A Prayer: Radiate Kindness All Over the World

Photo by Molly

As a mother who would risk her life to protect her child,

her only child, even so should one cultivate 

a limitless heart with regard to all beings. 

So with a boundless heart should one cherish 

all living beings; radiating kindness 

over the entire world.

— The Buddha

Pema Chödron: Cultivating Kinship

Photo by Molly

Cultivating Kinship

Whatever you are doing, take the 

attitude of wanting it directly or indirectly 

to benefit others. Take the attitude 

of wanting it to increase your experience 

of kinship with your fellow beings.

—  Pema Chödron

Mary Oliver: Song For Autumn

Photo by Molly

Song For Autumn

 In the deep fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
of the birds that will come – six, a dozen – to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.

— Mary Oliver 

Mark Nepo: When We Heal Ourselves

Photo by Molly

When We Heal Ourselves

Each of us carries some wisdom 

waiting to be discovered at the 

center of our experience.  

Everything we meet, 

if faced and held, 

reveals a part of that wisdom.

When we heal ourselves,

we heal the world.

For as the body is only as

healthy as its individual cells,

the world is only as healthy

as its individual souls.

― Mark Nepo

Satish Kumar: Creating a Sense of the Sacred

   A wise and beautiful soul. 

May the wisdom of Satish Kumar 

inform and inspire us all. 

🙏 Molly

Photo by Molly

Wisdom Quotes From 

Satish Kumar

There is at the moment in the world a battle going on between those who are pursuing materialistic paths ― globalizers of economic growth and those hell-bent on this 'big is better' idea ― on the one hand, and on the other hand those who are dedicated to spiritual renewal, more small-scale development, more human scale, more sustainability, more crafts and arts. Where human beings are not just sold to companies and money and those kinds of things. Where human beings have a sacred path.

The force and the strength for peace will come from people. And that will happen when people start to realize that all the diversity and differences we see of nationalities, of religions, of cultures, of languages, are all beautiful diversities, for they are only on the surface. And deep down we share the same humanity, the global humanity.

We live under the power of Modern Consciousness, which means that we are obsessed with progress. Wherever you are is not good enough. We always want to achieve something, rather than experience something. The opposite of this is Spiritual Consciousness. By that I mean you find enchantment in every action you do, rather in just the results of your action. Spiritual Consciousness is not a particular religion but a way of being.

Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale, and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me 'unrealistic' to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept.

At the moment, for example, maybe ten percent of money in the world is related to goods and services. Ninety percent of money is just moving around the world, chasing money. So, money has become the ruler. And we have become the servant. 

We are not slaves of the market. Our human life has a greater meaning than making money, making profit, and working for the market or for multinational corporations. 

In addition to world conflicts, the most challenging problem we face today is hunger, deprivation and social injustice. Because we're ruled by separate self-interest, we go on accumulating personal wealth, ignoring the well being of the others.

The scientific world, the materialistic world, the world of commerce, the world of business, the world of individualism, the world of capitalism, world of communism - all these worlds are the old story now. Where we think we exploit nature, we exploit people. Market rules, profit rules, money rules. We work for name, fame, power, money, profit. That's the old story. 

Speed is one of the great curses of modern civilization, obsession with speed leads to quantitative approach; we come to believe that more is better. This is very materialistic, we have to realize that it is the quality of life, quality of relationships, quality of food, medicine, education and everything else which matters. 

Someone, somewhere, needs to take courage to break the cycle of violence. Forgiveness is superior to justice. Being kind and compassionate to those who are good to you is easy. True forgiveness and compassion come only when one is able to forgive even those who have committed barbaric acts. 

We must realize that violence is not confined to physical violence. Fear is violence, caste discrimination is violence, exploitation of others, however subtle, is violence, segregation is violence, thinking ill of others and condemning others are violence. In order to reduce individual acts of physical violence, we must work to eliminate violence at all levels, mental, verbal, personal, and social, including violence to animals, plants, and all other forms of life.

Fire cannot be put out with more fire.

Economy without ecology means managing the human nature relationship without knowing the delicate balance between humankind and the natural world.

