The Heart Knows

Spiritual Warriors

Last night I went to bed with joy swelling in my heart. For I had watched the awakening of America, and I felt proud once again to be an American.

I understand how we have felt beaten down. Once I saw a movie where, in a Nazi concentration camp, a man was stripped naked, tied to a post as tribal hunters would bring home a fresh kill, sprayed with water, and allowed to freeze to death.

The inmates were forced to watch.

I was screaming inside, " Rush him, you are more than him, rush the man with the hose, the man with the gun. He will only shoot one or two of you before the rest overpowers him.

But who wants to be the first?

You need a unified group behind you. Otherwise, you are just another dead idealist.

We value our lives and want to live. And if the one inmate had spoken, had suggested the overrun, he would have been a goner, and the others would be back in fear and captivity.

We needed a small group of warriors to silently walk for peace. To stir our hearts to health and hope once again.

 

 

And the I.C.E  killings lit the spark that exists in the hearts of many of us, that we aren’t going to take it anymore.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUMXkqbjYyv/

And this is only a part of the people. They are taking to the streets in LA, San Diego, Boston, all over. We are watching history—we are always making history, but this is unprecedented. I began copying photos to save for posterity and to share. (It’s all over Instagram—for that’s where people are photographing and posting, and where you see kind hearts all over the place. People have lined up for 7 miles to praise the Monks on their 2,300-mile hike for peace. But if you aren’t watching Instagram, you can miss it.

This morning, my surging heart dropped a notch when I turned on my computer and saw nothing about the marches, the assemblages of people all over America who say, “We aren’t going to take it anymore.” I did see that a judge issued a ruling on I.C.E.’s presence in Minnesota.

 

“U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez denied a request from Minnesota officials for a temporary restraining order, despite acknowledging what she described as “profound and even heart breaking” consequences for communities in the state.”

She said “those are not the only harms to be considered,” however.

“The Eighth Circuit has recently reiterated that entry or injunction barring the federal government from enforcing federal law imposes significant harm on the government,” the judge wrote.”

 “Significant harm on the government?!!! Brother! Hey, did you notice, I.C.E. is killing people, and the government is blaming the victims? And the President will not intervene in a Democratic jurisdiction unless they say, "Please." Silly me, I thought we were a two party system.

 

There is a sign over the door at the Cardo Rehab Gym at the River Bend Hospital in Springfield, Oregon that reads:

“The heart can do anything.”

 

P.S. I have opened a New Newsletter, and for the past four days have posted small comments. I would love it if you would join me. 

click on the image

 

 

This is what commitment looks like: 

 

Life is What Happens While You Are Making Other Plans

The week has been filled with other events besides my writing. Thanks for hanging in there with me until I get back on track.

Today is Tuesday—yes, I know, I’m blogging late, but I had things in mind to write, just not time to tell them.

I wanted to talk about the takeaways I got from this past week.

Number One, The Buddhist’s Peace Walk:

 

 

I’m so impressed with the monks who make no political statements, no religious judgements, just walk to awaken Peace. And many people are responding. It is a great attention getter and people need a leader, so they rally. And so am I, for they have touched my heart.

They made me rethink the search for happiness everyone talks about. “Search for Peace.” That sounds more doable. We can’t be happy all the time, but we could be peaceful in our bodies, in thought and deed, and let happiness come as a surprise, a gift, a blessing.

The monks just walk, and Aloka, the Peace Dog, trots along, although now he is in recovery from surgery, and I’m glad they are taking good care of him.

And their walk added perspective to the hours I needed for a Continuing Education Real Estate Course I didn’t want to take.

Thirty hours were easy compared to walking 2,300 miles in 120 days.

Takeaway from my Course:

“Let’s sell the Tiny House on April 11, 2026 ,” I tell my daughter, “in honor of the Fair Housing Act of April 11, 1968.

That act was a Humongous TURNING POINT for the country and for human rights.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the Fair Housing Act. This was when riots were happening, and America was in the midst of unrest. President Johnson called Congress and said, “Pass that Bill!”

The bill, which had been debated to the nth degree with strong opposition, passed the following day.

Now, no person can be denied the purchase of a house based on color, race, Natural Origin, familial rights (children), disabilities, or sex. Elder rights came next. And the Disability and sex (it didn’t make sex illegal, it allowed a single woman to buy a house) came a couple of years later.

Here’s our Tiny House on day one:

 

Today, the Tiny House is not complete, but it is close.

Daughter Dear has no time to complete it, although it was dear to her heart when she began renovating it, and she’s good at bashing out walls, tiling, and adding exquisite features.

A buyer with a few hours could complete it.

She worked her fingers to the bone, and we found that a small house needs the same as a big house, just everything scrunched into a small space. The plumbing is in, the electricity was professionally installed, it’s piped for water, has a wall heater, kitchen cabinets, and an under-the-counter refrigerator. No countertop. We have the sink and bamboo flooring that need completion. DD tiled a complete wall in the kitchen and a complete bathroom with a tiled shower large enough for two people, or maybe a Great Dane dog.

The wall between the bathroom and the “living room,” which will be a bedroom at night, is still studs only. A mirrored wall there would give the illusion of a larger space, if an owner could stand to look at themselves that much.

Well, this sounds like a sales pitch. I wanted you to know what we are dealing with. And that my Real Estate course made me want to honor the FHA.

Three: Surprise,

The course mentioned the vagus nerve, and that it takes up more space in our bodies than our skin. It is there to connect to the amygdala of the brain, the seat of our feelings of unease and for telegraphing danger. It has kept us alive for millennia, though not in a fail-safe way, for we have developed so much logic that we talk ourselves out of intuitive feelings, sometimes saying it is only our imagination.

Real Estate Agents go into dangerous places sometimes, empty houses, warehouses, lofts, at night sometimes. The idea is to be focused and aware.

I was struck this week by a lecture on the Native Nations of  North America—how long they have been here, and that they had some of the same social issues we have—like fighting each other, and territorial disputes.

Sometimes you know something, but then later you really get it. That was the way I was with society and culture. I wondered how people like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, and Jesus could be so wise in times of barbarism.

Like, suddenly brilliance pops up.

It’s that we have cultures within our society. We have skin heads, KKK members living alongside Priests and Saints, and monks who do not proselytize, yet get verbally attacked for not being Christian. We have Southern, Northern, Midwest, Rural, and Urban inhabitants.

We have people who want to bomb entire areas back to the Stone Age, while others say, “Don’t do it.” “Your decision effects the rest of us.”

See how anger gets attention, and a soft voice hardly raises an eyebrow? Yet silence--it seems that the monks are on to something, walk, meditate, be in relaxed focus, make a statement, push yourself for a cause. 

We have progressive personalities and Conservative personalities of varying degrees, some are genetically predetermined, some are taught.

And then we try to have a Democracy where the majority rules.

It’s tricky.

 

Here is the Tiny House now, we had it pushed in under a high overhead to keep it out of the weather, and to allow DD easy access to materials in the garage a few feet away. The trouble is, our wonderful creative House mover, moved himself to Eastern Oregon, and now we must find a way to get the house back out. 

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• "Life is pretty simple:
  You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works.
  You do more of what works."

  --Leonardo da Vinci