Spring is so beautiful in the Midwest. I love this time of year. Mother Nature holds such infinite surprises every day as does all of Life. I'm constantly amazed at the atrocities and Generosities of our human experience. Spiral Dynamics shows us emphatically what a difference we make. The higher up we are on the scale the fewer it takes to make a global impact. I experienced such a sweet Generosity recently. I had just come from a doctor visit. I went to a Mediterranean restaurant to buy lunch and realized I had forgotten my credit card. The gentleman there said, "No problem what would you like?" I explained that I was going to buy two meals because a storm was coming and I wouldn't be able to get out again for a few days. He smiled again and said, "No problem. What would you like?" I told him, "I will tell everyone I know about your restaurant and I'll be back." He smiled again and gave me my order. This moment showed me yet again generalizations are useless and harmful. We cannot write off or hate every Arabic speaking person just because 9/11 happened. I'm saying this in the context of the kind of talk I still hear routinely and I wonder "Why all the hatred?" As an educator and mental health professional I am so very aware that I must take one moment at a time. I cannot and will not be carried away by emotional hate-filled fear-based rhetoric. Both of the Middle Eastern men I met today were such gentlemen, such smiling sweet gentle men!!!

I will also speak to the complete opposite end of the spectrum that is also so glaringly prevalent. Here are some very real shocking numbers: The Amnesty International report says, "In 2010 an estimated 15,000 women were raped in Eastern Congo. One in three women worldwide are beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Up to 70% of women worldwide encounter violence. As many as 6 out of 10 migrant women from Central America are raped on their way to the United States. Native American and Alaska Native women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the US in general. After Amnesty International members spoke out on behalf of Native American and Alaska Native women, Congress passed and President Obama signed the groundbreaking Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 into law." As groundbreaking as that law may be I have to say, "We're in the 21st century!!! You mean this kind of law is still necessary?" These numbers tell me so clearly how culturally institutionalized the hatred of women is. This is what a fear-based hate-based cultural attitude can create and promote. This reminds me so very palpably take a breath, give thanks for all the countless blessings abounding in my Life and send blessings out to all the brutalized and the brutalizers. I am reminded of a beautiful line a woman, whose own daughter was brutally raped and murdered, says to the prisoners she visits. She tells them, "You are heroes." She speaks of the dead silence she hears when she says that to them. She says, "You just have to take off all the stuff you're wearing that isn't you so that the hero can shine through." This empathetic courageous statement so clearly reminds me of all the work we each need to do for ourselves and each other. The status quo simply won't do!!! It's outmoded and never serves us. It's the mantle of fear and indifference.

The last thing on Earth we can afford to be is indifferent in this day of exponential change happening on every level. That reminds me of the hilariously relevant comment, "Come along willingly or be dragged." Consciousness does not wait for us to pick up the baton and move. It simply gets louder and louder until the 10x12 knocks us in the head if needed. That's not a pleasant way to wake up. I'd much rather be looking the moment square in the eye and be paying attention from the get go!!! How about you??? In this beautiful Spring Awakening when it might still be a bit cold in Mother Nature's growing Beauty I want to set an expectant tone of Thanksgiving, Gratitude and Appreciation for all the blessings I have, known and unknown. I want to go forward in Peace, Faith and Confidence knowing I can handle everything that comes my way with Peace, Ease and Grace. Comically that reminds me of a few people I saw today who call themselves Christians. It must've been some of Fred Phelps' gang visiting here. They were lining a street corner on Shawnee Mission Parkway holding signs saying, "God hates fags. God hates your prayers." I thought, "I sure am glad I don't know your God." I truly did want to get out and ask them, "What in the world do you think you're doing?" Their rhetoric is so hate-filled and despairing. It's mind boggling to me. It reminds me of the late 80s when I was teaching at Longview and Penn Valley and I'd tongue in cheek say to my students, "I'm in business to put myself out of business but at the rate we're going I'm not worried." They'd laugh understanding that I'm sincere and yet saying we have so much work to do!!! I know they knew I deeply cared about them and I was there to help them negotiate the rumbling water when it seemed overwhelming. I'm still here to this day doing all that is mine to do. I am being given the opportunity to positively encourage and uplift so many people I'm truly honored and grateful. There's such a profound call for Balance in this day and age. There's so much information and misinformation to sort through it can be overwhelming. I want to be a Presence of Peace.

I know with all my heart it's everyone's legacy to be the Presence of Peace. It's not just for the few. Nothing is. It's for all of us to rise up into healing, into Wholeness, Wellness and Peace and wholly embody the Spirit Incarnate we are. Take off all the disguises that do not truly serve us, that do not allow the Light to shine through. We must rise to an unparalleled level of Self Love in order for that so-called miracle to happen. I say so-called because to call it a miracle is to say it's unnatural instead of knowing it is our very Nature. It's not unnatural at all. It's unnatural that we don't know our own Truth!!! We have become so disconnected sometimes we need the 10x12. I'm all for the 10x12 never to be needed again by anyone anywhere. Will you imagine that world with me? By our imagining it we call it into being and that's exactly what's being called into being everywhere on our Earth right now in this Age of Aquarius that we're all awakening to at our various rates. I am so very aware that our various rates will often sound and feel like nails on a chalkboard or the white hot intensity that makes violence so very real. I look forward to the day where we so embody Peace on Earth, Heaven on Earth that there is only unbridled Joy and Passion and Compassion. This isn't heresy to me. I know we are Expressions of the One Spirit. The more we model this Truth the faster everyone else gets the message too. We can be like the little three year old who persistently held to his Truth until his parents woke up when their house was on fire and they wanted to ignore his Truth. They had two more minutes before it would've been too late for all of them. These little heroes who won't be dissuaded from their Truth are the new heretics, the new heroes of our day. Jesus said, "Let us be as little children." Let us live our Joy!!! Let us build the beloved community as we realize there is only one world, one Earth!!! Peace!!!