+ Today I scanned an opinion piece from the New York Times. I was intrigued because the title was “The Message from Texas Voters: We’re Neighbors, Not Enemies.” The meat of the piece did not interest me, as much as the title. It struck me as a description of the exhaustion I am sensing in the world at this moment. We are tired. We’re tired of running on anger. Of course, anger itself is not bad. Too many of us try to squelch our anger, and we only hurt ourselves when doing it. Anger turned inward can quickly turn into depression. However, anger is best used as that fiery starter spark, to get us going towards a change of direction in our personal lives, and also in the world, as a whole. That said, you can’t run a marathon on anger. Fire burns itself out. Anger takes too much energy to sustain itself for the long haul. Anger is the wake-up call to an injustice, or an unfairness in our lives. Anger is the passionate attention grabber which points us in a new direction, but then we need to shift out of our anger, to the determined stead of a calm, peaceful, faithful, directed vitality, heading ourselves into a better direction of our choosing.
+ Asian cultures give money in red envelopes for special occasions, to their families and friends. The red color signifies happiness, prosperity, and luck and also is used to ward off evil spirits. Every lunar year (2026 is the year of the horse), Chase Bank produces red envelopes, free for their customers to use. I picked mine up yesterday. (see below). I imagine other banks do the same. I hope that it is not cultural appropriation that I have adopted this tradition when I give money to the people I care about. I do it with reverence and excitement and my people seem to feel a little extra giddy when the red envelopes appear. (although they probably like the green inside, even better)
+ “Love is not born of thought. Therefore love has its own intelligence.” – Krishnamurti
You don’t think love. You feel love. You are love. Your thinker is just your brain, the computer of your body. Your organs are the doers of your body. Your essence, your noticer, your presence, your consciousness, your intuition, your spirit, the traveler inside of your body and experience – this is love. This is you. Love is you. You are love. And at their deepest cores, so is everyone else.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.