We depend on the gifts of nature, but these gifts must be received with gratitude and not exploited or abused.

What we call 'economic growth' is in fact a growth in waste and a decline in the health of natural habitat.

Earth is a living entity. And if it's a living organism, then we have to have a reverence for all life. Food should be local, organic rather than grown with chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides. 

Without the land, the rivers, the oceans, the forests, the sunshine, the minerals and thousands of natural resources we would have no economy whatsoever. 

Our relationship with Nature... the best way of forging this relationship... be a pilgrim and not a tourist on Planet Earth.

This was Mahatma Gandhi’s idea, moving from ownership to relationship —

seeing that land does not belong to us. We belong to the land. We are not the owners of the land. We are the friends of the land, like friends of the earth. The fundamental shift is in this consciousness that land does not belong to us, we belong to the land. 

In fact, the environmental crisis is related to the crisis of aesthetics, crisis of social cohesion and the crisis of spiritual values. 

All the big problems of the world today are routed in the philosophy of separateness and dualism. 

If you can kill animals, the same attitude can kill human beings. The mentality is the same which exploits nature and which creates wars.

If we had adhered to the concept of connectedness, then we would not have created nuclear weapons, huge armies and global warming. 

The way to healthy living is to shift from quantitative economic growth to quality of life, food, water and air - to shift from craving to contentment and from greed to gratitude.  

Wars and conflicts begin in the mind, then they are expressed in words and then executed through physical action, so personal transformation is intricately connected with the social and political transformation.

Instead of seeking success we should look for fulfillment. And fulfillment is giving total attention to the process of living.

The great work of social transformation begins with the first small step of stopping, calming, relaxing, reflecting and acting in a beneficial way. 

Through yoga, meditation and other spiritual practices, we can learn the ways of personal equanimity. We can also learn how to use language in beneficial ways.

Whatever lessens suffering in yourself and others, that is right. Whatever increases suffering, that is wrong. The answer is within you. When you are free of pride and prejudice, when you are calm and attentive, a light will shine within you. Through meditation and through being mindful you will find your own knowledge of rightness. You will be your own light.  

We need to learn to live in the here and now; this moment is the best moment. Live it fully.

We human beings are spiritual beings. We have soul. We have spirit. We have mind. We have consciousness. We want fulfillment, we want happiness, we want satisfaction, we want joy. We want imagination. We want art, culture, music.

Human happiness, true prosperity and joyful living can only emerge from a life of elegant simplicity, embedded in the arts and crafts. 

We have to shift our attitude of ownership of nature to relationship with nature. The moment you change from ownership to relationship, you create a sense of the sacred.

If individuals start to walk on the path of spirit and feel a sense of the sacred connectedness, then social, economic and political problems will also begin to get resolved. 

Happiness is possible only when we are kind to others and contented within. 

Your children are not your children. They are lives longing for itself. They come here with their own destiny. Give them your love. They will find their own way. 

Large numbers of young people are waking up. And they are saying, "We are not here just to work for multinational corporations and make money for them. We are here to live. We have to find the meaning of life.

The old story is a story of measurement. And the New Story is to bring measurement and meaning together. You cannot measure meaning. 

I want to see a New Story education, which is not only about intellectual knowledge — not only about measurement — not only about academic achievement. It is also about heart, feelings, emotions, relationship, love, compassion, generosity, beauty. All these values are part of the heart. 

We are dependent on each other. Therefore, replenishing the soil, replenishing society and being part of one continuum — that's the new story. 

Sometimes I come across a tree which seems like Buddha or Jesus: loving, compassionate, still, unambitious, enlightened, in eternal meditation, giving pleasure to a pilgrim, shade to a cow, berries to a bird, beauty to its surroundings, health to its neighbors, branches for the fire, leaves for the soil, asking nothing in return, in total harmony with the wind and the rain. How much can I learn from a tree? The tree is my church, the tree is my temple, the tree is my mantra, the tree is my poem and my prayer. 

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth; Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust; Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace; Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.

https://highprofiles.info/interview/satish-kumar/

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: Our Heart Knows What Our Mind Has Forgotten

Photo by Molly

Our heart knows what our mind 

has forgotten — it knows the sacred 

that is within all that exists, 

and through a depth of feeling 

we can once again 

experience this connection, 

this belonging.

