As I’ve mentioned previously, one writer whose words I’m using as a guide throughout this season is Eckhart Tolle, who in his book Stillness Speaks, writes the following.
On the surface it seems that the present moment is only one of many, many moments. Each day of your life appears to consist of thousands of moments where different things happen. Yet if you look more deeply, is there not only one moment, ever? Is life ever not “this moment”?
This one moment – Now – is the only thing you can never escape from, the one constant factor in your life. No matter what happens, no matter how much your life changes, one thing is certain: it’s always Now.
Since there is no escape from the Now, why not welcome it, become friendly with it?
~
When you make friends with the present moment, you feel at home no matter where you are. When you don’t feel at home in the Now, no matter where you go, you will carry unease with you.
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The present moment is as it is. Always. Can you let it be?
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The division of life into past, present, and future is mind-made and ultimately illusory. Past and future are thought forms, mental abstractions. The past can only be remembered Now. What you remember is an event that took place in the Now, and you remember it Now. The future, when it comes, is the Now. So the only thing that is real, the only thing there ever is is the Now.
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To have your attention in the Now is not a denial of what is needed in your life. It is recognizing what is primary. Then you can deal with what is secondary with great ease. It is not saying, “I’m not dealing with things anymore because there is only the Now.” No. Find what is primary first, and make the Now into your friend, not your enemy. Acknowledge it, honor it. When the Now is the foundation and primary focus of your life, then your life unfolds with ease.
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Putting away the dishes, drawing up a business strategy, planning a trip – what is more important: the doing or the result that you want to achieve through the doing? This moment or some future moment?
Do you treat this moment as if it were an obstacle to be overcome? Do you feel you have a future moment to get to that is more important?
Almost everyone lives like this most of the time. Since the future never arrives, except as the present, it is a dysfunctional way to live. It generates a constant undercurrent of unease, tension, and discontent. It does not honor life, which is Now and never not Now.
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Feel the aliveness within your body. That anchors you in the Now.
– Eckhart Tolle Excerpted from Stillness Speaks
Hodder & Stoughton, 2003
pp. 39-42
Image 1:Wood Lake Nature Center, Richfield, MN – Michael J. Bayly (4/22/24). Image 2:Saaxiib Qurux Badan (“Beautiful Friend”), Minneapolis, MN – Michael J. Bayly (4/18/24).
The following 6-minute video is an excerpt from a much lengthier interview that Yanis Varoufakis conducted with author Naomi Klein this past Friday, April 19, 2024.
As one Facebook viewer notes: “Naomi Klein's analysis is indispensable [and] thorough; it heals you at the same time as it informs you. She crystallizes history.”
I am an 83-year-old American Jew. Whole swaths of my family were wiped out in the Holocaust. When Israel was born, my community celebrated. Israel was a source of pride and elation for many years.
Slowly this glow began to dim, as facts came to light about the historic and ongoing Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians who shared that land.
And now, Israel has turned the savage Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas into an excuse to rain unimaginable destruction on the Gaza Strip. I feel outrage and despair.
How can a people who have known so much pain throughout history turn around and inflict it on others? It is a betrayal of all the humane Jewish values that I was brought up with.
Incredibly, the U.S. continues to support this catastrophe. We provide Israel with arms and funds and hinder the efforts of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) to provide relief.
As the lives and safety of Gazans are imperiled, Israelis and Americans imperil their souls.
– Grace Bertalot Letter-to-the-Editor Los Angeles Times
April 7, 2024
The official death toll in Gaza is nearing 34,000 Palestinians killed, over 14,000 of them children. Thousands more are missing and presumed dead under the rubble. Nearly 77,000 have been wounded. That’s 100,000 Palestinians killed or wounded since October 7th.
