International Women's Day and Social Justice

I am writing this on International Women's Day (IWD), March 8, and there is some cause for celebration. In the first weeks of office, Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, reversing a Supreme Court decision and granting Lilly Ledbetter, and women in the future, the pay and benefits they deserve. A significant event for all women and champions of social justice. All around the world we can celebrate this shift, and do what we can to expand the circles.

Current times are difficult for many: those of us who are extremely fortunate are feeing pinched and concerned, and certainly those many who are have lost jobs, are struggling to survive, living in battle zones... It is easy either to complain and sink into dark places, or to take what good fortune we do have for granted, and forget our interconnectedness and the big picture. Lest we complain, lest we drown in fear, lest we become numb, lest we take this life and blessings for granted, lest we forget our source and our links, I offer you

• a quote from Charles Darwin, inviting us to focus on what is good and beautiful, not lose our balance and perspective,
• a link to a synergistic world wide celebration of our interconnectedness. Let us stand by each other! and
• a poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Read his poem, breathe, remember our capacity for inner transformation.

• A quote from Charles Darwin:

“My mind has changed during the last twenty or thirty years. Now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry. I have also almost lost my taste for pictures or music. My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.
If I had to live again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness.”

Charles Darwin

• A link to a synergistic world wide celebration of our interconnectedness

http://music.todaysbigthing.com/2008/11/26?

• A poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Read his poem, breathe, remember our capacity for inner transformation.

Learn about his amazing journey, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Santiago_Baca then immerse yourself in

WHO UNDERSTANDS ME BUT ME

They turn the water off, so I live without water,
they build walls higher, so I live without treetops,
they paint the windows black, so I live without sunshine,
they lock my cage, so I live without going anywhere,
they take each last tear I have, I live without tears,
they take my heart and rip it open, I live without heart,
they take my life and crush it, so I live without a future,
they say I am beastly and fiendish, so I have no friends,
they stop up each hope, so I have no passage out of hell,
they give me pain, so I live with pain,
they give me hate, so I live with my hate,
they have changed me, and I am not the same man,
they give me no shower, so I live with my smell,
they separate me from my brothers, so I live without brothers,
who understands me when I say this is beautiful?
who understands me when I say I have found other freedoms?

I cannot fly or make something appear in my hand,
I cannot make the heavens open or the earth tremble,
I can live with myself, and I am amazed at myself, my love, my beauty,
I am taken by my failures, astounded by my fears,
I am stubborn and childish,
in the midst of this wreckage of life they incurred,
I practice being myself,
and I have found parts of myself never dreamed of by me,
they were goaded out from under rocks in my heart
when the walls were built higher,
when the water was turned off and the windows painted black.
I followed these signs
like an old tracker and followed the tracks deep into myself
followed the blood-spotted path,
deeper into dangerous regions, and found so many parts of myself,
who taught me water is not everything,
and gave me new eyes to see through walls,
and when they spoke, sunlight came out of their mouths,
and I was laughing at me with them,
we laughed like children and made pacts to always be loyal,
who understands me when I say this is beautiful?