming white\, and disappear silently into the twilight. \nOwls are Athena’s animal\, symbol of haughty wisdom \nlike the goddess herself\, fierce raptors bringing insight \nand the gift of clarity\, however mysterious. \nThey come to warn of deception or lies\, they come \nto prepare us for death\, the great departure\, they come \nas a call to our quickening pulse\, our bowed heads. \n  \n– Debbie Buchanan \n  \nField Notes on Owls \n  \nWe hear the owl call every night – sometimes the Great Horned sometimes the Barred Owl (I like to think of her as the Bard of our neighborhood.) Their hoots are distinctive and it feels like they call good night to us as well as to the creatures they may be hunting.   Because I don’t have a church nearby or a land line phone\, I don’t have a  bell sounding randomly near by. I now like to think of the Owl as the bell\, reminding me to breathe\, to inter-be with all that is inside and out\, and be present to the wonder of being alive in this cosmos.   \n  \nWe also hear the geese day and night calling to one another\, or calling for us to look up\, as they migrate. It makes me wonder about the owls who seem to stay.  Do they migrate? Do they hibernate? What happens to them during the winter? Amazed that I know so little about my neighbors\, I looked up these questions. So a bit of fascinating science:  Owls basically do neither.  Owls have no need to hibernate. Their bodies are uniquely adapted to survive harsh temperatures\, making it easier for them to deal with the cold and even hunt down prey when there’s snow. For the most part\, owls do not have a need to migrate either. They also don’t have the innate instinct to migrate that several bird species have. However\, some species of owls do engage in movement during the winter. \n  \nWhen owls move\, they are moving due to a lack of food in the area and are hunting for more accessible and abundant prey to catch. This behavior is known as irruption.  A new word to me!  I hope you can hear owls where you are and will stop to listen and breathe and be filled with wonder for being alive. \n  \n– Katie Radditz \n  \nPerceiving the Presence: \n  \nThis may be a practice for me to work on\, being open to become aware of the presence of another. The idea expands to develop awareness of the Source of Life in Nature around me\, a more general awareness\, I suspect. . . . .Why or how could any of us human beings\, or any beings anywhere merit the attention\, let alone the presence of the Source of Life; why should any of us “blips” matter?  Yet\, I hope that I\, we – all of us\, do some how\, that it is possible to stand in the Presence. \n  \n(to Michael\,   question of the ages\, contemplation of the sages.  And yet\,  here we are ALIVE and co-creating together\, conscious and mindful.  Per haps we are experiencing this presence right now. Thank you for the ques tion and for your generous letter from which I could only take a portion for  this week. -Katie) \n  \nUp Against the Wall \n  \nWe all hit walls in our lives. Sometimes they seem to rise out of nowhere\, catching us by surprise. And others we “saw” them coming and still ran flat-faced into another wall.  . . . When we stop running we have time to look up and see how vast the starry sky\, the galaxy\, even the universe. Until we do there’s just forward and back\, lost in the darkness\, running. It’s in the stop where all comes clear. It’s in the stop we connect with NOW. It’s in the stop we pause to breathe. . . Look up! Revel in your place. Smile. Be aware. You’re here NOW. Exactly where you need to be. Be here\, now\, fully your self\, in this moment.   \n  \n– Michel Deforge \n  \nSonoran Desert \n  \nLittle lizard curves left\, \neyes leading as he leans \ninto the air\, \nsmells caught \non flickering tongue\, \ntoes twitching. \nMovement ripples \nthrough the ground\, \nlittle lizard\, \ndenizen of desert and stone\, \nhot sand and red cliffs \nstops a moment\, shudders \nand disappears into the chaparral. \n  \n– Debbie Buchanan \n  \nJohnny Writes: \n  \nWe all use the first person pronoun “I” every day. What does it refer to?  \n  \nThe first answer that comes to mind is: “The guy sitting here typing this: Johnny Stallings.” But who or what is Johnny Stallings? And can the “I” refer to something bigger? Here are two entries from Encyclopædia Jonnica: \n  \nJohnny Stallings. A fictional character. As Shakespeare said: “All the world’s a stage\, and all the men and women merely players.” I spend a certain amount of time pretending to be Johnny Stallings. If I don’t\, who will? A lot of the time\, though\, I feel no such responsibility or obligation. \n  \nStillness. Awake and alert\, when thought and language fall away\, a lovely state of serenity ensues\, to which there is no boundary. Indescribable. \n  \nAdvaita Vedantins speak of a universal Self that is the self of everyone. Buddhists say there is no self. Growing up\, as we learn language and create an identity\, we construct a self. Actors mysteriously become all kinds of people from play to play. How do they do that? Does the “I” of “I had an idea” refer to the same thing as the “I” of “I mowed the lawn”? \n\nWalt Whitman has inspired me to imagine what “I” might mean in more fluid ways. Who or what exactly is the self of his great poem “Song of Myself”? Here are some lines to ponder from his poem: \n  \n“I celebrate myself\, and sing myself\, \nAnd what I assume you shall assume\, \nFor every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. [1] \n  \nI am of old and young\, of the foolish as much as the wise…. \nOf every hue and caste am I\, of every rank and religion\, \nA farmer\, mechanic\, artist\, gentleman\, sailor\, quaker\, \nPrisoner\, fancy-man\, rowdy\, lawyer\, physician\, priest. \nI resist any thing better than my own diversity\,   [16] \n  \nIn all people I see myself\, none more and not one a barley-corn less…. \nI know I am deathless…. \nOne world is aware and by far the largest to me\, and that is myself  [20] \n  \nWalt Whitman\, a kosmos…. \nDivine am I inside and out\, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touched from… \nThis head more than churches\, bibles\, and all the creeds…. \nEach moment and whatever happens thrills me with joy  [24] \n  \nDazzling and tremendous how quick the sun-rise would kill me\, \nIf I could not now and always send sun-rise out of me…. \nEncompass worlds\, but never try to encompass me  [25] \n  \nAll truths wait in all things…. \nI believe the soggy clods shall become lovers and lamps\,    [30] \n  \nI find I incorporate gneiss\, coal\, long-threaded moss\, fruits\, grains\, esculent roots\, \nAnd am stuccoed with quadrupeds and birds all over…. \nIn vain objects stand leagues off and assume manifold shapes     [31] \n  \nOver the white and brown buckwheat\, a hummer and buzzer there with the rest…. \nI am the hounded slave…. \nI do not ask the wounded person how he feels\, I myself become the wounded person…. \nI take part\, I see and hear the whole    [33] \n  \nI….Embody all presences outlaw’d or suffering\, \nSee myself in prison shaped like another man…. \nNot a youngster is taken in larceny but I go up too\, and am tried and sentenced. \nNot a cholera patient lies at the last gasp but I also lie at the last gasp   [37] \n  \nBehold\, I do not give lectures or a little charity\, \nWhen I give I give myself.   [40] \n  \nImmense have been the preparations for me…. \nCycles ferried my cradle\, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen\, \nFor room to me stars kept aside in their own rings…. \nMy embryo has never been torpid\, nothing could overlay it. \nFor it the nebula cohered to an orb     [44] \n  \nAnd nothing\, not God\, is greater to one than one’s self is…. \nI hear and behold God in every object\, yet understand God not in the least\, \nNor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. \nWhy should I wish to see God better than this day? \nI see something of God each hour of the twenty-four\, and each moment then\, \nIn the faces of men and women I see God\, and in my own face in the glass   [48] \n  \nThere is that in me—I do not know what it is—but I know it is in me…. \nI do not know it—it is without name—it is not in any dictionary\, utterance\, symbol.   [50] \n  \nDo I contradict myself? \nVery well then I contradict myself\, \n(I am large\, I contain multitudes.)   [51] \n  \nI depart as air\, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun\, \nI effuse my flesh in eddies\, and drift it in lacy jags. \nI bequeath myself to the dirt\, to grow from the grass I love\, \nIf you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.”   [52] \n  \nIf Walt Whitman’s I is so variegated and vast—what about yours and mine? \n  \n-“Johnny Stallings” \n  \nA Lion’s Pride \n  \nThe lion asked the leopard\, “May I have a spot?” But the leopard sneered and scoffed\, “Surely I think not!” \nSo the lion went on his way\, his head held high in pride\, looking for acceptance\, with purpose in his stride. \nThe lion then asked Cheetah\, “may I borrow some of your speed?” But the cheetah sped into the distance and ignored the lion’s need. \nThe lion asked Hyena\, “Will you teach me any tricks?” But the hyena only laughed and giggled while licking at his lips. So the lion went on his way again\, his head held high in pride\, looking for acceptance\, with purpose in his stride. \nThe Lion then came to a pool where the other lions drank; he sat down most unhappy to think upon the bank. \nHe looked around while waiting for his anger to subside\, and saw each and every lion brimming full of pride. \nIt was then that Lion rose in the epiphany of thought\, and sped his way through the other lions at a slow but steady trot. \nHe licked his lips and giggled\, while letting out a roar\, for in his pride he found acceptance and was wanting of no more.   \n  \n– Joshua Barnes \n(I wrote my story of the lion to my baby niece and nephew. My first short story poem. Let me know what you think; I’d love the feedback.) \n  \nThe Order of Interbeing \n  \nThich Nhat Hanh’s largest sangha\, that includes all of us practitioners\, is called the Order of Interbeing.   He would like to include the verb Inter-Be into the dictionary so that we can refer to ourselves as interbeings.  We inter-are with everything that is\, a huge but subtle difference from “we are all connected.” It’s expansive and freeing – like a response to Walt Whitman. When I grasp this\, it opens my heart to the beings around me – the lion\, the owl\, the hummer\, the lizard\, the moth.   It can move me from awareness to compassion\, beyond the I that is doing anything.   The following is my favorite writing by Thay\, especially nice to read when you are holding and looking at a piece of paper.  I am picturing you\, poets all\, now wherever you are reading.  \n  \n –  Katie \n   \n“If you are a poet\, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud\, there will be no rain; without rain\, the trees cannot grow; and without trees\, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here\, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet\, but if we combine the prefix “inter-” with the verb “to be\,” we have a new verb\, inter-be. \n  \nIf we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply\, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there\, the forest cannot grow. In fact\, nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so\, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look\, we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know the logger cannot exist without his daily bread\, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger’s father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way\, we see that without all of these things\, this sheet of paper cannot exist. \n  \nLooking even more deeply\, we can see we are in it too. This is not difficult to see\, because when we look at a sheet of paper\, the sheet of paper is part of our perception. Your mind is in here and mine is also. So we can say that everything is in here with this sheet of paper. You cannot point out one thing that is not here-time\, space\, the earth\, the rain\, the minerals in the soil\, the sunshine\, the cloud\, the river\, the heat. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. That is why I think the word inter-be should be in the dictionary. “To be” is to inter-be. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to inter-be with every other thing. This sheet of paper is\, because everything else is. \n  \nSuppose we try to return one of the elements to its source. Suppose we return the sunshine to the sun. Do you think that this sheet of paper will be possible? No\, without sunshine nothing can be. And if we return the logger to his mother\, then we have no sheet of paper either. The fact is that this sheet of paper is made up only of “non-paper elements.” And if we return these non-paper elements to their sources\, then there can be no paper at all. Without “non-paper elements\,” like mind\, logger\, sunshine and so on\, there will be no paper. As thin as this sheet of paper is\, it contains everything in the universe in it.” \n  \n– Thích Nhất Hạnh \n  \nLook Deeply into Your Perceptions \n  \n#154 Thich Nhat Hanh\, Your True Home \n  \n“In most cases\, our perceptions are inaccurate\, and we suffer because we are too sure of them. Look at your perceptions and smile to them. Breathe\, look deeply into their nature\, and you will see that there are many errors in them. For example\, that person you are thinking about has no desire to harm you\, but you think that he does. It is important not to be a victim of your false perceptions. If you are a victim of your false perceptions\, you will suffer a lot. You have to sit down and look at perceptions very calmly. You have to look into the deepest part of their nature in order to detect what is false about them.” \n  \nI must realize that this is a difficult one for me\, because I see that just one or two months ago I wrote about Learning to Release