– Saher Alghorra
The first five images included in this post are from the Gaza Collective Photo Essay project, one entitled “Gaza’s Carnage Through the Eyes of Palestinian Photojournalists.” Without doubt the photographs that feature in this project are hard to view. At the same time they are essential to view as the world must awaken to not only the humanitarian crisis but also to what's been called a “crisis of humanity” taking place in Gaza as a result of the Israeli government’s “genocidal project” against the Palestinian people. It’s a genocide in which many western nations, including the U.S., Britain, and Germany, are complicit.
The Gaza Collective Photo Essay project was coordinated by Charlotte Cans, head of photography for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). For an informative interview with Charlotte, in which she talks about the photos featured in this post, click here.
– Jehan Kawera
– Belal Khalel
– Mahmud Hams
– Mohammed Salem
Yesterday, Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won the prestigious 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award for his image of a Palestinian woman, Abu Maamar (35), cradling the body of her five-year-old niece Saly in the Gaza Strip (above). The picture was taken on October 17, 2023, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where families were searching for relatives killed during Israeli bombing of the Palestinian city.
I’m on the mailing list of author, philosopher and all-round visionary thinker Jean Houston. Earlier today I received the following message from her. It resonates with me; perhaps it will resonate with you too.
April 8th, was a day unlike any before it. Millions of people looked towards the heavens to discover what many called a spiritual experience. For in the dance between light and dark, we had come together as citizens of a powerful and humbling cosmos.
All that had divided us, was subsumed by a rare and precious sense of belonging to an extraordinary home of land, sea and stars. We were drawn into the mystery of light and dark by a childlike awe that initiated us into an unexpected relationship of community, reverence and possibilities.
I couldn’t help but feel this sky ritual as a metaphor for the light of your presence often being overcome with events that challenge the belief in yourselves, each other, and in our societies’ futures. We witnessed the symbolic dance of light and dark, just as our lives alternate between promise and anxiety.
Spontaneous cheering welcomed back the return of our brilliant sun. Those joyous voices were the sounds of the victory of light, hope and the return of all that sustains our collective lives.
For me, you are that light, offering yourself, against all odds, against all challenges, to a holy world.
Sometimes your light may be overshadowed by outdated old patterns, by challenging situations, by witnessing unnecessary tragedies or by an overwhelming fatigue at the foolishness of decisions being made at every level.
When your Light emerges again it can be filled with a powerful new energy, one creatively and spiritually prepared for this extraordinary time of transformation. Against all odds, you can help wisdom and good prevail, and use your imagination, experiences, allies and actions to make your visions a reality and help create a better world.
Jean goes on to talk about an upcoming online program she’s offering. Entitled “Against All Odds,” this program will offer participants opportunities “to expand their consciousness, step into interdependent relationships with the physical and non-physical worlds, grow new dimensions of intuition and creativity, and explore deeper responses to the critical choices and challenges of our times.”
For more information about “Against All Odds,” click here.
Anyone who walks out of your life, this is a gift.
You do not want people who are half in, half out.
And you are such a lovely and beautiful person
that anyone would be lucky
to have you in their life.
And so, you must not let those
who fail to see your worth or appreciate you,
distract you from seeing those who do not.
And though you may gaze back
at the door where they left and ask yourself
“Why didn’t they stay?”
The real question you must ask is
“Why would I want someone to stay in my life
who doesn’t want to be there?”
And once they leave,
be grateful that they have made space
for someone whose love is not half-hearted
but who will love you as much as you love them.
And appreciate that it was only
a small time that they remained in your life
rather than a lifetime,
as with each person who exits,
you are closer to finding the one
who will wish to stay.
And with each person who leaves,
you must remember that love
is merely a portal to the divine,
which can come in many forms,
and no one person can ever compare to
or come close to replacing your connection
with the ultimate source of love.
And there is never only one person
who is destined to be in your life.
And so, you must not overvalue one person
but remember that everyone
is beautiful and special
and what you experienced with them,
you will find again: It has shown you
what is possible for you.
