92 Days

October is here.

Last 3 months of the year.

92 days until 2027 begins.

And just past the fall equinox, so night will 

be longer than day for the next months.

 

One place where our minds go in hearing this is to feel pressure, a time crunch of sorts. So much to do, no time to fit it all in.

That’s natural and that’s okay.

But let our gaze shift a bit to think about what is possible in this last quarter of the year, and our thoughts become more constructive. Maybe, even visionary.

 

Questions like these start to bubble to the surface:

If I could gift myself with something that I am needing/seeking in the next 92 days, what would it be?

How would I like to shift my energy (from what, to what) in the next 92 days?

What version of myself would I like to work on creating in the next 92 days?

Who do I want to be and how do I want to be 92 days from now?

Come up with your own questions.

Wrestle with the answers.

Enjoy the journey, even if you aren’t sure what questions you want to ask or if you don’t have answers for the questions.

 

May we spend these next 92 days in ways that bring healing to ourselves, those around us, and to our world.

Dance in the Rain!

The rain has arrived.

in its droplets,

rejuvenation

release

relief

from the parched land and souls below

 

Dance

in the rain today,

soak in the goodness and life that the water brings

Dance

in gratitude

for all that life has given us

Dance  

as you bring full presence into the present

Dance

            allowing joy to wash over you

Dance!

Art Inspiring Connection Through Play

A lot of us are looking for ways to reach out a hand to others in the human family, across lines of religion, race, ethnicity, Tribe, class, language, nationality, etc.

Especially in this moment, where politics and tech/AI seem to be moving us further away from connection, conversation, and a sense of shared inhabitance of this planet.

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Imagine with me for a moment.

What if a wall, meant to divide, was re-envisioned, as a place for people to connect?

What if a wall that screams of power became a place for play?

Enter an artist duo, Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael.

And the creative idea to bring pink teeter-totters to the U.S.-Mexico border, allowing children on both sides of the wall to play with one another.

A chance for connection. Each body a compliment to the one on the other side of the border.

It took mere seconds from the installation before kids had begun to do what they do best – break down barriers and show that play together is possible.

In the words of Virginia and Ronald, “There was a time where there was no wall. [We wanted to] conceptually dismantle the wall…imagining a post-wall world.”

May we take the pink teeter-totters as inspiration

May this art invigorate your work as a connecter across all of the lines, barriers, and walls that exist.

May the image of kids being kids, turning the border wall into a playground, rejuvenate parts of us that are withering at the moment, akin to the plants in our midst desperately and patiently waiting for water to come.

In our case, the water are projects and moments like this that hydrate parched, cracking soil in our soul.

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Enjoy this 5-minute video chronicling the project, along with the artists' website. https://www.rael-sanfratello.com/made/teetertotter-wall 

If you want to see one of the real-life teeter-totters from the project, it is on display in the lobby of the Albuquerque Museum in Old Town. (Admission is free every Sunday from 9 am to 1 pm and the first Wednesday of every month.)

Health (and humor)

I walked into the exam room, greeted by a spry elder in her 80s.

“How is your health?” I asked.

“It is getting old”, she replied with a smile.

Notice, she wasn’t admitting to being old or to getting old herself.

It was her health that was aging.

A sneaky semantic twist. And off we went into conversating and laughing together. Officially, it was her doctor’s visit.

So, I ask you to consider this morning the same question.

How is your health?

Sit with that question before coming up with any words or answers.

How is your health?

Mental and emotionally, where are you? Physically? Spiritually?

How is your health?

Now, if you feel moved to write about it, draw it out, or share with someone close to you, go for it.

And feel free to channel your inner comedian and take the lead of our elder – sometimes, laughing a bit at life is the best antidote for helping us move forward.

"I can't complain"

I approached a woman sitting on the curb, wanting to offer a bit of food.

She sat next to all of her belongings, one of our many unsheltered relatives in Albuquerque.

As I got closer, I could see that she was meticulously washing a pair of running shoes. They were cleaner than any shoes than I own.

“How are things going,” I asked.

She smiled.

“I really can’t complain,” she answered.

It wasn’t just words. I could tell that she meant what she was saying.

