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Showing posts from 2015

The gifts we need - a proposal.

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Gift giving within the culture of American Consumerism is deeply troubling to me. Have we attempted to replace what we need with cheap, hollow, plastic substitutes that leave us feeling yet more hollow? Here’s what I need . . . and what I think we need: We need more love. We need more generosity – both sharing with others and receiving the kindness of others. We need more time to sit quietly with others – those we love and those we do not understand or do not know. We need more peaceable conversation with no agenda except coming into the awareness of one another and perhaps the Other. We need more quiet mornings, calm evenings. We need more walks in nature, more swimming in streams, and more time to watch-and-listen to leaves as they flutter in the wind. We need more hand peeled fruits and individually sliced fresh vegetables. We need more time to talk with one another and to sit in the stillness of shared space without words. W

Religious Leader's Call to Dignity

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"What is the point of being a religious leader if you don’t say something that’s difficult for the people who follow you?"   Quote and extended conversation from On Being with Rabbi Sacks RABBI SACKS: The Bible is saying to us the whole time, don’t think that God is as simple as you are. He’s in places you would never expect him to be. And, you know, we lose a bit of that in English translation. Because, when Moses, at the burning bush, says to God, “Who are you?” God says to him three words: “Hayah asher hayah.” And those words are mistranslated in English as “I am that which I am.” But in Hebrew, it means “I will be who or how or where I will be,” meaning, don’t think you can predict me. I am a God who is going to surprise you. And one of the ways God surprises us is by letting a Jew or a Christian discover the trace of God’s presence in a Buddhist monk or a Sikh tradition of hospitality or the graciousness of Hindu life. You know, don’t think we can confine God into

Celebrate and Empower the Next Generation of Women Leaders

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Today is International Day of the Girl Child:  "Core religious principles, across most if not all major faith traditions, center on dignity and equality . . . it behooves religious leaders and communities to take a lead in changing norms and practices . . . so that indeed the girl child is honored, developed, and truly loved, in all societies and in all religious communities. " Toward eupan ~ ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Peace Day 2015

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Toward eupan ~ ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Act. Do Good.

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Act with Kindness.  Love Justice.  Do Good.  “However many holy words you speak however many you read, what good will they do you if you do not act on them?” - the gist of a longer quote from the Buddha ( read longer explanation here ). Toward eupan ~ ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Let's Sync Toward Peace - Do Kindness

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A study in physics shows in yet another system that "very small interactions can add up and in the end synchronize very large systems."  Let's each engage small interactions of kindness, love, and generosity and sync human interactions worldwide toward peace! Link to scientific study news release. Toward eupan ~ ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Loss & Grief & Great Change - What helps?

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What helps when you are living with loss, grief, and great change?  (From  Kate Tucker, UU Minister) "It helps to expect that you will be surprised.  No one exactly like you has ever experienced a loss just like yours. Your inner clock, your inner landscape, your intimate story, is yours and no one else's. It helps to understand that this will take you on an unpredictable journey.  And that this change is a thing that happens in your body, not just in your soul. It helps to know that your feelings can be complex and multiple. Sorrow and relief, love and anger, despair and hope can live together and yo-yo in astonishing ways. It helps when you can welcome all the feelings, show hospitality, ask them all to tea. It helps to give sorrow words - to tell your heart to those who know how to listen and love you--the ones who don't mind at all when you repeat yourself. It helps to recognize that though your loved one dies, your relationship does not. It

Science shows that forgiveness can help us all.

This powerful 7 minute video from the Templeton Foundation is compelling. Toward eupan ~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.

Conversation with a Neighbor

We're new to our neighborhood (less than 6 months). I engaged in a brief conversation with a neighbor I've met one other time. Our conversation was very close to this: Me:  Hello Richard!  I see you've got your dogs again! Richard:  Yes!  A nice day for a walk.  You're clearly working on something here with all this lumber? Me:  [Explain my 2x4 and 1x4 wood project.] Richard:  Now tell me, what is it that you do again? Me:  My area of professional interest is in solving the most tragic problems of the world? Richard: Oh? Me:  Yes, I'm a University Professor and  I work to understand how and why people willingly engage in violence and specifically how religion plays a role in perpetuating that violence. Richard:  Well, I don't think we'll ever see and end to violence, what with the Islamic people and all that they do. Me:  I have to remain hopeful that we can change the world to become a better place.  I want that for my children and

What if ?

Excerpted from:   bethechange2012 blog . What would happen if one day we all suddenly started to feel fully empathetic with the victims of violence—and not just gun violence, or military violence, but also rape, domestic violence, violence against animals, violence against the forests and the waters of our planet? . . .   What if I, and other Americans like me, started to actively fight the conditioning that has made us believe that the healthiest, sanest response to ubiquitous violence is to turn our gaze away and keep moving? What if we began to lean in to the deep wellsprings of compassion and empathy that are our birthright as human beings, and act out of the power we find there?   What if instead of accepting the constant static of violence as a given of modern existence, we began to actively tune in to it, in order to serve—each one of us—as antennae capable of picking up the signal and disrupting it, transforming it from cacophony to an entirely different, new form of