And though when you were young,
you may have confused love for being
someone you must chase and beg to stay,
in time, you will come to appreciate
that it is exactly the opposite:
it is someone who feels like home.
Someone who will not hesitate to stay,
and will never look twice at the door.
As Marianne reminds us, “People can still vote for our agenda in every state left where I’m still on the ballot: New Mexico, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, Guam, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Maryland, and DC. While those votes won’t win the nomination, they continue to impact the ethers and shine light on the fact that millions of people in America still wish to forge a better way.”
In her appearance this morning on We the 66 (a reference to the 66% of Americans who do not trust news media), Marianne shared her thoughts and insights on a range of topics, including why the Democratic Party establishment is so hostile towards her, how being a woman has made her candidacy more difficult, why her father took her to Vietnam when she was 12, and the biggest health issues facing Americans today.
We the 66’s 54-minute interview with Marianne is below. It’s followed by Marianne’s latest substack piece in which she reflects on both the ending of her campaign and what’s next for her.
“The universe is recalibrating itself in all of us, giving rise to new portals of possibility,” she writes. “If we’re alert, we see changes in both our circumstances and in ourselves. But there is a mystery to change and we should respect it. Sometimes we have to let go of what is no longer ours in order to receive what is calling to us now.”
One Season Passes and Another Begins The Mystery of How Things Change
By Marianne Williamson
Transform
April 11, 2024
Tomorrow I go to New Mexico, then Oregon. I will end the trip with a talk in Baltimore and then finit! Politically, I will have said my piece. I’ll have done all that I can do this political season to suggest to the American people that there might be a better way.
Now for healing, grieving, processing, forgiving, and moving on to the next chapter of life. In May I have a book coming out, which I wrote two years ago and then asked my publisher to please delay publishing while I went off to run for President. Actually that was my request to them about the same book when I ran in 2020! Deep thanks to Harper San Francisco for their patience and understanding.
My last campaign event will be April 21st, and the book will be published on May 7. I do wish, as I’m sure they do as well, that we had a bit more time to transition from my political to my spiritual offerings. But such schedules work the way they work, so we have seventeen days to switch from one part of the brain to the other.
Maybe it’s my Gemini ascendant that’s responsible for the way I go back and forth between two different mental operating systems. In my mind they’re not contradictory, however. As Martin Luther King said, “The desegregation of the American South is the political externalization of the goal of the civil rights movement, but the ultimate goal is the establishment of the beloved community.” He was a movement leader and also a Baptist preacher, saying it was “time to inject a new dimension of love into human civilization.” He, like Mahatma Gandhi before him, urged inner as well as outer change. By both realms of life I am intrigued, and to both I’m equally devoted. We need horizontal change that transforms our politics and vertical change that transforms our souls.
The universe is recalibrating itself in all of us, giving rise to new portals of possibility. If we’re alert, we see changes in both our circumstances and in ourselves. But there is a mystery to change and we should respect it. Sometimes we have to let go of what is no longer ours in order to receive what is calling to us now.
The French philosopher Blaize Pascal said “all the world’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Only in silence can we hear the whispers of destiny. We receive the deeper answers in life when we take the time to ask deeper questions.
All of us would do well to ask ourselves such things as this . . .
What in your life is ending, and what is trying to begin? Are you seeing beyond appearances, to recognize the larger patterns at work in your life?
What needs to be laid down, and what needs to be embraced? What needs to be atoned for, and what needs to be forgiven?
What season of your life is passing away, and what season is preparing to dawn? Are you willing to see how deeply life is working through you, and stand in awe before forces so much greater than yourself?
There was such a mystical hush during the eclipse on Monday, reminding me of when our electronics are on the fritz and we turn everything off for a few seconds to let the system reset itself. Surely the world is trying to do that. We are trying to change. We are trying to renew ourselves. One season passes and another now begins.
– Marianne Williamson Transform
April 11, 2024
Thank you, Marianne! . . . Thank you for all you’ve done in running for president. I trust you made a difference . . . and will continue to make a difference; it’s just who you are. You certainly continue to inform and inspire me.
