'May You Pass Every Test'

How I Get Through Life Responsible And Carefree

Slowly and surely I can see the sun rising farther south as the summer wears on.

Happy day beloved Joy Train Rider! I love you! I affirm you had an enjoyable weekend and “passed every test.”

More than two decades ago I read the statement “Earth is a schoolroom of existence” and so when we take leave of each other, an appropriate salute might be, “May you pass every test.” That resonated with me so deeply, I adopted it. Whatever I encounter even if there’s an initial shock, I am able to speedily conjure the thought “it’s just a test,” and moreover cosmic help is available to best address the situation, simply by asking for it. I can hardly overstate the stabilizing influence of that practice on my life.

So when I started reading Miles Taylor’s new book: “ BLOWBACK: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump,” I was at first horrified. Reading that our Commander in Chief seriously wanted to shoot down asylum seekers en masse; place spikes at the top of the border wall that would burn and mangle them, or put a moat around the wall filled with alligators and snakes that they would fall into; and that one of his key aides asked why we couldn’t use drones to bomb refugees in international waters, my blood briefly curdled.

It’s not that I hadn’t read those statements before, but seeing them all together in the context of the extreme inhumanity with which a second such leader might govern unchecked, was chilling indeed. I hastily shook off the feeling, slipped into the state of consciousness where all is in Divine Order, and called for help for our nation and the world. I also resolved to share it with you because “to be forewarned is to be forearmed.” In a representative democracy the people make the rules if we can rouse ourselves sufficiently.

On an encouraging note,  tomorrow the Emmett and Mamie Till National Monument will join the pantheon of sacred spaces protected in the National Park System by the National Park Service, when President Biden designates it. It took many years of dedicated work for which I salute our “son” Alan Spears at the National Parks Conservation Association. As Director for cultural affairs he worked alongside Emmett’s cousin, Rev Wheeler Palmer Jr. and his wife Dr. Palmer. As a young boy Rev. Palmer was next door to Emmett’s room when Emmett was abducted. I can’t help wondering if the people behaving so monstrously might be descended from such killers.

Our joyful journey today takes to an Alpine town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia - one of the most soothing places I’ve ever been.

Helen looks like an ornament plucked out of the Bavarian countryside and deposited in Georgia, except that it’s a real town.