As I walked away, I thought about all of the things I complain about. I got even more specific and thought of the things that very day I had complained about. And even more specific – the things I had complained about in the last hour.

Here, this woman in a life situation where she has every right to complain and yet she choses a very different way to see her day.

All of us can choose our path today, regardless of how good or rough our situation. The path of complaining…or, the path of gratitude.

I am thankful for the reminder.

Excited to hear your reflections as well.

Awe

 

“It’s as big as the whole world!”

-          Carolyn, age 5

 

Watching fireworks with our niece, Carolyn, we heard her shout this as a very large firework exploded in the sky above Laguna Pueblo.

The awe of a young child is a wonderful thing.

A teaching moment, really.

I saw the same firework as it took over the sky. But I didn’t feel the sense of awe that she did. I suspect that my children, who are older than Carolyn, might not have felt awe either.

Awe (noun) : a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder

: the rapt attention and deep emotion caused by the sight of something extraordinary

Awe (verb) : to inspire or fill with awe

Synonyms for awe : wonderment, astonishment, amazement, wonder

 

So, how do we channel a young child’s ability to feel awe in ways that we don’t?

First, we might do well to practice a bit. It might come naturally to the Carolyns of the world, while for the rest of us it will take some work and effort toward being awed, toward feeling awe.

In thinking about this for myself, being fully present might be one of the ways to improve my “awe muscle”. Being less distracted, less rushed. Being present so that the firework and its glow and bigness are not missed.

Second, we might practice gratitude as I think it is a necessary component of awe. It is the glucose that feeds the awe muscle to be able to contract. Gratitude, of course, has little to do with what is happening around us, or in the sky above in the case of fireworks. It has everything to do with what is happening inside us, with the heart and mind that is receiving and interpreting those things happening around us.

Finally, maybe what Carolyn does in the moment that the firework booms and blooms overhead is to simply suspend reality and rational thinking in order to flex the awe muscle. Allowing ourselves to go to a playful, youthful place where we are allowed to live in fantasy for a few moments. In the case of the fireworks, things like,

“How did they fit all of those colors into such a small firework?

“What if that firework was actually light-up gummy bears and I could open my mouth to catch a few?”

“It’s as big as the whole world!”

 

Have fun flexing the awe muscle, good people.

Channel the inner-child as you work on it.

Work on being present, increasing your gratitude dose and inviting play and fantasy into your world.

Our teacher, Carolyn, will be proud of our efforts.

Juneteenth

In the car on Friday, my children asked me what Juneteenth meant.

I started by explaining the historical facts as I know them. 900 days after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863, Union troops arrived in Galveston, TX at the end of the Civil War June 19^th. 1865. Major General Gordon Granger read General Orders No. 3, which finally informed the 250,000 enslaved people in Texas that they were free.

This moment did not immediately change the conditions for the formerly enslaved, and many became sharecroppers for the former slave owners. History Professor Erin Stewart Mauldin reminds, “Individuals had to fight for every piece of freedom they experienced and the struggle for justice that started long before the war did not end with emancipation.”

The moment, I remind myself, was my great-great grandfather’s generation. Four generations before me. Not long ago.

I paused and checked in with my children.

Juneteenth is a moment to be honest about our country’s history. Not to sugarcoat it, not to erase it, but to embrace the ugly, the horrific parts of our country.

Juneteenth is a moment to re-commit ourselves to standing with and for those being erased in this moment – peoples of color, LGBTQ+, women, the poor. It is a reminder that shackles remain on too many in 2026.

Juneteenth is a moment to stand for science and the planet at a moment when powerful voices tell us neither are worth standing up for.

Juneteenth is a moment where we can love our country and at the same time be deeply disturbed over what our country has become and is becoming.

Juneteenth begs for a patriotism that sees that while slavery ended, our nation has never been emancipated from the racism that led to slavery and the genocide of Indigenous peoples.

Juneteenth pleads for us not to celebrate our 250^th in blind, flag-waving, amnesia, singing “America the Beautiful” but rather to see our country for the traumatized, flawed entity that it is. It asks us to continue working for political and economic freedom for all peoples, driven by a hope and belief that America can be beautiful yet.