Through your presence, words, and actions on the campaign trail, you not only advanced a much-needed progressive agenda but also embodied the shift in consciousness that I believe the Sacred is calling all of humanity to manifest in and through our individual and communal actions.
It’s a shift that invites all to consciously choose love over and above fear. You remind us, Marianne, that when such a choice is realized in our politics as well as in our individual lives, we will bring to birth in our world an era of justice, peace and healing.
As a transwoman, I am told by [the new Vatican document, “Dignitas Infinita: On Human Dignity”] that I am playing God and misapplying my moral freedom. This is not the reality of my life. My journey to self-acceptance was through realizing my self-worth as God’s creation. My choice to transition and affirm my gender was rooted in my search for existential dignity and social dignity.
This document classifies my identification as “determining one’s identity and future independently of others, without regard for one’s membership in the human community.” This could be nothing further from my truth. I made one choice and that was to live. This choice has let me continue my membership in this living human community. For a document that condemns the death penalty, I can’t help but mourn the irony of church leaders wanting to doom me and others like me to a life headed toward a serious mental health crisis instead of affording me the moral dignity to find my truth as reflected in the diversity of love God’s image holds.
I wish the Vatican would see my inalienable dignity and move with respect and love for us transgender and non-binary folks.
I established The Wild Reed in 2006 as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith. The Wild Reed's original by-line read, “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” As you can see, it reads differently now. This is because my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe.
Even though reeds can symbolize frailty, they may also represent the strength found in flexibility. Popular wisdom says that the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm. Tall green reeds are associated with water, fertility, abundance, wealth, and rebirth. The sound of a reed pipe is often considered the voice of a soul pining for God or a lost love.
On September 24, 2012,Michael BaylyofCatholics for Marriage Equality MNwas interviewed by Suzanne Linton of Our World Today about same-sex relationships and why Catholics can vote 'no' on the proposed Minnesota anti-marriage equality amendment.
"I believe your blog to be of utmost importance for all people regardless of their orientation. . . . Thank you for your blog and the care and dedication that you give in bringing the TRUTH to everyone."– William
"Michael, if there is ever a moment in your day or in your life when you feel low and despondent and wonder whether what you are doing is anything worthwhile, think of this: thanks to your writing on the internet, a young man miles away is now willing to embrace life completely and use his talents and passions unashamedly to celebrate God and his creation. Any success I face in the future and any lives I touch would have been made possible thanks to you and your honesty and wisdom."– AB
"Since I discovered your blog I have felt so much more encouraged and inspired knowing that I'm not the only gay guy in the Catholic Church trying to balance my Faith and my sexuality. Continue being a beacon of hope and a guide to the future within our Church!"– Phillip
"Your posts about Catholic issues are always informative and well researched, and I especially appreciate your photography and the personal posts about your own experience. I'm very glad I found your blog and that I've had the chance to get to know you."– Crystal
"Thank you for taking the time to create this fantastic blog. It is so inspiring!"– George
"I cannot claim to be an expert on Catholic blogs, but from what I've seen, The Wild Reed ranks among the very best."– Kevin
"Reading your blog leaves me with the consolation of knowing that the words Catholic, gay and progressive are not mutually exclusive.."– Patrick
"I grieve for the Roman institution’s betrayal of God’s invitation to change. I fear that somewhere in the midst of this denial is a great sin that rests on the shoulders of those who lead and those who passively follow. But knowing that there are voices, voices of the prophets out there gives me hope. Please keep up the good work."– Peter
"I ran across your blog the other day looking for something else. I stopped to look at it and then bookmarked it because you have written some excellent articles that I want to read. I find your writing to be insightful and interesting and I'm looking forward to reading more of it. Keep up the good work. We really, really need sane people with a voice these days."– Jane Gael
"Michael, your site is like water in the desert."– Jayden
