Rise on Great Silent Wings

When these senses
fall into darkness,
will your heart
be a trustworthy flame?

When dust
fills your eyes,
will your grave
still be bright?

When hands
and feet fail,
will you rise then
on great
silent wings?

- Rumi

Just Is.

We've started a new kasen over on the Renga Writing blog. For this new kasen, we chose the theme "All About Us is Noise" which came from a line in Elizabeth Alexander's poem which she read at President Obama's inauguration. Below are two stanzas:

"All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues."

AND

"We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider."

I originally suggested this theme/meme because I wanted to think about the kinds of noises that we hear or don't hear each day of our lives. I especially love the first line of the first stanza that I posted above:

All about us is noise. All about us is

Look at how she teases us, reminds us, chastises us with the line break. All about us is... empty white space. After the To Be verb, the rest of that line is followed by emptiness. Or, to see it another way, the rest of that line after the word "is" fills up with the quiet space that you need to absorb before moving onto the next line.

But feel how we so quickly, easily, naturally, fall into the next line. We, or mainly just I, too hastily push past the silence of that space, completely ignore the pause, in order to move onto the next line which is filled with "noise and bramble, thorn and din," and we don't even know it.

All about us is. Just is. Imagine that: Just is. To be.

Office Memo

World, look at how we've changed. See the fragments? See the spilled blood, the cold sweat? We've been torn asunder. Parts of us that were not mere deadwood have been ripped away, leaving us exposed, naked, vulnerable. All transformed in ways we've not envisioned. But see that tough spark? See how we've thrown ourselves into change, see how we've grappled with the questions, faced the difficult answers? See how we've struggled with that piece of flint to create that little spark?

We're keeping our eyes on the stars. They shine too bright in the darkened sky.

Minutes: An Accounting of the Day's

Meeting: of minds, in real time, in Second Life, to discuss (usually)
a predetermined topic, or community event planning,
to come together, or assemble, for a common purpose, to worship
as an organizational unit, ad-hoc, a society,
typically between a manager and subordinates, a chair
and a board, colleagues gathered round
conference tables in meeting rooms
the size of pinheads taking stock of investments (of time &
energy), capital gains, accruals, endowments restrictions, reductions,
bringing down to a set of elements vital to sustaining
any body:

Every milli-second, minute traces of the soul seep
from gray building to gray building, tapping from window to window
looking for that ribbon on which the day's hours have been
transcribed. This is not a prayer meeting, but here
the soul mourns for what escaped between the readings,
between commentaries stricken from the record,
leaving actionable items -- Moved,
Seconded, Resolved.


- 2/16/09 HT

Water for the World Act

Help us improve access to clean water and sanitation for the world's poorest people by asking your senators to cosponsor the Durbin-Corker Water for the World Act of 2009 (S. 624). This important legislation is stuck in the Committee on Foreign Relations, and it needs at least 20 cosponsors in order to get the attention of Senate leaders.

Watch the video here.

Sign the petition here.

Slowwww Progress

ONE's DATA Report is an exercise in accountability. It charts a course from past promises made to Africa to present delivery. The hopes and prosperity of the 'bottom billion' depend, in part, upon the fulfillment of the pact made between the G8 and African countries at the 2005 Gleneagles Summit.

At the 2005 Summit, G8 leaders made historic commitments to Africa, pledging to provide leadership and support in the fight to eliminate poverty, improve health, strengthen education, boost trade, cancel debt and increase effective aid by 2010. The DATA Report is ONE's annual, in-depth look at how the G8 are moving towards fulfilling these promises, both individually and collectively.

So what does the 2009 DATA Report reveal on progress towards the Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment? A majority of the G8 is making progress, but two countries-Italy and France-are dragging down the entire G8's efforts.

By the end of 2008, the G8 had delivered only a third, or $7 billion, of the total $21.5 billion in aid committed by 2010. Some countries fared better than others: Canada, Japan and the US will meet-or beat-their relatively modest commitments; Germany and the UK continue to work valiantly towards their more ambitious targets. France's progress is disappointing, and Italy's performance is an utter failure. Looking ahead to the end of 2009, ONE projects that the G8 will have delivered only a half of their commitment. That means by 2010, the G8 must deliver the entire other half.

