Given the scale and intensity of the issues we face, can an individual’s meditation and other pathways of cultivating fresh and creative perception really make a difference in our world? Is it true that, as the Persian poet Jalālu’d-dīn Rūmī exclaims, “The clear bead at the center changes everything”?

‘Humankind is far removed from nature both within and without and has become an exile from the ideal state of life” ~Hazrat Inayat Khan

Along with the stresses in my daily life has been a concurrent period of lasting epiphany, starting with the coalescing of several important reads and conversations, and peaking after several days trying to assist on behalf of the agency I direct with the Mendocino Complex Fires in northern California. I watched fire fighters and many others, some with homes in jeopardy, working in difficult conditions for days on end to save lives and property.

We feel this breath against
Our animal skin as
It shouts or
Whispers In our ears,
There is no silent breath,
Just some we do not hear.
Planet breath inflating your lungs
A busy, ballooning marketplace