The Daily Dispatch

From NOEBIE.net

Humanitarian Aid Opportunities

· ·

As we watch the COVID 19 crisis unfold in India, and the horrors being inflicted in Palestine, it can be difficult to maintain equanimity or hope. More than ever, in such times, I find it crucial to focus on whatever we can do – however insignificant it may seem – to offer our help.

Here are some charitable organizations that one might consider.

For Palestine

https://www.zakat.org/get-involved/palestine-siege

https://uhr.givecloud.co/gaza-emergency-campaign

https://irusa.org/middle-east/palestine/

For India

https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/ManavSadhnaforCovid

https://punarnavacommunity.org/covid-19-relief-support/

https://thedesaifoundation.org/

https://HemkuntFoundation.com

https://CareIndia.org

https://GiveIndia.org

https://GoDharmic.com

https://AidIndia.org

https://Indianredcross.org

Please help if you can.

larry hart

· ·

you were as witty
and urbane
as cole porter
and ten times as cynical

i was reading
schopenhauer
last night
zip
i’m a heterosexual

i wish i could have found you
wandering the streets
of the city
drunk
soaked
bewitched, bothered and bewildered

before the pneumonia took hold
and your book ended

Quick Links

· ·

I thought I should pin some links to the top here for people who arrive at this site from my Instagram.

Here is the Tarot site: Cards of Light

Our community Kirtan site is here: Key City Kirtan

My site about spiritual practices is here: Shyamatara Das

You can find additional links up in the main navigation.

Thanks!

 

Unfaithful to the Gospel

· ·

Each time I think that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have gotten to the point where there isn’t much they can do that would surprise me or disappoint me, they find a way to do it.

When obsessions with language and semantics around gender and sexuality causes a group to oppose funding for suicide prevention, prevention of violence against women, and protection for all against discrimination, they have departed from any semblance of being “True to the Gospel” or “pro-life.”

I have to remind myself that the Bishops, although meant to be shepherds of the Church, are not the Church itself. So, it is not accurate to say that “the Catholic Church opposes” equality. Nevertheless, it is troubling to remain in communion with a body which seems to be led by bigots.

On the Communion of Saints

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“Together the living form with the dead one community of memory and hope, a holy people touched with the fire of the Spirit, summoned to go forth as companions bringing the face of divine compassion into everyday life and the great struggles of history, wrestling with evil, and delighting even now when fragments of justice, peace, and healing gain however small a foothold. When they are seen together with the whole natural world as a dynamic, sacred community of the most amazing richness and complexity, then the symbol of the communion of saints reaches its fullness as a symbol of effective presence and action of Holy Wisdom herself.”

– Elizabeth Johnson

Ritual and Tarot

· ·

Tarot TableOver on my Tarot blog, I wrote about how to get the most from your Tarot practice by establishing a routine for your readings.

As far as I am concerned, this moment to get still and get in touch with one’s intuition is second only to a thorough shuffle as the basis for a good experience with the cards. The stimulus of a random card, as interpreted by a quiet, intuitive mind, is the very nature of my practice.

Read More: A Simple Tarot Ritual | Cards of Light

A Call for Chill on the Left

· ·

I have tried. I really have.

I have tried to remember that Biden has been a creep and Harris has been a mass jailer, and that they are the custodians of the capitalist empire, and that we should expect only disappointment and further deterioration under their rule.

But I think that it’s important to bear in mind that an awful lot of people are justifiably relieved this week that we have at least taken a step back from an overtly hateful, intentionally cruel, shockingly inept, and basely corrupt acceleration toward catastrophe.

I have been as snarky and self-righteous as anyone else at times, but can we please give folks a minute or two to catch their breath?

Leftists who are currently spending every waking moment screaming rapist and cop and empire and war criminal and oppressor and liar and pig and such would be smarter to spend at least some of those moments building their unions and organizing around a positive vision for the world. Nobody is listening to a word you’re saying right now.

There is a line between telling truth that needs to be told, and being a pretentious killjoy.

Inauguration Eve

· ·

Suspicion, fear, 15,000 troops in place, checkpoints, road closures, hastily constructed walls in the capitol. This is what inevitably results from a political economy based on greed, desperately bolstered by ignorance.

I did not want to believe that it would come to this, at least in my lifetime. I still do not want to believe it.