Open Space Practice, (AKA: A Thousand Shades of Gray)

1. We made our reservations for the beach next summer. Six weeks. I feel so grateful that we can pay for such a thing, that we can take the dogs with us, that we have such a good and trustworthy friend who comes and lives in our house while we are gone, that because he’s here we can be go away for that long but still have a garden when we come back.

2. Good food. Fresh pesto made with basil from our garden, a berry pie Eric made, a yummy salad I made with the purple carrots I like so much, and homemade bran muffins with fruit for breakfast. I’m also on my way later to Garden Sweet (our local small farm that keeps a little stand out front) because the rumor is they have Palisade peaches.

3. Our front garden. Mostly this week, as it turns into a food and flower bearing jungle, I’m grateful that we live somewhere that such a thing isn’t just allowed but appreciated. A guy came over the other day to give us a bid on finally refinishing our hardwood floors, and as he was leaving he told Eric, “just let me know when I can come back and pick those tomatoes.”

4. My dogs. As much as I miss Obi and Dexter, want them back, and call Sam and Ringo by their names sometimes because I think of them so much, I’m happy to have these two boys.

5. Play dates. They are good for the dogs and for me. We have really good friends.

Ringo and Pancho, who played so hard they also lounged.

Bonus joy: being offered a regular yoga class (Tuesdays at 7 am at Om Ananda starting fall season), teaching yoga to some of my favorite students, signing up for Andrea’s Superhero E-Course Bootcamp (my hope is to come up with a course to offer in the fall or at the start of the new year), really good TV (Moone Boy, Miranda, Hjørdis, Rita, and the documentary Tig), podcasts (some of my current favorites are Mortified and You Made it Weird), pie season, how green everything still is in Colorado in July, being able to email my doctor instead of pay for an office visit, a new roof getting put on Monday, sleep.

It’s been a long time since I wishcasted on a Wednesday. Jamie Ridler used to host, but once she stopped offering a prompt, I stopped writing them. But today I feel compelled to make a wish, a wish for change, and to suggest one way we could start to shift things.

There are plenty of things gone wrong, lots of work to be done, changes that need made in ourselves and the world. People are dealing with all kinds of suffering on a personal level, and as a human society we deal with multiple forms of dysfunction, struggle, and violence — so much that it can feel overwhelming. We can identify what’s wrong, but It’s hard to know what to do about it.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago on being an ally. In it, I suggested that we must educate ourselves, practice compassion, and love harder. Brilliant Author, speaker, social justice activist, tender, big-hearted Patti Digh is offering something that grants my wish.

It’s a FREE 4-week online seminar, Hard Conversations: An Introduction to Racism, Unconscious Racism, and Silent Racism.

This short course is merely intended to provide a spark of awareness and a more helpful set of questions. There are many steps that must be taken after awareness, and we will include resources for further discovery and future action.

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We will hear diverse voices, we will ask questions, we will tell our own truths, and we will become allies – and not just allies, but effective allies.

…

I am hosting this series of conversations simply to provide a safe place for dialogue about race to take place, to provide vetted resources for White people who want to do something to help eradicate racism but don’t know enough about the impact of racism, its history, or their collusion in it, to do so effectively. I am working in concert with diverse professionals in the field to ensure that this is meaningful, fair, and safe for all involved.

I wish people would share this opportunity with everyone they know, that they would take advantage of it themselves, that we would all show up with open hearts and learn something, and then be able to take what we learn out into the world and through right action make things better.