Tag Archives: Pema Chödrön

Something Good

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPi6C12AAo5/?taken-by=rupikaur_&hl=en

 

1. Why the Women’s March made me think about racism. “And why fighting racism has to be at the heart of any women’s movement in 2017.” This, this, everything about this: “I’m convinced that whether your passion is education, preventing climate change, ending poverty, stopping war and genocide, or sexual violence — racism is at the heart of the challenge you are tackling.”

2. Almost no one from Seth Godin.

3. Art is a powerful tool for change from Paul Jarvis.

4. Trevor Noah: What’s the “Middle” Between White Supremacy and Equality for All? from Son of Baldwin. “When one side wishes to traffic in bigotry, superiority, and the right to rule over and dehumanize others, and the other side merely wishes to live in equity and with basic human dignity, it does the truth, and reconciliation, a great disservice to pretend that these are merely differences in opinions and perspectives holding equally moral weight and validity.”

5. She Will Not Be Quiet, a book of poetry by Julia Fehrenbacher.

6. Wisdom from Pema Chödrön, “Be fully present. Feel your heart. And engage the next moment without an agenda.”

7. To Obama With Love, and Hate, and Desperation. “Over eight years, through millions of letters, the staff of the White House mailroom read the unfiltered story of a nation.”

8. Body Sovereignty from Rachel Cole. “Through small everyday acts of submission many women give up the power they have as the leader, decision-maker, advocate, and ally for their body. What I want you to know is that your body is yours despite all the forces conspiring from the day you were born to teach, tell, and treat you otherwise.”

9. How America fails people of color with eating disorders.

10. This Professor’s Tweets After No One Showed Up To His Class Are Going Viral.

11. What I’ve Learned in 10 Years of Zen Habits.

12. No One’s Coming to Save Us, So We Have to Save Each Other from Chuck Wendig.

13. We the People: public art for the inauguration and beyond. “Download free art, donate to the campaign, and learn how else you can get involved.” In related news, Please Keep Your American Flags Off My Hijab.

14. 45 Simple Self-Care Practices for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Soul.

15. What Ben Carson doesn’t understand about “extra rights”: LGBT people aren’t asking for special privileges, just basic equality.

16. 10 Actions for the first 100 Days.

17. I saw Fun Home the Musical yesterday. It’s my favorite musical e v e r, based on one of my favorite graphic novels, by one of my favorite cartoonists, seen with some of my favorite people.

18. Eula Biss: Let’s Talk About Whiteness from OnBeing. I haven’t listened to this yet, but have heard it’s definitely worth a listen.

19. A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support. In related news, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

20. “Donald Trump Strikes Nationalistic Tone in Inaugural Speech.” We shouldn’t be surprised, as it was written by white supremacists: “Much of the speech was written by Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, two of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, a White House official said.”

21. Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–from Ferguson to Charleston.

22. What do Trump’s cabinet picks have in common? A history of misogyny. In related news, Donald Trump has assembled the worst Cabinet in American history.

23. The 20 Funniest Tweets From Women This Week.

24. Broad City, Inauguration. This actually made me laugh, on a day when I wouldn’t have expected it.

25. Don’t Be a Bystander: 6 Tips for Responding to Racist Attacks. In related news, Do’s and Don’ts for Bystander Intervention.

26. This Adorable Dog Is Trying to Do A Cart Wheel! I love this video so much.

27. Let the Record Show from John Pavlovitz. “History has been littered with horrible people who did terrible things with power, because too many good people remained silent. And since my fear is that we are surely entering one of those periods in our story, I wanted to make sure that I was recorded for posterity.”

28. Two Dogs Protect Tiny Penguins From Being Killed.

29. North Dakota Bill Would Protect Drivers Who ‘Accidentally’ Hit And Kill Protesters. NO!

30. Wild Writing Teacher Training. This is going to be so good!

31. ‘The saddest, slowest, most acoustic’ record: Aimee Mann announces a new album. *swoon* (I get to go see her when she comes to Boulder!)

