Lois Tomlinson's Blog

Recovery Meeting by Karen Emerson, February 7, 2009

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:45:03 EST

Eight people gathered at our home in Brandon Vermont to discuss the current crisis and to tell our stories. We are diverse in backgrounds and experiences and yet united in our desire for positive change for the future of our country. Concerns expressed included care of the earth and sustainable small scale organic agriculture, renewable energy, the closure process and the stalling by our Vermont Governor in regards to an ailing nuclear power plant on the Connecticut River, desire for Obama to stand strong and stay positive in the midst of the crisis, hopeful that the 80% of the American people who need the economy to turn around will be able to have their voices heard, health care for all of us and not just the wealthy and employed. Feeling that it is difficult to have an impact because we are in such a blue state, and our representative Welch and Senators Sanders and Leahy are going to support the stimulus package, how can we be supportive in the larger process? We discussed ideas from some different books we have been reading, including micro loans such as are being done in Bangladesh, changing our footprints on the earth and walking in amore sustainable manner that doesn't take more than our share,and this would include our food choices, and the need for sustainable energy sources.We also discussed the need for higher standards for ethics in government, that corruption needs to be a thing of the past in the business and wall st institutions, so this doesn't happen again.That ceo's and members of congress and the senate are held to an much higher standard. Other thoughts included were that Vermont is a high quality place to live because it is small.The heart and soul of the economy is small businesses and family farms, and one person suggested that the stimulus help small businesses and farms out, by providing miniloans.We all agree that HOPE comes from the grassroots working with Obama to bring change and we intend to be a part of that! Included in our group were retired persons, former chef for an alternative school, educators, business people, and a contractor. Four of us are unemployed at the present.

Meeting for Change

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:55:52 EST

We did it~

Meeting for Change

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:57:17 EST

Minutes

Change is Coming House Meeting, Brandon, VT, December 13, 2008

We had five attendees and made plans for two events:

1. We are going to set up an "Obama" booth at the First Night Celebration on New Year's Eve in Rutland, VT and ask people to submit their opinions as well as make them aware of Change.Gov and the willingness of the Obama administration to solicit and implement the changes expressed through that website. Our group name is Rutland County Citizens for Change, which Brandon for VT has morphed into.

2. We plan to hold a forum and ask local representatives to discuss integrity and accountability in government and our ability to influence change in government.

a. We will invite new members to get in touch with us and hold a meeting to discuss the forum, assign tasks, and set up volunteer schedules.

b. We will invite the local representatives and ask them to commit to coming.

c. Once we have the forum in place, we will do free advertising as a nonprofit community event on 211 (a Vermont state toll-free call-in line that people can call and find out about services), local radio stations, local TV stations, Rutland-area newspapers, email, O-mail, word of mouth, and also by distributing and hanging up fliers at local community buildings, such as the library, schools, medical center, grocery stores, senior citizen centers, theaters, art centers, etc.

Please join us! We can use any and all help you can give!

On Beauty

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 14:05:28 EST

On Beauty

And a poet said, Speak to us of Beauty.
And he answered:
Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory as she walks among us."
And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.
Like the tempest, she shakes the earth beneath us and and the sky above us."

The tired and the weary say, "Beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.
Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."
But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,
And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."
And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, "We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."
And in the summer heat the reapers say, "We have seen her dancing in the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."

All these things have you said of beauty,
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden forever in bloom and a flock of angels forever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

by Kahlil Gibran
from The Prophet, pp. 66-68

On Giving

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:35:28 EST

On Giving

Then a rich man said, Speak to us of Giving.
And he answered:
You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrmis to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself?
Is not the dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have--
and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the BELIEVERS IN LIFE and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with JOY, and that joy is that reward.

And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.
Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He and She smiles upon the earth.

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;
And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have SHALL ONE DAY BE GIVEN;
Therefore, GIVE NOW, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

You often say, "I would give, but ony to the deserving."
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may LIVE, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights,
is worthy of all else from you.

And she who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life
deserves to fill her cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be, that that which
lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity,
of receiving?
And who are you that women should rend their bosom and unveil their pride,
that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver,
and an instrument of giving.
For in truth, it is life that gives UNTO LIFE--while you, who deem
yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you RECEIVERS, and you are all receivers--assume no weight of gratitude,
lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings,
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity
who has the free-hearted EARTH for mother,
and God for father.

By Kahlil Gibran
From THE PROPHET, pp. 20-22.

On Reason and Passion

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:34:18 EST

On Reason and Passion

And the priestess spoke again and said: Speak to us of Reason and Passion.
And he answered saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite. Would that I could be a peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay the lovers of all of your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgments and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.
Surely you would not honor one guest above the other; for he who is mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows-then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky-then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."
And since you are a breath in God's sphere, and a leaf in God's forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion."

by Kahlil Gibran
From The Prophet pp. 45-46

On Teaching

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:31:08 EST

On Teaching

Then said a teacher, Speak to us of Teaching.
And he said:
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise, he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.

by Kahlil Gibran
from The Prophet, p. 51

On Good and Evil

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:29:53 EST

On Good and Evil

And one of the elders of the city said, Speak to us of Good and Evil.
And he answered:
Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.

You are good when when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely, the cannot say to the root, "Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance."
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold footsteps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard,
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness:
and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forests.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But not let him who longs much say to him to longs little, "Wherefore are you slow and halting?"
For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor the houseless, "What has befallen your house?"

by Kahlil Gibran
from The Prophet, pp 58-60

On Religion

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:28:18 EST

On Religion

And an old priest said, Speak to us of Religion.
And he said:
Have I spoken this day of aught else?
Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,
And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever sprining in the soul, even while the hands hew the stones or tend the loom?
Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?
Who can spread his hours before him, saying, "This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?"
All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.
The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.
And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.
The freest song comes not through bars and wires.
And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.
Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.
Take the plow and the forge and the mallet and the lute,
The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.
For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.
And take with you all men and women:
For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather look about you and you shall see HIMHER playing with your children.
And look into space; you shall see HIMHER walking in the cloud, outstretching HisHer arms in the lightning and descending in rain.
You shall see HIMHER smiling in flowers, then rising and waving HisHer hands in trees.

by Kahlil Gibran
from The Prophet, pp. 69-70

On Work

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:48:16 EDT

"Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work.
And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and a labor, a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labor is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.

But if you in pain call birth an affliction and the support of flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away what is written.

You have also been told that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what is said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is love;
And when you work you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

Often I have heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, "He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes sandals for our feet".
But I say, not in sleep but in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.

WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

-Kahlil Gibran

Why HOPE is what we need, and why I support Obama

Lois in VT, who's got hope~ — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:56:17 EST

Hi,

I am a 56-year-old woman living in rural Vermont with a masters in psychology who has been in deep despair about the future of our country and our planet for many years. I have learned in school and out that when people have been oppressed, traumatized, lied to, and had their power to make change stripped from them, they undergo PTSD and give up in despair. I have also learned that the way to health again is through hope, believing that the future will be better than the past, and that we have power over the future. Barack Obama fills me with the sense that no matter the amount of trouble, no matter the depth of despair in our country, we can and will make it better. We can heal ourselves, our country, and our planet by believing in ourselves! No, it won't be easy, or quick, or without cost. I, for one, am willing to work hard, to wait with patience, and to pay the cost economically and personally to reverse the damage done by those before us. I know that Obama is the leader we need at this time. I know that we must be ready, because I believe that "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." Our time is now. Please join us.

Lois in Sudbury, Vermont