I ask you, as I know you will, to reach out to your brothers and sisters in Blacksburg, and in Williamsburg, and at the destinations that will soon unfold before you. Living each day with hope—hope not as a mere description of the world around you, or as a prediction of the future, but hope as Vaclav Havel described it—a predisposition of the spirit, a habit of the heart. A conscious choice to live in the belief that we can make a difference in the quality of our shared lives. The nobler of hypotheses. Honoring those unjustly taken. Casting our lot on the side of beauty and grace and forgiveness and courage and commitment and selflessness and hope, and, finally, love.

Soul. Mother. I tell ya.

I did some impromptu research on Hillel this evening. I was thinking about this quote that gets attributed to him - I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing.

In so doing, I came across this, a left coast liberal UU sermon. And I just found it perfectly moving. This, especially: Practice is it. The practice is the dance.

My ex's dad told us a story a few years ago about getting stuck in traffic (north of Atlanta, which has become an enormous sprawling suburb of the city) and pointing out to his kvetching travel companion that they were the traffic. The traffic doesn't exist without you and all the people who also want to move between the two places you want to move between. Traffic exists because people desire the same things.

So, this morning I drove into work - and I was traffic. I was stuck behind a disabled vehicle, but really what I was doing is joining the other downtown dwellers who also work out in the south 40 because a few years back land in the south 40 was cheap and people built offices on it. I'm not the only person who reversed the suburban migration of homes but was still stuck with a suburbanly migrated workplace.

Cool, huh? Even sitting in morning traffic, I'm essentially communing with the oneness of all people.

Also? OMG I have the most amazing view of my city as I come into work - I can come over any of the downtown bridges and highways, and each has a different take on the city and the river. It's arresting. I'm looking forward to winter sunrises on early mornings over the Mayo and Manchester bridges as I head for the highway and the suburbs of Wilderness Office Park.

If the success or failure of this planet and of human beings depended on how I am or what I do - How would I be? What would I do? (Buckminster Fuller)

I said the other day that I am lucky to have people to try my patience in so many different ways. And it's true - being frustrated and stupid teaches you things. But gah, is it hard.

My peeps are having a big stupid text fight over something that is, in fact, big - but not stupid. They are all right, and I keep ending up angry anyhow.

I would like to take back everything I said - even though I, too, was right - and just all be different and right and patient. It's not that I want no opinions, but that I'd like to passionately defend all of them.

Exercise your right to fearlessly decide.

(from the sometimes hokey, sometimes brilliant 'Daily Om' peeps)