One hundred and nineteenth Day

Blue sky and trees...one of my favorite views.
We're having none of that right now - but I look forward to it.

People have complained this year that there's too much rain and grey skies.
Meanwhile, I've been chanting "Snow in the Mountains, Rain down here" repeatedly. In the winter of 2015/2016 it seemed we had low levels of snow and rain and I worried we'd run out of good drinking water. My chanting seems to have worked.

Donald Trump has been our President for 100 days.
It's exhausting.
I read about the plans and decisions he's making and they seem like a step backward to a time when working people are treated like second class citizens who serve the wealthy.
But, his supporters (most of them working people I thought) still like what he's doing.  They aren't disappointed.
It seems like the Reagan years again, except without the sense of order and calm.
Donald Trump doesn't seem to mind making hypocritical statements.  One year he hates that Barack Obama goes golfing once or twice, and the next year he goes golfing every weekend, but it's fine.
I can't get past that double standard.

Which is a discovery I've made about myself.  I get stuck when things don't make sense.
I have a hard time moving forward in a conversation if it starts out with a statement that doesn't make sense to me.
I have to let it go - PEOPLE, in general, don't always make sense; they sometimes make less than rational decisions.

I haven't been writing much on this blog because the Trump administration is disheartening.  They make decisions that are "unbelievable" to me.  But, because they're happening I have to believe them.
I am overwhelmed with a feeling of powerlessness to do anything meaningful to change the situation, so I retreat.  (I definitely feel bad about it - there are small things I can do, I just don't do them).

Vermont Public Radio - Dartmouth Prof on Trump's 100 Days:  'We Need Both Parties' defending our norms

NPR - White House Touts 'Historic' 28 Laws Signed By Trump, But What Are They?




Today there are climate marches across the country.  Trump has put national monuments (land set aside for the public), he's allowing drilling on the coastal waters, he's put a man in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency who doesn't believe climate change has anything to do with human activity and who has sued the EPA 19 (?) times.

CNN - EPA removes climate change information from website

99 Days in 99 Seconds from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Ninety-third Day

I read two articles this morning that made me think about the boundaries we all live within.

Why I Run In Prison by Rahsaan Thomas and printed in Outside Magazine, is about a man's physical boundary and how he's learning to survive within the boundary.

Falling by William McPherson and printed in Hedgehog Review in 2014, is about a man's material boundary and how he's also learned how to survive within the boundary.

Even the most powerful among us are affected by the boundary of our lifespan, at the least.

Our world and our life is defined by boundaries.
As life changes, our boundaries are redefined, either by ourselves or others, and we have to adjust.

People in a physical prison have to find ways to redefine their lives.
Even those of us not in a physical prison are often discovering we've allowed ourselves to be beholden to 'boundaries' that aren't real.  We need to find ways to redefine our lives as well.

We have the power to live without boundaries.  We live on this Earth and there are certain 'rules' I guess I don't know how to live outside of - scientific, physical...reality.  But, within that, we have the power to expand ourselves beyond the boundaries.  With our mind, we can connect with our Universal Self to get a better understanding of the TRUTH about 'life'.
When we do that, the boundaries we're living within won't feel limiting.

That's what I thought about this morning.