I have a story for you - a very short story with a very happy ending, one that would turn the tide of our current disastrous direction. I even claim that it's true - truer than anything you'll ever hear on the news. Regardless, no one is going to believe it.

And yet I'll wager that even the scientists among us would agree that what we believe possible has a significant effect on what actually ends up happening.

So, with the world as we used to know it falling apart all around us, with no way to go back and no way forward - the proverbial cliff-hanger - why can't we believe in the kind of future we all want so much for our children and all the coming generations?

That's what this episode is about: the great change humanity and the earth so desperately need, and how we can make way for it.

This mini-episode consists of a poem called "Unleash Peace" and a piano composition called "Heart of Hearts," both inspired by a daily meditation for peace and an end to violence everywhere, in all forms. Join the meditation on your own:  https://facebook.com/groups/7daysofasking. 

This war freaks me out. 

Because of the real life horror of it, but also, of course, because of what might possibly, unthinkably happen, IF…

When the news first broke, all I could do, in shock, was to think obsessively about it, trying to find a way out. But instead of finding a way out, all that thinking unleashed all my worst fears, and for a while I felt myself close to slipping into a bleak darkness, and never coming out…

Thankfully, I now know that can never happen, I’ll never stay in the dark forever, because I’m too scared of the dark. This last time I was so scared that all I could do was grapple frantically for a way out – which, little by little, I found.

The light that helped me find that way out was simply the discovery that I was wrong, that I’m not powerless. Not at all.

Of course I’m not talking here about the big, external world picture. It’s true I’m pretty helpless there – all I can do there is send money to help the victims, or whatever other real-world action I can take. And that kind of thing is important – but it isn’t enough. It won’t bring peace, not to me and not to anyone. The only place we can really make peace, plant the vital seed of peace, is inside us and among us. 

There we’re far from powerless.

Which is why I made this podcast – it’s part of my way of making peace, since I doubt I’m alone in being afraid of the dark…

Heartfelt thanks as always, to Silo, for pointing the way to Peace in the Heart, Light in the Understanding.

Thanks also to all the members of the IRC Ensemble, a virtual band born out of the pandemic.

And finally, thanks to the 7 Days of Asking project, particularly the friends who meet every day on zoom and Facebook to ask for Peace in Ukraine.

Following is an invitation to that daily guided meditation, for anyone who would like to join in at any time:

You’re invited to join us any day in a heartfelt Asking for Peace in Ukraine. We meet for 15 minutes to concentrate all our best thoughts and wishes on the conflict in Ukraine, asking for peace and an end to the violence and the suffering. We ask for a heartfelt outcry to arise among all the people of this world, and we imagine our wishes being fulfilled.

Live stream on Facebook.

https://facebook.com/groups/7daysofasking

Zoom: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81293615231?pwd=aWp6NndMRTVLbjl6SmJ2RElxVWc5UT09

Meeting ID: 812 9361 5231    Passcode: peace

Unleash Peace

Peace lives

inside of each of us

sleeping in our core

Find it! Find it!

Go inside,

slip through 

that inner door

and steal into

your heart of hearts

where all is well

forevermore

There in the calm

and timeless joy

of deep eternity

whisper to your

own true self,

the time has come

my sweet

to softly unleash

this inner force,

this balm to end

all suffering

Let it flow

through all the world

in gentle waves

of warmth and peace

reconciling everyone

setting all beings free

Let it manifest and shine

its joyous relief

blooming sweet

in every heart

universal harmony.

Song written and performed by Trudi Lee Richards, with Dan Buchanan on piano - recorded at Resound Northwest, Portland, Oregon, 2021.

This relaxing poetic tale is one many "guided experiences" by Silo that have been described both as "short stories with happy endings" and as "psychological practices based on an original literary form."* All the Guided Experiences are available for download at silo.net, as well as in print at Latitude Press, where audio recordings can also be downloaded. This reading of "The Protector of Life" was recorded by Trudi Lee Richards to the music of Erik Satie, Gymnopédie no. 1 (for Harp) (available courtesy of Musopen.org).

*silo.net

A reading of Chapter XIV of the book "The Inner Look," from Silo's Message - read by Trudi Lee Richards.

Musical accompaniment: Adagio in G Minor by Tomaso Albinoni, arranged for guitar and performed by Noh Donghwan.

"We do not die!"

This was what, in astonished recognition, I told myself one day more than twenty years ago, when I stumbled without warning into the Place Where We Do Not Die.

I do not know how I got there – perhaps it had something to do with certain nerves being stimulated by the abdominal massage I was receiving for my insomnia. But the “how” doesn’t matter – I hastened to get more massages after that, and they always left me in the most ordinary of realities. 

What matters is the possibility that we do not die... 

(for full transcript, see Show Notes below...)

Song written and sung by Trudi Lee Richards, with piano accompaniment by Dan Buchanan - recorded at Resound NW, Portland, Oregon, in September 2021.

"Blessings" is a poem by Trudi Lee Richards, read here by the poet.

What if you’re just starting out in life and everything you’re supposed to be excited about – college, career, money and success – leaves you cold? What if even your friendships seem empty? What if nobody you ask can tell you how to find meaning in life?

That was Michael’s quandary at 17. All through high school he’d been looking for answers, and now he figured he didn’t have any choice. “Either I find meaning,” he resolved, “or I end my life…”

Well – he’s still here. I know – I talked to him just last week on zoom, and he smiled a lot.

So I asked him what happened, and how he keeps smiling – even in the face of climate change, the pandemic, and all the other the disasters brewing all around us all the time.

And he told me – and I ended up smiling too.

Some of what we talk about in this episode:

• How to have faith in the future without being naive or fanatical