What are some of the other key findings in the 2009 DATA Report? While aid effectiveness is improving, progress needs to accelerate; smart aid continues to deliver lifesaving results; the G8 is collectively failing to "make trade work for Africa;" and although the G8 are keeping their word on debt, the global economic crisis threatens to ruin past improvements.

With only 18 months to go before the 2010 deadline, it will be an uphill climb for the G8 to fulfill their commitments. But it's hard to imagine a more important time to keep these critical promises.

- from ONE.org

Rudder on the stars

At work, we've been undergoing some re-construction. Some days, it feels like we've lost our moorings. Other days, it feels like our family has been ripped apart. Today, it feels a bit like being on vacation from ourselves. Admittedly, what we are experiencing is nothing compared to some of the difficult work or non-work that others are experiencing. I simply want to complain to someone. Without being fixed, soothed, or shrunk by a shrink. I only want to complain.

This past week, in the midst of heart-aching, mind-numbing, brain-bashing transitions, a friend said keep your rudder in the water and your eyes on the stars.

So, am stargazing.

Nothing yet.

Nothing, yet...

Helpless

There are certain things that one cannot write on blogs, and I'm having a hard time figuring what to write about when what I would like to write about isn't bloggable. But the mind is teeming with ideas and thoughts...

Acts of Helplessness by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

Here are the miracle-signs you want: that
you cry through the night and get up at dawn, asking
that in the absence of what you ask for your day gets dark,
your neck thin as a spindle, that what you give away
is all you own, that you sacrifice belongings,
sleep, health, your head, that you often
sit down in a fire like aloes wood, and often go out
to meet a blade like a battered helmet.

When acts of helplessness become habitual,
those are the signs.

But you run back and forth listening for unusual events,
peering into the faces of travelers.
"Why are you looking at me like a madman?"
I have lost a friend. Please forgive me.

Searching like that does not fail.
There will come a rider who holds you close.
You faint and gibber. The uninitiated say, "He's faking."
How could they know?
Water washes over a beach fish, the water
of those signs I just mentioned.

Excuse my wandering.
How can one be orderly with this?
It's like counting leaves in a garden,
along with the song-notes of partridges,
and crows.

Sometimes organization
and computation become absurb.

In this craziness, there are blessings...

In lieu of bemoaning much of the change and horror that I've been experiencing lately, I've decided to share some of the blessings in my life:

+ At work we serve Afternoon Tea. We all pile into the 2nd floor atrium, drink tea, talk about non-work stuff, eat cookies (hooray to butter cookies and chai tea biscuits!), and enjoy the summer sun. Great thing is, we always spend more than the allotted 15 minutes. Yay!

+ Did I already write about seeing Wicked at the Orpheum? It was phenomenal. Wish I could pay to see it again.

+ Last Friday, we went to see Roy Hargrove (trumpet) and James Carter (sax) perform jazz at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco for the SF Jazz event. Imagine the tall, elegant, imposing cathedral bathed in soft light from the setting sun. Imagine the stained glass windows brilliant with color then fade into dark. Imagine the vaulted ceilings. Now listen to the seven second echo for each jazz note from the instruments. Beautiful.

+ Memorial day, we went cherry picking at Salvadore Family Farm. Bright red cherries that were small and sour. Delicious. It was more fun climbing the ladders and picking cherries from the top branches than eating them! Then we went hiking at Black Diamond mines in Contra Costa county. The trees, the views, the hot sun, the cool breezes, and the wonderful friends -- delightful memories.

+ Pentecost Sunday, I participated in a modern day re-enactment of the tongues of flames. Hehe. I'm pretty sure Vietnamese was NOT spoken on that fateful day recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. Nonetheless, there we were listening to Vietnamese. (Of course, unlike the scripture passage where the spectators actually understood the languages the apostles were speaking, no one at the church actually understood what I was saying.) So much for dramatic re-interp.

+ Tomorrow, a few of us will be going to see Spamalot at Golden Gate Theater. Bittersweet.