our own Views. Ummm Hmmm. \n  \nDo I ever ‘sit down and look at perceptions very calmly’? Do I ever ‘look into the deepest part of their nature’? The more accurate question would be ‘Do I Listen to and Look more deeply into my (right wing/conservative) neighbor’s perceptions in order to discover flaws in my own perceptions? HOW CAN I? I ask you\, when his comments are constantly peppered with ‘facts’ about 2000 mules\, and massive voter fraud\, and Democratic pedophilia…what does looking deeply into inaccuracies in my own perceptions accomplish? I’m looking squarely at the ‘inaccuracies’ in his perceptions. Sorry\, but that’s the way I see it\, at least in terms of politics. \n  \nFortunately\, I can leave that on the doorstep and appreciate him for being the friendly\, helpful neighbor that he is. We share vegetables and garden tools and advice; he helps us with our interminable irrigation problems; and\, most importantly\, without our feeble requesting\, he regularly clears our driveway of mounds of snow with his massive snowplowing vehicle. \n  \nSo when I look deeply into my perceptions\, I have to admit that my neighbor is a pretty fine person…and that my perceptions are inaccurate. \n  \n– Jude Russell \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/meditation-mindfulness-dialogue-11-15-22/
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LAST-MODIFIED:20221203T083348Z
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SUMMARY:Bibliophiles Unanimous!  11/20/22
DESCRIPTION:Joy Harjo \n  \n  \nBeloved Bibliophiles! \n  \nAt our Bibliophiles Unanimous! Zoom gathering on November 20th\, Katie Radditz\, Martha Ragland\, Elizabeth Domike and I talked about American Indian Authors and Culture. Martha read two poems by Joy Harjo\, who was the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States\, from 2019-2022. She is a member of the Mvskoke Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv (Hickory Ground). Here are the poems: \n  \nThis Morning I Pray for My Enemies \n  \nAnd whom do I call my enemy? \nAn enemy must be worthy of engagement. \nI turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking. \nIt’s the heart that asks the question\, not my furious mind. \nThe heart is the smaller cousin of the sun. \nI sees and knows everything. \nIt hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing. \nThe door to the mind should only open from the heart. \nAn enemy who gets in\, risks the danger of becoming a friend. \n  \nSuicide Watch \n1.\nI was on a train stopped sporadically at checkpoints.\nWhat tribe are you\, what nation\, what race\, what sex\, what unworthy soul? \n2.\nI could not sleep\, because I could not wake up.\nNo mirror could give me back what I wanted. \n3.\nI was given a drug to help me sleep.\nThen another drug to wake up.\nThen a drug was given to me to make me happy.\nThey all made me sadder. \n4.\nDeath will gamble with anyone.\nThere are many fools down here who believe they will win. \n5.\nYou know\, said my teacher\, you can continue to wallow\, or\nYou can stand up here with me in the sunlight and watch the battle. \n6.\nI sat across from a girl whose illness wanted to jump over to me.\nNo! I said\, but not aloud.\nI would have been taken for crazy. \n7.\nWe will always become those we have ever judged or condemned. \n8.\nThis is not mine. It belongs to the soldiers who raped the young women on the Trail of Tears. It belongs to Andrew Jackson. It belongs to the missionaries. It belongs to the thieves of our language. It belongs to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It no longer belongs to me. \n9.\nI became fascinated by the dance of dragonflies over the river.\nI found myself first there. \n—Joy Harjo \n* \n  \nKatie and Jude both had high praise for Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom\, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Katie recommended that we read The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. She found this list of “10 Books by Indigenous Authors You Should Read” on the Literary Hub website: \n  \nLouise Erdrich\, The Round House  \nSherman Alexie\, Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories  \nLeslie Marmon Silko\, Ceremony  \nN. Scott Momaday\, House Made of Dawn  \nJames Welch\, Fools Crow  \nJanet Campbell Hale\, The Jailing of Cecelia Capture  \nLinda Hogan\, Mean Spirit  \nWinona LaDuke\, Last Standing Woman  \nPaula Gunn Allen\, The Woman Who Owned the Shadows \n  \nFor descriptions of the books\, click here: \n  \nhttps://lithub.com/10-books-by-indigenous-authors-you-should-read/   \n  \nDave Duncan couldn’t come for Bibliophiles Unanimous!