It’s always so much easier for me to share from the heart when my heart is smiling, not streaming large, crockodile tears. I am in a perfect storm of chaotic challenges, which is regrettably predictable due in some small part to the proverbial expectations/disappointments of the looming holidays. Then there is our business debacle that has almost irreparably annihilated my hope and trust in the goodness of humankind. And not to be ignored are some recurring health issues. Then frost the cake with a dearth of support and love from some life-long connections. Okay…enough focus on my pity party. My petty personal peaves pale in comparison to what is going on in the world around us. (Right, enough with the corny alliterations. I get it :-))
Paris, Syria, Mali, Belgium, Beirut…but even more physically and emotionally devastating for me personally is what is going on in our very own, xenophobic political paradise known as Amerika, land of the free. Did we learn nothing from Hitler, or any of the other historical abominations that parallel the fear and hate overtaking our collective consciousness?
I have always been a somewhat unrealistic but nonetheless passionate crusader for the underpriviledged and disenfranchised, ever since I was a kid. Perhaps because I felt disenfranchised myself. My need to fight for justice, no matter how daunting or unrealistic the cause, never seemed to deter me. As an adult I went to the trenches of Nicaragua during the days of the Revolution, where I experienced first-hand the atrocities of the US-backed and trained Contras. I demonstrated against the Vietnam War (while supporting the soldiers), I lived on Pine Ridge and sympathized with AIM, blah, blah, blah. All of my noble efforts were like grains of sand on an endless beach. I had actually quieted the revolutionary fire in my soul to focus on retirement pursuits, like writing and painting and taking long walks. Then Daesh reared its ugly head and started firing Kalishnikovs indiscriminantly. I find myself unable to quell the outrage and burning need to DO something…anything…I may need to ressurect my novel on Nicaragua, whose ashes are smoldering somewhere up in Sedona.
But for now, I need to summon all of the strength, love, gratitude and forgiveness I can muster…those luminous energies that have gotten lost in my momentary, self-indulgent wallow. And as these energies once again swirl around and through my heart, I will send them out to all of you…
Nov. 20, 2015
Judy Richter 