6/12 And will we make a plan to vote your heart and for the candidate that we believe will ensures that the flag above which it waves is indeed that home for all, not just some?

7/12 Will we reflect on your own aspirations, and to forgive ourselves for those not yet achieved and to set goals that stretch us, challenge us, make us more human?

8/12 Will we reject hate? Will we forgive? Will we reach out to someone in need? Will we consider the words of The Great Gatsby’s narrator:

9/12 “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’

10/12 Will we recall the inscription on our Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore."

11/12 It is merely an hour. But it is an hour that comes just once a year. I hope we can use it wisely, and recall the value of an hour of life.

12/12 What will you do with that gift?

The great pepper harvest in advance of the frost....

Pleased to post this grant-funded position to support our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. ycp.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetail…

The Perils of Power | Hidden Brain : NPR npr.org/2016/09/06/492…

Listened to this Hidden Brain today, and highly recommend it as it explains the dynamic between power, empathy or lack thereof, and how perceived power can affect our ethical decision making, even in personal relationships

1/3 As we enter the period of national healing offered by our President-elect, I turn again to one of my spiritual teachers, whose books have saved me again and again, Pema Chodron:

2/3Bodhichitta is a Sanskrit word that means “noble or awakened heart.” Just as butter is inherent in milk and oil is inherent in a sesame seed, the soft spot of bodhichitta is inherent in you and me. It is equated, in part, with our ability to love.

3/3 It is said that in difficult times, it is only bodhichitta that heals. When inspiration has become hidden, when we feel ready to give up, this is the time when healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself.”

And mine. Veteran, immigrant, patriot

Sometimes in my job I feel completely overwhelmed by the potential in the lives of those I see, and what they could do if wealth was not concentrated in the few, but distributed to those who could live lives of greatness.

I reached into a coat pocket this morning and found there a disposable mask. My first thought was of a time, sometime in the future, when I will find one and remember the Pandemic of 2020. And then I thought of the Bible verse: “this too will surely pass.”

And another: “There have been wars and rumors of wars, but the end is not yet.” A message of hope.