California Dreaming
Jan 15, 2025
To start, I want to thank those of you have have reached out and let you know that me and my family and home are safe. But the sadness is heavy and the winds continue this week, and everyone living in this city has been affected either directly or indirectly by this cataclysmic event. It is a collective trauma we are all wading through. Hold us all in prayer.
Truly there are no words to adequately describe and encapsulate all the feelings about the devastation of our beautiful City of Angels. I love this city and it’s people so much! It is a blessing to live in a place that is a beautiful mosaic of cultures in a setting of natural beauty. Living in this place, I am filled with wonder and awe at the variety of cultures; all the unique, unusual and historic places that make up our greater city; all of the glorious things there are to behold, the natural beauty and especially all the interesting individuals with incredible stories, who call this place home. Los Angeles is a city that beckons dreamers and visionaries and artists and immigrants. I find it is an inspiring place to live, and while I have lived in many places, I have lived here longer than anyplace else. Even longer than my beautiful hometown of San Diego. Indeed, Los Angeles is my adopted hometown. I have lived in both the city and the county; in incorporated and unincorporated areas; so I know it pretty well and yet I am always delighted and surprised to visit areas that I don't know. Like every large city, LA has it's share of problems and issues and challenges, but I love this place and the hope and opportunities and culture and diversity it offers. I love living here. And I LOVE California. Full stop.
So, bearing witness to this catastrophic loss has been a lot. There is so much to process about this devastation of our beautiful city and the unspeakable loss that so many of our friends and colleagues and thousands of good people have suffered. In challenging times such as these, I look for solace in the good and in gratitude. We are grateful our family and home are safe. Grateful for the extraordinary first responders, resources and for the outpouring of love and services being sent to Los Angeles. Grateful for the many examples of generosity and kindness being demonstrated by skilled workers and ordinary individuals alike. We are grateful to see our city bolstered by prayers and by volunteers from within the city as well as from around the state, country and the world. Grateful for a community of friends and a network of artists doing what they can to lift spirits and hearts in this sorrowful time. Grateful to see the indomitable spirit and resilience already emerging from the ashes and the heartbreak. I believe this city will rise like a phoenix, but for now it is a lot to process. It is a lot to grieve.
Martin Luther King, Jr said: "All mankind is tied together in a single garment of destiny". This is clearly evident. We are collectively going through a trauma and grieving the loss of so much. There is a great global shift happening and I believe all of us are being called upon to act globally; to be visionaries; to act with love and compassion and generosity and acceptance and wisdom. Everywhere in the world there is some challenge or struggle. It can be daunting to know where to start, or what to do. It is easy to feel helpless. It is almost unbearable; it makes you want to recoil, or go into a fetal position. At a time when we are feeling this collective trauma and anxiety, there are those who would exploit these situations and emotions to create greater separation, fear and discord; appealing to the basest of natures and encouraging us to strike out at each other. It requires great resolve to not go down that path. We are always stronger together.
As a person of faith, I believe that we are living through a huge global shift, where we as individuals are being called upon to have the courage to answer the call for love, compassion, beauty, generosity and kindness; to see the value in inclusivity, community, collaboration and the collective good. This is a humanity-scale endeavor calling on all global citizens, to save each other and the planet. I believe these cataclysmic events are pointing us to the need to lift each other and our planet and to create solutions rather than problems; to help rather than hinder. To expand our consciousness, to expand our circle of friends and communities, to think in curious, expansive and creative ways, to embrace fresh ideas and to welcome new solutions and ideas that will create better lives for everyone. Now is the time to step up and be the good we want to see in the world, not just in our lives, but in the lives of our fellow beings. To help to make this a kinder, gentler, more compassionate, more accepting, more loving world. To be a collective force for our collective good, working together to elevate humanity and protect the natural world around us for future generations. We are being called upon to find solutions together that benefit everyone. Whatever is happening across the planet affects the whole planet. We cannot be isolationists. We are being called upon to be global citizens of the highest order.
One of my favorite phrases is: "A rising tide raises all ships". Personally, I want everyone to thrive, to be fulfilled, to live in safety and prosperity, to feel cherished and loved and respected and to live in freedom and dignity, and delight in a society that is open, equitable and inclusive. I want people to have more of the life they love, want, crave and in the company of their loved ones. I want people to do what makes them happy and to feel fulfilled by contributing their gifts, talents and abilities to serve society. I want people to celebrate diversity, delight in differences and find common unity.
There is so much ugliness and pain and suffering and discord and conflict in the world, it is triggering. It is maddening and it is frightening. I feel those things, too, but my spiritual practice (And it is a practice; sometimes I am more successful, other times I need to recalibrate and refocus again) leads me back to the light, to the good and to love. So amidst all the cataclysmic destruction, I'm directing my focus and using love and joy as my compass. I'm looking for the good and taking encouragement from how these small and large acts of kindness and compassion and service can make an extraordinary difference to individuals and strengthen common+unity (IE: community.) I am focusing on the good I want to see in the world. I am focusing on the valiant efforts and the simple deeds. I am focusing on the love and outpourings of goodness. I am focusing on the generosity of spirit and the generosity of giving. I am focusing on the helpers. I am focusing on love, compassion and empathy. I am focusing on the world that I want to live in. One where we all live happily ever after; better together, in peace and harmony and freedom, in perpetuity.
I believe in the power of prayer, meditation and mindset to raise vibrations and spirits. I choose to dwell in possibility and optimism and faith. If you have a goal, you have to be able to see it and feel it first before it can be a reality. I hope you will join me in this vision and get involved wherever you are, in whatever small or large way you can, taking steps to make it manifest. Start with love. Start with generosity. Think big picture, work little picture. Small steps add up. Many hands make work light. Plant what you wish to sow. Center it all in the common good. And anytime you become distraught, be good to yourself, be patient and kind to yourself, do something joyous and recalibrate your body, mind and spirit back to love.
Cue John Lennon: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope one day you'll join us, and the world will live as one".
Love, peace, comfort and deepest blessings to you.
Jeudi
