Many of us are feeling helpless right now. We're advised to stay home, to protect ourselves, to cancel all the things we were used to doing when life was normal just a short time ago. While these precautionary measures will help us all, there is so much more that we can do, right where we are, right now.

Those of you who have been following my website posts are some of the most loving people on the planet! You pray, meditate, think loving thoughts, help others. And I think that right now, we have been granted a tremendous opportunity to expand our love in action more than ever. We can serve one another right where we are, right now. And we know that every loving action has a ripple effect which inspires others to be a little kinder, a little more loving.
 
Here's my invitation. Every Saturday morning, wherever you are at 11:00 a.m., just stop. Join with me and many others in an intentional pause for 10 minutes. If you cannot take 10 minutes, do what you can. If you want to pause for longer than 10 minutes, do so. During that intentional pause pray, meditate, visualize, chant, sing a hymn, play or listen to music, read words of inspiration, dance, think of loved ones, think of all the world, think of Earth - our home. We don't need to be in the same city, the same time zone, or even the same country.  If you forget about it at 11:00 a.m., do it whenever you remember.

You don't have to subscribe to anything, or sign up, or live stream. Just do your best. We'll all be doing our best to increase LOVE in the world. Thank you!  With all my heart, I thank you! 

​Let these words from Rumi inspire you and fill you with joy!

If you are seeking, seek us with joy
for we live in the kingdom of joy.
​Do not give your heart to anything else
but to the love of those who are clear joy.
Do not stray into the neighborhood of despair.
For there are hopes: they are real, they exist -
Do not go in the direction of darkness -
I tell you: suns exist.

-​Rumi

It seems we are being challenged to change direction with just a moments notice. And then change again. No one can predict what will be asked of us in the hours and days and weeks to come. Are we ready? How can we prepare? What and who can we trust? Who shall guide us?

I like these words of the poet, Lynn Ungar, as shared Parker Palmer, author, speaker and Quaker elder.

Pandemic

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath -
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
 different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life. 
Center down. 

And when your body has become still
reach out your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)

Know that our lives are in one another's hands.
(Surely that has become clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise the world your love -
for better or for worse,
in sickness or in health,
so long as we all shall live.