 

— Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Wendell Berry: Shall We Do Without Hope?

 In loving memory of Wendell Berry.

💜Molly

Photo by Molly

Shall we do without hope? Some days

there will be none. But now

to the dry and dead woods floor

they come again, the first

flowers of the year, the assembly

of the faithful, the beautiful,

wholly given to being.

And in this long season

of machines and mechanical will

there have been small human acts

of compassion, acts of care, work

flowerlike in selfless loveliness.

Leaving hope to the dark

and to a better day,

receive these beauties freely

given, and give thanks

— Wendell Berry

From the book Leavings

Joy Harjo: Bless This Land

Loowit, the Indigenous name for Mount St. Helens. Photo by Molly

 Bless This Land

 Bless this land from the top of its head to the bottom of its feet

       From the arctic old white head to the brown feet of tropical rain

Bless the eyes of this land, for they witness cruelty and kindness in

this land

       From sunrise light upright to falling down on your knees night

Bless the ears of this land, for they hear cries of heartbreak

and shouts of celebration in this land

       Once we heard no gunshot on these lands; the trees and stones can be heard singing

Bless the mouth, lips and speech of this land, for the land is a

speaker, a singer, a keeper of all that happens here, on this land

       Luminous forests, oceans, and rock cliff sold for the trash glut

       of gold, uranium, or oil bust rush yet there are new stories to be

       made, little ones coming up over the horizon

Bless the arms and hands of this land, for they remake and restore

beauty in this land

       We were held in the circle around these lands by song, and

       reminded by the knowers that not one is over the other, no

       human above the bird, no bird above the insect, no wind above the grass

Bless the heart of this land on its knees planting food beneath the

eternal circle of breathing, swimming and walking this land

       The heart is a poetry maker. There is one heart, said the poetry

       maker, one body and all poems make one poem and we do not

       use words to make war on this land

              Bless the gut labyrinth of this land, for it is

                    the center of unknowing in this land

Bless the femaleness and maleness of this land, for each holds the

fluent power of becoming in this land

        When it was decided to be in this manner here in this place, this

        land, all the birds made a birdly racket from indigo sky holds

Bless the two legs and two feet of this land, for the sacred always

walks beside the profane in this land

       These words walk the backbone of this land, massaging the tissue

       around the cord of life, which is the tree of life, upon which this

       land stands

Bless the destruction of this land, for new shoots will rise up from

fire, floods, earthquakes and fierce winds to make new this land

       We are land on turtle’s back—when the weight of greed overturns

       us, who will recall the upright song of this land

Bless the creation of new land, for out of chaos we will be

compelled to remember to bless this land

       The smallest one remembered, the most humble one, the one

       whose voice you’d have to lean in a thousand years to hear—we

       will begin there

Bless us, these lands, said the rememberer. These lands aren’t our

lands. These lands aren’t your lands. We are this land.

       And the blessing began a graceful moving through the grasses

       of time, from the beginning, to the circling around place of time,

       always moving, always

 ― Joy Harjo

From An American Sunrise 

https://www.joyharjo.com/

Reflections On the "Extreme Left" and Transforming Harmful Narratives Into Ones That Heal, Connect, Empower, and Awaken

"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words."

— Ursula K. Le Guin

 

Can you imagine our nation no longer under the ideology and influences, practices  and policies, propaganda and politics of neoliberal capitalism? For those who listen, try taking NPR for instance. Imagine if "Planet Money" were instead named "Planet Earth", if "How I Built This" was called "How We Built This", if "Market Place" was reframed as "Community Place." Just imagine the impact of this transformation in how we think, perceive, and care.

The author, poet, and activist bell hooks spoke of the pervasive influence of "imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy," something which I believe, on a continuum, has impacted us all. This includes our vulnerability to being misled, propagandized, polarized, disinformed, and disempowered. It is a toxic status quo that we have been indoctrinated to believe in and hold as sacred truth. 

