I hope you’re having a beautiful day. ♡
Here’s another light-filled ¤ Gem ¤

Photo, “In the North of Portugal,” by Hettie.

“If we view the world with a child’s mind, meaning a mind that is open to learning, we will see that teachers are all around us. When you are connected to your inner teacher, everyone becomes a teacher and everything becomes a lesson.”

–Sherri Mitchell, Sacred Instructions:  Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change.

Teachers

Since healing my brain two years ago, I feel like I’ve been catching up on the past 20 years, and it keeps breaking my heart. And my heart keeps being remade by hope.  The stories are shattering me. The pain in George’s voice, the haunting “I can’t breathe…” — it’s impossible to think about that moment without grief.  We’ve had the time in lockdown to see, and we saw and heard and felt this horrendous unspeakable act that could not be shoved out of our awareness with the breakneck speed of normal life because life had stopped. Dead.  All that, combined, I think, created the perfect storm. I just pray it doesn’t stop until real change is made.

The stories that give us hope remake us.  The stories on Karunavirus.org (“karuna” means “compassion in Sanscrit) light up the darkness every day.  I’ll keep sharing them.

Speaking of, if you get a chance to listen to Jon Batiste’s interview on CNN, check it out.  He spoke from love.

Every day I find new teachers.  I am strong enough to look a little every day, to be broken and remade.  I’m keeping my notes on Twitter.

One of my teacher’s today was James Baldwin. This, below, was his part of a 1965 debate with William F. Buckley.

James Baldwin

This was an extraordinary moment in history which this YouTuber calls “The First Black Lives Matter” speech.  More about this debate in detail is here, below.

  Ladybird – Hettie 

Yesterday was the first photo in this week’s series by Hettie. Hettie is our new European Gems photographer and she will be sending photos from Scotland, Germany, Denmark, Portugal and points beyond. I’m so excited and grateful for her contributions.   I came to know Hettie on KindSpring as Ladybug1.  Well, yesterday morning, the day her first photo was to be posted here, I had a visit.  I woke up and went to put on my slipper.  There, perched on the toe, was a little ladybug.

♥.