Humans vulnerability is inevitable. From infancy all the way to old age, community connection and support are needed for individuals to flourish. We owe our survival to each other! How to hold the growing tension of hostile opposing views? How to confront and respond wisely to injustice and conflict in human relationships? Mindfulness can hold conflicting feelings like love and hate, sadness and joy, so they can peacefully co-exist. Meditation hones this skill, just as social media and technology can play a divisive role, exploiting human weakness and intensifying conflict.

Spiritual maturity asks me to stand up for what I value while holding perfectly imperfect humanity with understanding and compassion. This is the middle way taught by the Buddha. When I can mindfully hold mixed or opposing views in awareness simultaneously, steadily, I open a doorway into the unknown. In this “don’t-know mind”, there is no conflict, just peaceful presence. Mindfulness invites you, too, to pause and be still for a moment. Then it’s easier to let go of the need to “other” and judge. Years ago, Joni Mitchell sang: “I’ve looked at life from both sides now. From win and lose and still somehow…I really don’t know life at all.” Cherishing human dignity, with humility and respect for all we don’t know, you and I can be here, now – and look at both sides with care.

~Trudy Goodman

and I wish for you all the good feels…..

inquiry for today~ and the measure of your days?

why hope now?

Do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,

be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees or the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

~Desiderata