Millions of us cling to the belief that there is nothing better, no alternative to capitalism that would better serve ourselves, our nation, and the world. And those who question, challenge, and envision another way are often silenced, dehumanized, demonized, and called "communist." Just look at the new Red Scare underway mirroring the McCarthy era of the 1950s. 

* * * * *

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."

— George Orwell, 1984

I am inspired today to once again shine light on the subtle and blatant narratives which cut us off from our larger wisdom and capacity to recognize and embody love, truth, care, compassion, and connection with ourselves and all of life on Earth. Over the many years that I have been following both corporate funded media and independent media, I have increasingly been empowered to discern what is being left out or distorted in the narratives that we are exposed to — and when we are being empowered to connect the dots of larger pictures and deeper truths that are essential for us to be aware of, absorb, and act upon.

The lack of pushback that I continuously witness in resources such as NPR, in all honestly, just infuriates me. There is no discussion related to fascism when talking about the "right." Where Amy Goodman and those she interviews have been shining bright light on the connections between burning fossil fuels and the horrifying climate catastrophes — how Amy refers to them — that we are witnessing and experiencing across our country and world, NPR and other mainstream media most often frame them as "natural disasters" and leave it at that. 

It is also true that corporate funded media completely fails to expose the genocide in Gaza and the Republicans and Democrats in the pockets of AIPAC. And when discussing the "left", again and again I hear the words "extreme left" and how "middle America" is in support of "moderate centrist" democrats. Really?? In these narratives that perpetuate left vs right, the truth gets buried in the polarizing propaganda. We don't hear in-depth discussion of facts and policies. And what is left out is profoundly dangerous, disturbing, distracting, and disempowering.

What I imagine sweeping across our country and beyond is something that is vastly different and inherently grounded in integrity, courage, commitment to truth, and free from the influences of the toxic greed that is embedded in wealthy individual and corporate interests. What I am referring to here are independent resources of information such as Amy Goodman and Democracy Now!, Chris Hedges, Henry Giroux, Rebecca Solnit, and a whole host of other independent sources of integrity and truth such as those I have listed on the sidebar of my blog. As Amy Goodman has said — the commitment is to holding the powerful accountable rather than being their voice pieces.

* * * * *

"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… and the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem."

— Howard Zinn

Just imagine if the policies and goals of democratic socialists and other progressives were presented to us in detail. Just imagine if we were actually informed! 

Would we Americans then see it as "extreme" to want an end to endless wars and trillions of dollars poured into the imperialist wars of our government? Would we want to dismiss the wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

Would we Americans object to removing the takeover of our politicians and political system by the most wealthy 1% among us? Would we reject taking action to remove Dark Money out of our politics?

Would it be "extreme" to implement Medicare For All, to recognize healthcare as a right rather than a privilege, and to ensure that millions of human beings stop dying or being driven into bankruptcy because of a healthcare system built on profit and greed? 

Would most Americans see it as too "extreme" to seek economic justice and completely overhaul our tax system, end the obscene redistribution of wealth upwards, ensure that a social safety net is in place to ensure that no one need live in abject poverty, and guarantee that food, housing, childcare, education, and our basic needs are met? Would that be too extreme for a nation that is considered to be the wealthiest on Earth?

And what about the climate crisis that is now impacting everyone across our nation and the world? Just look at Tibet. Tears... The reality is that all around us are catastrophic wildfires, floods and droughts, tornadoes and hurricanes and tropical storms, frigid winter storms and summer heat domes, melting glaciers and rising seas, critical water shortages and drying lake beds, dying coral reefs and mass extinctions, shrinking habitable places to live and climate migrations, resource wars and unimaginable desperation and destruction and death. "Unprecedented" is now the new normal. 

And yet, here in the United States there is still a debate about whether or not there even exists a human caused climate crisis. No administration has declared a climate emergency and acted to implement the radical changes vital to saving ourselves and giving us any chance of preserving a habitable planet. This is madness. And this puts my children and grandchildren and all of the children of all of the species everywhere at risk. Infuriating, heartbreaking, horrifying!