32. Black Lives Webinar Series. “The Movement for Black Lives will be hosting a six month educational webinar series based on the different demands in the platform. Each month, starting in February, they will be elevating a different category of the platform, and hosting a webinar about that topic. They will also be updating their website with new policy and organizing resources from across the country. They kick off the webinar series on Wednesday, February 8th at 7pm(est) with a conversation about Political Power. If you have resources relating to the platform that you would like to share please email: m4blpolicytable@gmail.com with the word “Resources” in the title of the email. Register for the first webinar here: http://bit.ly/V4BLWeb1

33. How to #StayOutraged Without Losing Your Mind, “Self-Care Lessons for the Resistance.”

34. The Racket of Racism, a really important video.

35. 10 Acts of Resistance on Inauguration Day and Beyond.

36. Donald Glover covering TAMIA’s “I’m So Into You.”

37. The Sugarcoated Language Of White Fragility.

38. Submit your EIS comment to the Army Corps.

On January 18th, the Department of the Army published the Notice of Intent to require an Environmental Impact Statement in the Federal Register. This is another small victory in defeating the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.

The fight, however, is still not over.

This notice opens the public scoping phase and invites anyone interested to help them to identify potential issues, concerns, and reasonable alternatives that should be considered in an EIS.

While the EIS is exactly what we called for, we must ensure that it fully takes into consideration tribal treaty rights, natural resources, cultural and sacred places, socio-economical concerns, environmental justice, and the health and wellbeing of those downstream who rely on our drinking water.

We need your continued support as this process moves forward.

The Department of the Army’s Civil Works division will be accepting public comment until February 20th, 2017.

39. Here’s the Full Transcript Of Angela Davis’s Women’s March Speech.

Over the next months and years we will be called upon to intensify our demands for social justice to become more militant in our defense of vulnerable populations. Those who still defend the supremacy of white male hetero-patriarchy had better watch out.

The next 1,459 days of the Trump administration will be 1,459 days of resistance: Resistance on the ground, resistance in the classrooms, resistance on the job, resistance in our art and in our music.

40. When all else fails, find a dog.

Three (un)Truths and One Wish (a few days late)

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1. (un)Truth: “Anxiety and depression are tied to the future and past, so if you stay in the present, you won’t be anxious or depressed. If you stay grounded in this moment, mindful and fully present, you are okay. Nothing’s wrong.” This is true… almost. What a statement like this misses is that anxiety, grief, sadness, depression, and traumas of various other kinds live in the body, and thus are experiences that can live in the present moment. Anxiety and depression can be very real and it’s unkind, unwise to dismiss their existence with the assertion that if you could just be more mindful and present, you’d be fine.

2. (un)Truth: “How you live your life is far more significant to your health and happiness than what you do. Rest, relaxation, meditation, nutrition, exercise, laughter, play, family, friends and spirituality can be woven into our lifestyles regardless of the work we do.” Someone posted this last week on Facebook, having heard it in a stress management class she’d attended. While I agree that all those “other things” are important, the work we do has an equal impact on health and happiness, and can sometimes eclipse those other things. This is one of those “truisms” that shifts blame to individual choices (“if you are stressed out, it’s your own fault because you aren’t doing enough of the other stuff to take care of yourself”), ignoring the impact of our work — the environment, the people we interact with there, the tasks we perform, and the responsibility we are given. If it’s the wrong fit or even toxic or just somehow too much, the consequences can be quite nasty. And, I have found it to be true in my own experience that some work makes it really difficult to maintain the energy or time to put towards all those other wonderful things. I feel lucky some weeks to have clean underwear and food to eat. Truisms like this tend to just make me feel like crap about myself, like I’m doing it wrong, even though intellectually I know that’s not the case, that it isn’t anywhere near that simple.

3. (un)Truth: “No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up, and never give up.” Prince Ea, who I really like, posted this on his Facebook page the other day. Again, just like the other two untruths in this list I feel like it glosses over something essential. The most problematic part is the “no matter how you feel.” In an effort to encourage people to not give up, it suggests that they deny how they feel, push it aside, dress it up and keep going. I get that you don’t want to feed the wrong wolf, but to not allow how you feel some agency, some authority is not right either. There are valid reasons for sadness, fear, anger, and to deny them and just act as if everything is okay doesn’t seem like the best approach. “The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy,” Pema Chödrön.

One wish: May we recognize truth when we hear it, know love when we feel it, be grounded in our own wisdom and power, remain gentle with ourselves, and never give up.