\, but he sent the first two pages from My Indian Boyhood by Chief Luther Standing Bear\, who was the boy Ota K’te (Plenty Kill). He said reading those two pages gave him a better perspective on the issue of sports teams using Indians and Indian themes as their mascots. \n  \nAfter the Zoom\, Jude sent this: \n  \nHappy Thanksgiving\, everyone. I am thankful for all of you! \n  \nI’d like to add The Sentence\, by Louise Erdrich\, to the list of Indigenous authors. I did just get it from the local bookstore and am about 75 pages into it and know it’s going to be great! But the person who recommended it to me told me to be sure and look in the back for the author’s (totally biased) (as she fully acknowledges) lists of favorite books. She divides the (voluminous) list into categories: Indigenous Lives\, Indigenous Poetry\, Sublime Books\, Books for Banned Love\, Ghost-Managing Book List\, Short Perfect Novels\, Incarceration (“The Sentence” has two meanings here)…etc. etc. It is a wonderful list! \n  \nElizabeth shared this prose poem: \n  \nThe White Paws \n  \nThe fox with broken legs has a gift others do not. He removes his paws and they go walking through the woods at night alone. The paws stop to touch pondwater\, to brush a blade of saltgrass. They tap the backs of passing beetles in the dark. At dawn\, they return to the fox\, whispering of rabbits curled in damp caverns\, of green oak leaves and sand. The fox listens carefully; he gleans secrets of the world this way. He learns of the earth without lifting his nose from his long\, broken limbs. Always\, when the paws return they say we missed you\, always he listens. How young\, how simple they seem beside his face which is mottled and pocked. He gentles the paws like children. He hopes when he dies they live on without him. When his bones rattle and shake in wind\, he hopes the paws walk through autumn leaves\, pad softly through newfallen snow. He dreams they will drift across a black lake dappled with rain; that\, above it\, they’ll rise; they’ll glow like four pale moons. \n  \n—Dara Yen Elerath \n  \nKen Margolis wasn’t able to come to the Zoom get together\, but he sent this to me in an email: \n  \nIt was about fifteen years ago\, I guess\, that the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation was founded. I was asked to help set up their operation\, and worked with them on a part time basis for about a year and a half. Joy was on the board\, and was the board member I got closest to. Joy is so attached to the earth\, that if she jumped up\, the earth would follow her. She’s a poet\, singer\, entertainer who is committed to her culture. I went to one of her shows in a tavern in Albuquerque. She told stories reside poems\, chanted\, and pretty soon a band came up\, and it turned into music\, kind of Indian jazz. My impression of Joy is that her life is a work of art. \n* \n  \nI was in Mexico when we Zoomed. I talked about how\, in my view\, the distinction between “Native Americans” and “Mexicans” is an arbitrary one. Mexico is full of Indians! This is too big a subject to go into here\, but another name for most Mexicans (and for most of the people in Central and South America is “Indians” or “Native Americans”—even though many Native Americans south of the Rio Grande speak and write Spanish and Portuguese\, just as many Native Americans north of the Rio Grande speak and write English. (Over a thousand indigenous languages are spoken by the indigenous peoples of the Americas.) \n  \nAfter the Zoom was over\, some other books by and about Native Americans came to my mind including: \n  \nBlack Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt \nCoyote Was Going There: Indian Literature of the Oregon Country by Jarold Ramsey \nIndian Tales by Jaime de Angulo \nNaked Against the Rain: The People of the Lower Columbia River 1770-1830 by Rick Rubin \nThe Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda \nIndian Oratory: Famous Speeches by Noted Indian Chieftains compiled by W. C. Vanderwerth \nThe Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa \nBury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown \nIn the Absence of the Sacred by Jerry Mander \nYuuyaraq: The Way of the Human Being by Harold Napolean \n  \nOn the day after Thanksgiving\, which on my calendar is designated Native American Heritage Day\, I went to the library and found Joe Sacco’s book Paying the Land. I checked it out and read it. It’s great. It’s about the Dene people in the Northwest Territories. YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK! \n  \npeace & love \nJohnny \n  \n 
URL:https://openroadpdx.com/event/bibliophiles-unanimous-11-20-22/
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