And for so many years now I have been noticing the damning and glaring differences between a mainstream for-profit media and independent media. Rather than calling them "natural disasters," resources such as Amy Goodman — and the experts she consistently interviews on Democracy Now! — illuminate that what we're witnessing and experiencing everyday are not natural, but are "climate disasters." And again and again the links are made connecting these human caused climate catastrophes and the criminal greed and delusion embedded in the failure to transition off of fossil fuels and onto renewables. Imagine if we had long been told the truth!

 

And then there is the genocide. Instead of giving power and credence to the voices of those such as the psychopath Netanyahu, independent journalism gives us the horrifying truth about the genocide in Gaza and its ongoing support by our government under both Democratic and Republican administrations. This empowers us to stop our collusion with atrocities, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. 

Once we recognize that Palestinians are experiencing what the Indigenous Peoples here in America did when they were annihilated in that genocide, we humans can then understand why standing up to and exposing rather than supporting AIPAC funded politicians in our country becomes a priority. Truly, what we would have done during the genocide perpetrated by Hitler is what we are doing now. And as Omar El Akkad has said, we all need to fight against the theft of our souls. (https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2026/06/omar-el-akkad-at-least-fight-against.html)

And this leads me into ICE... More tears of grief and outrage. I have to stop and breathe... The utter cruelty, the intentional brutality, the racism and scapegoating and horrifying terrorism perpetrated on our immigrant sisters and brothers simply shatters my heart into pieces. Like the genocide does. 

Because of the independent voices of truth, courage, and integrity that I have long sought out, today I am acutely aware of so much that is happening in our nation and worldwide. I see the utterly heartless, sociopathic, criminal acts of profound dehumanization and violence perpetrated by our government on the peoples of our country and other nations and on all of life on Earth. The trauma impacting billions of beings is so hard to look at, to hold in conscious awareness, and to act upon individually and collectively in everyway that we possibly can. That said, this is the imperative our of times.

* * * * *

“You don’t need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough.” — Joanna Macy

What comes to me in this moment is a vision of courage, individual and collective courage that is contagious and expanding its reach ever more deeply into our own hearts and the hearts and minds of our planetary sisters and brothers everywhere. Because it takes courage to truly and deeply look and recognize how we've been hoodwinked and that it isn't just those nasty ________ (fill in the blank with republicans, democrats, immigrants,  socialists, communists, etc.) who are destroying our lives and causing us to suffer. 

It takes courage to seek to truly know and understand a larger picture. It takes courage  and commitment to explore and question what we've been propagandized to believe and to cultivate a profound commitment to truth. And it takes love to increasingly embody a commitment to doing whatever our part is in alleviating the suffering within ourselves and our shared beautiful hurting world.

I imagine that more and more of us are awakening to the realization that what is often framed by those in power — including those aligned with both neoliberal democrats and fascist republicans — as "extreme" are in reality communicating what they do not support. As we look deeply into the specifics of what is being said in mainstream media and by most, but not all, politicians to be "extreme", it becomes clear what they are standing in opposition to. 

On that list of fierce opposition — by both corporate funded republicans and democrats — is getting Dark Money out of our political system. There is opposition to anything that threatens the status quo. And this absolutely includes empowering those we elect to actually represent We The People and the planet — rather than their wealthy donors — and to act of the consciousness of the highest good for us all. There is a very tight clinging to and justification for power, control, and greed. Full stop.

Time and time again, wealthy individual and corporate interests have in reality stood against any depth of true democracy, justice, peace, equality, a nation that cares for all, and respect for the basic needs of humans and nonhumans across America and beyond. And those who have repeatedly worked for justice, worked to end the vast immoral and criminal redistribution of wealth upwards, worked to address and meet our authentic needs and ensure our basic rights, and worked to heal and transform our nation have been sabotaged and shut out of positions of power. And any time that we hear the words  "extreme left" we can be assured that that is what is happening.

This truth-seeking has been a long, humbling, disillusioning, painful, empowering, and amazing journey for me, one for which I am eternally grateful. As my heart has been broken open again and again, my capacity to act out of fierce love has grown, evolved, deepened. And, ultimately, today my heart holds with care all of life everywhere. 

May we humans awaken our vast capacity to act

out of wisdom, generosity, and love...

🙏💜🙏

Molly

Photo by Molly