A STRANGE TIME IN AMERICA

Advice for the Ages

This blog is in memory of my mother, Nina Naomi.  She was a teacher of American History.  We were raised to love our country. 

Not many women born in 1922 went on to earn a PhD, but she did, studying Native American history, the World Wars and everything in-between.  She and my father visited every presidential library and birthplace.  As for politics, she called herself an Independent.  As far as I know, she voted for FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.  I don't know about Johnson, Nixon or Ford.  Nothing was knee-jerk with her.  While my father was a yellow-dog Democrat, she was too knowledgeable to fall into that trap.  She had strong feelings about us dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and some regrets about Truman.  He was a Missourian, however, as were we.  She knew his library in Independence, Missouri well and admired him for establishing NATO. 

Oh how I wish I could talk to her now.  She was never a civil rights activist, but lived long enough to understand the movement.  A ground-breaker in almost everything, she would mourn the loss of Federal protection for girls and women who need to terminate their pregnancies.  She and I both lived during the time when abortions were illegal in Missouri and knew women whose lives were ruined by the hack jobs available in our state.  

One of my mother's history professors was the ex-patriated Chancellor of Austria, Kurt von Schuschnigg, who fled after his country's 1938 Annexation by Nazi Germany.  I can just imagine what she would think of Donald Trump's idea of forcibly removing all the Gazans from their devastated homeland and making Gaza a Mediterranean resort. Or what she would think of weakening our military by firing generals.  Or Trump's cosiness with Russia.  I really can't list all the goings on that would alarm and distress her, knowing history as she did.  

But particularly I can imagine her grief at the dismantling of the Department of Education and the siphoning of taxpayer money from the public schools, which she championed.  Our local schools ranged between middle and lower-middle class to underprivileged.  We all of us, needed every advantage, and the schools were wonderful.  They provided.  

Well, this post isn't about mindfulness, or nature, or living simply.  But since this blog is in memory of Nina Naomi I feel that I have to address the profound grief (and anger) she would be feeling at this strange time in America.  Whether she could find hope in history, I don't know.  

For myself, I look for hope everywhere, and while not finding it abundantly, never stop looking.  One place I find hope is reading Joyce Vance's Civil Discourse on Substack and going from there.  Another place is writing, as here.  Being with like-minded people, reading, finding consolation in nature and making any small contribution I can. You have ways too, I know.   Please share.  As so many of us say now, "We're in this together."   

In peace, Nina Naomi's Daughter

  

     

OH TREES. "I WOULD ALMOST SAY THEY SAVE ME, AND DAILY" Mary Oliver

OH TREES.  "I WOULD ALMOST SAY THEY SAVE ME, AND DAILY" Mary Oliver

 "A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance."  Ecclesiastes 3"4

Winter Trees

We learn in Mindfulness that all emotions are valid.  How we feel counts.  Many of us feel sad about America.  Sad about our future and sad about the two men at the top, Musk and Trump.  Sad too about the lovelies they have appointed to our most sensitive posts: health, education, budget, defense, state and national security.

Sad that park rangers are being let go.  Sad that Federal workers must resign or be fired.  Sad that grants for cancer research are blocked in universities in every state, from Mississippi to Maine.  Sad that funds from USAID are no longer feeding victims of famine, war and genocide.  Sad that children are being punished for their gender, over which, God help us, they have no control. Sad that Trump, in trademark projection, called Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky a dictator. 

We need to resist.  On President's Day--what protesters from every state called No Kings Day--I saw a sign that read "They're eating the CHECKS, they're eating the BALANCES."  Another, "FIRE ELON."  And a third, closer to home, "Fake Christians, REAL EVIL." 

But we also need antidotes to sadness.  My antidote is to go outside.  Poet Mary Oliver says about trees, "I would almost say they save me, and daily." 

On 'No Kings Day' the trees saved me.  I went into the woods to move wild Hellebores from where I can't see them to right by my door.  Often called the Christmas or Lenten rose, they bloom near Holy Days to remind us of birth and resurrection.

Hellebores

That afternoon it was 60 degrees and muddy.  I fell to my knees and dug up as many as I could from deep in our woods where they flourish without fear of hungry deer, since root, stem and flower are all poisonous.  Even the squirrels leave them alone.  

What does this mean?  If they survive the deer and squirrels, maybe their beauty is meant for us, we with minds and hearts to look for consolation in the beauty of creation that lies at our door.

Maybe while we do whatever we must to protect our democracy, we can go outdoors and be sheltered by the trees.  We can gain strength from the roses presaging Easter and the beautiful white snow surprising us today.  All of us need comfort.  All of us need faith that while it is a time to mourn, sometime it will be time to dance. 

For such a time, let us pray to the Lord.  Until then, Lord have mercy.

In peace, Nina Naomi. 

 

"SOFTEN, SOOTHE, AND ALLOW DIFFICULT EMOTIONS" WITH MINDFUL.ORG

I am safe

I am home

I am well

And at ease

Now repeat.  I am safe, I am home, I am well, and at ease.  And again. 

 

This is a mantra I recited this morning in my guided meditation.  I woke up feeling none of these things; home yes, but not home in my heart.  Certainly not at ease, not particularly well, not safe for our country and the future.  Feeling depressed.     

The problem is living in the reign of Presidents Musk and Trump.  A family member who is a Federal worker is certain she will be fired.  The large refugee family our church supports is fearful.  Friends' transgender daughter receives important medical care that may/will be denied. You probably have your own stories.  

Even those who voted for Trump--but not Musk--must have noticed that none of life's basics are more affordable, not gas or milk or eggs.  And Breaking News: Musk is closing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog against predatory financial practices.  

So with a heating pad and a couple of Advil for my aging back, I decided to pray and meditate.  I logged on to Mindful.org, which is free and filled with good things.  I chose a 15-minute mindfulness practice to "Soften, Soothe, and Allow Difficult Emotions."  Then after that, a practice to "Guide You Beyond Crisis Mode."  Somewhere during this quiet time listening to a soothing voice, I heard the words, "I am safe, I am home, I am well, and at ease."  The mantra didn't objectively change what the country is facing, not the chaos and cruel extremism.  But it did change my ability to cope today.  Because with breath slowed, heart no longer racing, and fears in perspective I was able to realize my own small place and that for today at least I am in fact safe and able to act to resist the emotions our co-presidents are working so hard to instill.  

After the meditations and hot tea, I was ready to read the news.  I saw that a Reagan-appointed federal judge in Seattle has issued a nationwide injunction blocking the executive order to strip birthright citizenship from children of undocumented parents.  Another federal judge blocked the rollout of a budget freeze meant to halt payments due grant and aid recipients. The effort to force transgender women into men's prisons (can you imagine what would happen to those women?) has been blocked as unconstitutional.  A major lawsuit has been filed to stop Trump from dismantling USAID--which feeds starving survivors of war, famine and genocide all over the world--and firing its workers.  And a court order in a case brought by retired Americans and others has blocked Musk from invading the US Treasury system.  So all power is not with the POTUS duo.  The courts, of which I became a licensed member in 1984, are holding.  

After that, and now putting these legal blocks to the destruction of our democracy in writing, I am feeling much more safe and at ease.  It is good to know we are not alone. It is good to know that those who can do something are.  It is good to enjoy this beautiful weather today in the North Carolina Piedmont.  It has even been good to blog about difficult emotions. 

Next on my Sunday agenda is potting a few pansies, pressing some wrinkled clothing of mine, and pasting in my collage journal.  Thank you for reading.  I look at stats and see readers from all over the globe.  But thank you especially for reading this post.   In peace, Nina Naomi