“With this faith we
will be able to hew out
of the mountain of despair
a stone of hope.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) “I Have a Dream” speech (1963)
The Edge of Glory – Lady Gaga (5:28)
I Have a Dream (full speech – 17:27)
Religions of the World Meditation (7:16)
How have you contributed to the betterment of the human condition, lately?
A Mountain Storm
by Katharine Lee Bates
Our blue sierras shone serene, sublime,
When ghostly shapes came crowding up the air,
Shadowing the landscape with some vast despair;
And all was changed as in weird pantomime,
Transfigured into vague, fantastic form
By that tremendous carnival of storm.
Pilgrim processions of bowed trees that climb
To sacred summits, in the clashing hail
Shuddered like flagellants beneath the flail.
Most gracious hills, in that tempestuous time,
…
Went wild as angered bulls, with bellowing cry
And goring horns that strove to charge the sky.
Masses of rock, long gnawed by stealthy rime,
With sudden roar that made our bravest blanch,
Came volleying down in fatal avalanche.
All nature seemed convulsed in some fierce crime,
And then a rainbow, and behold! the sun
Went comforting the harebells one by one;
And all was still save for the vesper chime
From far, faint belfry bathed in creamy light,
And the soft footfalls of the coming night.
I have heard that the saying “Keep hope alive” is mocked in many ways. I do not want to confuse cynicism with sophistication – hopelessness and bitterness with being worldly. I can recognize cynicism in others and maintain hope in my own heart. I do not need to worry about how I appear to others (Pollyanna) – only that I act in concert with the love and hope I receive when I walk always (all ways) with my Higher Power.
Last Sunday, I was in the LA AIDS Walk for the first time. Not only did I not know how long it was but how also how 90% of people there seemed to have been families and high school children that were bussed in from all around town. Every year a new generation of young Angelenos get to take part in this worthy endeavor.
“Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps…and practice these principles in all our affairs.” I had not realized the enormity of these words. When I take my spiritual practices out into my world, I avoid gossip (a BIG problem for me), I am at peace (I do not become Our Lady of Perpetual Worry), and I treat everyone with love, acceptance, and Peace.