Decaying Dream

:::Hope in a Time of Endings:::

Our broken hope, desperate for a savior,

understandably finds comfort in a woman.

Our exhausted hearts, desperate for belonging,

Justifiably find solace in an atmosphere of theatrical kinship.

It is no small marvel what pretty lights can do,

How professional choreography, color-coated balloons,

Patriotic anthems and repetitiously offered tunes

Can hypnotize even a sceptic like me into believing the impossible.

I also want to believe.

I want to say to my daughter,

“Look, baby! You can be a great leader too!!!”

But when the leader endorses genocide,

more than genuine collaboration,

borders more than cross-pollination,

A.I. more than actual intelligence, well…

It starts to make less sense.

When those we are told to admire deny the oppressed a seat at the table,

Boasting of “the most lethal fighting force in the world!”

While saying nothing about regenerating soil, or making sure rivers are healthy,

Air clean, seeds secure, and education free,

I wonder what then it even means to lead?

Maybe it is better to simply be,

Not to strive hard to be great

But to embody instead another narrative altogether, mythically

With the aspiration to ensure hope

For a people we will never meet

Who will thrive in a time far from now

When conditions are more suitable for the ripening of genuine

wisdom, compassion and love.

I pray my daughter learns to recognize true leadership,

That she looks up to those who find strength in peace, not war.

Elders who don’t claim that their people or their country is “the best”

But rather yet another finely spun thread in the elegantly woven fabric of humankind.

Yes, it is symbolic to see a woman in power and symbols matter.

Yes, I will likely cast my vote for the lesser of two evils.

But if anything is clear now, it is that empire has many faces.

We have seen this all before.

The pomp and circumstance.

The promise of a new and better day.

Yet we are living now in an era of endings.

And empires days are few.

I wish to help it die in a good way.

How things end matters.

And I will not fight anymore.

Go gentle into that good night.

I’m not taking any scalps.

No heads will be displayed on any spikes.

Unlike my ancestors, who because of unthinkable unmetabolized grief

Dedicated their lives to forgetting and war

I instead dedicate my life to learning of the beauty inside my supposed enemy’s.

I invest not in the building of strong military or bad story

But in the regeneration of strong hearts, brilliant minds and deep roots.

These times are fragile,

It’s subtlety complex.

If one is not careful,

One might not even see Her.

Yet behind the veil of Maya

Is found Another Way.

Residing calmly in the cracks of this decaying dream,

Like a jar of seeds hidden in an old adobe wall,

The memory of how to live well waits patiently

for the day when humans are ready again to live.

Real leadership is under our feet.

Tread lightly, bare toes in the soil

And listen.

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Details strangely overlooked at the DNC…

Climate Crisis & Election Roundtable: From Tim Walz’s Record to Project 2025 to Israel

Watch: Palestinian American Lawmaker Gives Speech the DNC Wouldn’t Allow on Stage

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Podcast worth diving deeply into…

I HIGHLY recommend podcast “How to Survive the End of The World”. They have been recently going deep into other ways of processing this very peculiar election season.

“Join Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown, two sisters who share many identities, as writers, activists, facilitators, and inheritors of multiracial diasporic lineages, as well as a particular interest in the question of survival, as we embark on a podcast that delves into the practices we need as a community, to move through endings and to come out whole on the other side, whatever that might be.”

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Moon Phase for today: Aug 24, 2024

The Moon's current phase for today and tonight is a Waning Gibbous. During this phase the Moon can be seen in the early morning daylight hours on the western horizon. This is the first phase after the Full Moon occurs. It lasts roughly 7 days with the Moon’s illumination growing smaller each day until the Moon becomes a Last Quarter Moon with an illumination of 50%. The average Moon rise for this phase is between 9pm and Midnight depending on the age of the phase. The moon rises later and later each night setting after sunrise in the morning.

Visit the August 2024 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today's Waning Gibbous Phase

The Waning Gibbous on August 24 has an illumination of 71%. This is the percentage of the Moon illuminated by the Sun. The illumination is constantly changing and can vary up to 10% a day. On August 24 the Moon is 20.13 days old. This refers to how many days it has been since the last New Moon. It takes 29.53 days for the Moon to orbit the Earth and go through the lunar cycle of all 8 Moon phases.

The 8 Lunar Phases

There are 8 lunar phases the Moon goes through in its 29.53 days lunar cycle. The 4 major Moon phases are Full Moon, New Moon, First Quarter and Last Quarter. Between these major phases, there are 4 minor ones: the Waxing Crescent, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous and Waning Crescent. For more info on the Moon Cycle and on each phase check out Wikipedia Lunar Phase page.

*lunar info from moongiant.com

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