Let It Be Sunday!

We are in pain.  A collective pain that no matter your race, religion, or geography, seems inescapable.  What do we do with it?

We have to use it.  We can not ignore it.   Perhaps this is the pain we need to create the change we need.  There is a lesson in all of this… and we’re going to keep learning it with blood and tears until we’re bold enough to change.  Can we, already?  

We think of each other as different and separate from one another.   Differences tangled in race, socio-economics, and power.  It’s proving deadly and tragic.  Can we retrain our brains with compassion, empathy and curiosity for one another instead of violence and intolerance?    

This is our pain.  This is ours to heal. 

and

This is our pain.  This is ours to heal. 

Can we give energy and voice to the discomfort that this injustice and violence brings up in us?  Sitting with that discomfort long enough to at least have conversations about who we are and how we can change for the better.  How we can work past what we see as different in one another, simply to find equality in our value as humans on this earth together?  Equality under the law.  Equality, really, for one another in our hearts, minds, and actions.    

“There will be a temptation to let our anger harden our divisions.  Let’s not let that happen. There’s going to be a temptation to let our anger send us further into our corners. Let’s not let that happen. That script is just too easy to write — it’s too predictable. Let’s defy those predictions.”  –  House Speaker Paul Ryan 

•  The Story Behind the Fatal Baton Rouge Police Shooting.  It was no coincidence.  There is an anti-violence group in Louisiana called Stop The Killing that seeks out possibly violent crimes, and films them in an effort to deter your people from crime.   

•  Dallas Police Chief David Brown, a Reformer, Becomes Face of Nation’s Shock.  

•  The Horrific and Predictable Result of A Widely Armed Citizenry “Weapons empower extremes” and he have too many of both. 

•  The next time someone says ‘all lives matter’ show them these 5 paragraphs.  

I’m changing gears now.  

•  A Better Kind of Happiness.  Not just a state of mind; a practice with a project. 

•  This is beautiful so beautiful:  The House That Love Build Before It Was Gone.

•  Why being a mom is enough.  Sure seems like plenty to me, ladies.  Rock it.  

•  A compelling and often unheard argument for giving birth to another human using DRUGS, amen.  Get the Epidural. 

•  This is the best, most honest and vulnerable, poignant piece of writing I’ve read in a long time:  Mother, Writer, Monster, Maid.  Thank you for sharing it with me Suzonne! 

•  On July 13, 2015 President Obama commuted the sentence of 46 non-violent drug offenders. Here’s what their lives are like now.  One Year Out. 

•  Weekend Read: Can Attachment Theory Explain All Our Relationships?  I’m nodding my head yes. 

•  A very good BLT on a Cheddar Waffle because we’re civilized, feeling people who will douse our feelings in pork and carbs for as long as it takes. 

•  I really do love the idea of this cookbook + recipe journal.  Have a look-see:  Project Cookbook.  

•  What’s Going On.  War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate.  

Enjoy this fine day.  Thank you for being here.  

With love, Joy