Letting in the Light!

In his classic novel The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky tells us “I am sorry I can say nothing more to console you, for Love in Action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams”. Indeed. Love in Action is a harsh & dreadful thing. Some years ago I wrote a short poem titled “Credo”, using that quote as an epigraph. It went like this:  If it’s Peace we’re after / we must first find Justice./ If Justice is to be found / we must first learn to seek it / with open, compassionate Hearts./ If our Hearts are to feel Compassion / we must first become willing / to let them be broken open by Love in Action.

And so we begin again, because as the late Leonard Cohen has never stopped reminding us, there is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.

I’ve had more than a roomful of thoughts this week, resulting in a post with a lot of possible clicks. I know you won’t be drawn to all of them, but if you find one or two to be comforting or helpful, it will make me a happ(ier) camper. For starters, on a very gray morning came “Hospitality” from Substack’s 26^th Avenue Poet in which Elizabeth invites us to take a breath and put the kettle on when we find sadness sitting silent in the kitchen … to welcome whatever visitors the day may bring.

In her beautiful poem “On a Day When the World Has Its Way With Me”, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer nudges us with words like these: …now in this moment of clenched thoughts when we’d rather taste venom, we pour love into our cup and drink until once again it is only love that makes sense, only love that refills the cup. Naomi Shihab Nye ends “Gate A-4” with “Not everything is lost”, and “Jerusalem” with “It’s late, but everything comes next.” A sister Substack writer, Vicki Robin (Coming of Aging) declares I am not hopeless. I am only without the hopes I had … while Julia Fehrenbacher in “The Cure for it All” invites us to go gently today, don’t hurry or think about the next thing. Walk with the quiet trees, can you believe how brave they are – how kind?

If it’s more music you need, I invite you to take a few minutes now to loosen up those tense and tired muscles and bones with this by Aly Halpert.

In reviewing my past Light Waves, I came across this from Audre Lorde, quoted in July 2023  from a speech she made back in the ’90s … To refuse to participate in the shaping of our future is to give it up. Do not be misled into passivity either by false security (they don’t mean me) or by despair (there’s nothing we can do). Each of us must find our work and do it.

Interesting how some themes just keep showing up, don’t you think? As I continue to review my website musings, I realize that my “occasional” writing has gathered momentum these past two plus years and that sharing my view of the world through the kaleidoscope lens of poetry, music, activism, and the visual and performing arts seems to be a good fit for a growing number of readers. Seems like a good time to be drawing the circle wider and I’m wondering if there are more ways we can do that.  Prompted by Covid, I have been hosting a monthly online Sunday afternoon conversation for the past several years. Originally called “Speaking of Poetry”, it has morphed into a small but steady group of women who talk of many things. If you are interested in joining us, please contact me via comments and I’ll get back to you with the details.

So … Here are some of the materials I’ve connected with this week as I keep trying to make sense of what is happening.  They have helped me uncover some new cracks, widen others, and in each case, let in a bit more light. Maybe they will help you too.

Rebecca Solnit: How to Hope, Even Now.

The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.

Andrea Gibson: Post-Election Letter to a Friend

I keep asking myself, “What is my job in this moment? What do I specifically have to offer?” It’s empowering to ask those questions because no one’s job will be the same. There were many years of my life that I did not feel I was actively participating in change unless I was in the streets protesting.  As my health worsened, I knew that wasn’t where I would be of most service. Creatively explore where you might be most useful. Throw a What’s My Job party and explore the question with your community. Friends may reflect a specific talent or gift they see in you that you haven’t yet recognized.

Have you noticed how all of these offerings not only encourage us to find and do what is ours to do, but to take time to nurture and strengthen ourselves for the harsh and dreadful love it’s going to take to get through this next while?

YES! Magazine says it beautifully in this most provocative article, Rest as Resistance.  In her new book, We Will Rest! The Art of Escape, Tricia Hersey offers us her own life as a model for how we can collectively escape “grind culture” and consider embracing rest as a spiritual practice.

Heather Cox Richardson: Politics Chat, November 12th

We hear the message of “rest” even from Heather, who acknowledges her exhaustion too. If you have 50 minutes to spare, I really encourage you to watch this one … if you haven’t already. When I desperately need ‘the facts’ and especially when I need them from a historical perspective, Heather is my ‘go to’ person.

And when I need someone to remind me how not to fall into the fascist trap of trauma response and the pre-emptive obedience that Timothy Snyder warns against in On Tyranny (another book you might want to read if you haven’t) I sit with Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin (ECM) for a half hour or so on Resistance Live. I have to admit that her delivery style jangles me a bit, but it’s worth it for the pony she can almost always pull out of an enormous pile of horse manure.

When I need a look at the much, much larger picture, there’s always been something comforting to me about astrology. If you’d like to step back and gaze at it all more like a mandala than a snapshot, try Lorna Bevan’s Hare in the Moon post where she talks about Rewinding & Recalibrating and the Evolution of Society & Technology.

Not at all comforting, but as an important part of helping me to better understand those whom I haven’t been able to, I am exploring The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)  …  a theological belief and controversial movement that combines elements of Pentecostalism, evangelicalism and the Seven Mountains Mandate.

Engaging in conversation fueled by genuine curiosity rather than pre-judgement, with folks whose thinking and behavior seem foreign to me, is one of my hopes for this next while.  Having done a bit of that with Braver Angels, whose National Ambassador, John Wood Jr. made this statement:  Let us make space for one another’s pain and frustrations. Let us be gracious in victory and defeat while understanding the agony of those who are not. And though it may take time for some of us, let us recommit ourselves to showing America that it is possible to oppose each other’s politics while still remaining true to one another—for the sake of democracy and for the sake of ourselves.  His statement reminded me of the one by Tommy Olafsson that is the epigraph for Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem, Jerusalem: Let’s be the same wound if we must bleed / Let’s fight side by side, even if the enemy / is ourselves: I am yours, you are mine.

I’m hoping to practice further with One Small Step, a project of NPR’s Storycorps. I may have more to say about that later.

And last but not least, here’s a snippet from the November 9^th Daily Good, “How to Turn Down the Tension in a Conversation”.  Encouragement to talk with and listen to others about what is mutually important. Words are windows, or they’re walls, They sentence us, or set us free. When I speak and when I hear, Let the love light shine through me. – Ruth Bebermeyer

Dostoyevsky said it well and so did Rebecca Solnit  …   There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good. You can keep walking whether it’s sunny or raining.

And so, dear friends and fellow rascals, let us keep walking together, ringing the bells that still can ring and widening the crack that lets in the light …

Until next time, with Love,
Sulima