Farewell for a While

Dear friends,

I will be dropping off of the internet for the next month or so, but I am not dropping out of the struggle to create a just, merciful, harmonious and sustainable nation and world. I am taking the next month to improve my ability to contribute to the struggle, as I will describe below.

The quote from Gus Speth that I have included here is central to my understanding of what we need in order to survive our current polycrisis and emerge into a healthier civilization. It also is central to my calling as a poet and spiritual writer, contributing to inner and world transformation. Part of that work is promoting “the emerging ethic of the environment” and “the old ethic of love of neighbor,” with the recognition that everyone and everything on earth is our neighbor, explicitly opposing exploitation or oppression.

Gus says that to make the transition to a new society we need a new consciousness. He has identified six ingredients to make that change:

1. raising awareness of the unfolding calamity;
2. cultivating wise leaders;
3. articulating a new narrative and positive vision;
4. building a unified social justice and environmental movement;
5. putting out effective social marketing; and,
6. developing models of a new way of living.

We each can contribute to one or more of these. I am excited to be part of it, but I need to add a precursor in order to be most effective, which is pursuing my own new consciousness and reorientation of life.

The word for this in my spiritual tradition is “metanoia,” an ancient Greek word that means to move beyond where the heart, mind and spirit have been to a greater level, or as the spiritual teacher, Mark Kutolowski, puts it, to expand the vision of the heart.

I will be spending the next month or so in retreat with Mark at Metanoia of Vermont, a lay Catholic homestead and community that he and his wife, Lisa, founded. The mission of Metanoia is to help people grow in lives of prayer, contemplation and care of the land. Mark is a trained teacher of Centering Prayer and a spiritual director. He will be accompanying me through the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, a retreat experience that I hope will be a path of metanoia.

I can’t know where this path will lead other than into the place we each have within us where we meet the spirit of life that flows through all the earth and makes us one. The way I understand it, that spirit sparked life into being and inspired every step of evolution, so it must still want life to survive and thrive. I believe that if we each listen to that spirit’s guidance and let it lead us, we will find a way to contribute to its evolutionary cause—we will discover the individual contributions we each can make to help create the major cultural change that we now need.

That’s what I hope I will be doing over the coming month— practicing listening for that spirit and letting it lead me. Thank you for your part, however the spirit moves you! I’m with you all the way.

Peace, joy and love,
Tom

“Calm, Confident, Secure” A Spiritual Song for All Traditions

Calm, Confident, Secure
S.M. Tune: Trentham (tune of “Breathe on Me, Breath of God”)

Please let me know if you would like to use this spiritual song and I will send it to you embedded in the music.  It is written in Short Meter.

Calm, confident, secure,
I welcome what is true,
In doubt or fear my steps are sure
Because I walk with you.

You are my golden thread,
Invisible but real,
Revealing hidden paths to tread.
I find your way by feel.

Some voices call me wrong,
And maybe they are right,
But I have chosen all along
To turn and seek your light.

Please show me my next move.
I open heart and hand
To feel what only faith can prove
And love can understand.

Your way may lead through pain,
Through danger, toil and snare,
A life of struggle, stress and strain,
Until I near despair.

But then amazing grace,
The peace your presence brings,
Transforms my lost or hardest place
And all my being sings.

8/7/14

Two Sonnets Calling for Nonviolent Engagement on the Side of Love

The poem texts are below.

These sonnets are first drafts written the week ending February 28, 2025. In the past I have always put poems through many drafts before sharing them, but I believe the relevance and urgency of the poems written in this time of crisis compensate for the roughness.

My friends, we have heroic work to do.
The highest meaning life can have is ours
if we lay down our lives to fight the few
amassing wealth and using all their powers
to bribe or brainwash or intimidate
or crush or kill to stop the side of love
for all who live. Our enemy is hate
in any form that places one above
and others far below an equal worth.
We fight not for ourselves but what is right.
We fight for all who share this fragile earth.
We fight the darkness with the tools of light,
not harming just as we would not be harmed,
armed with a love that cannot be disarmed.
2/23/25

Our fear at how dehumanizing hate
now has the power it needs to kill at will
is urging us to run before too late,
but love is whispering, “There is hope still.”
Our rage at how hate treats the earth, the poor
and all not Christian-hetero-male-white
sparks thoughts of vengeful sabotage and war,
but love is whispering, “Stay in the light!”
We need to find a way to fight this wrong.
We need to stand with all who are oppressed.
At threat of death, may courage keep us strong
to speak and act to show that we protest,
to model worlds of love we seek to build,
by force of light no hate has ever killed.
2/25/25

Poem “Savor/Resist”

https://youtu.be/aVgxHeRv6VE

The poem text is below.

This is a sonnet first draft written on November 26, 2024, a few weeks after the election and a few days before I got covid, followed not long after by the flu. The long stretch of illness and recovery derailed my “Poem of the Week” series. This would have been the next in line, and it still speaks to where I am and what I feel called to do. Does it speak to you? If so, please leave a comment. I would be glad to hear how you are responding to this time.

I see two Scrabble signs at home each day:
one “SAVOR;” and the other one “RESIST.”
I see now they are callings to obey
to fight totalitarians’ fierce fist.
They suddenly have bought complete control,
brainwashing innocents with hateful lies,
exploiting fears, empowering every troll
to swing its club until the nation dies,
and sweet earth, too. So I am called to fight
by savoring and loving what they’re killing,
by letting that love guide me by its light,
by quieting to sense what it is willing—
love’s Tao or Spirit that wants life to thrive.
Savor. Resist. It’s why I am alive.
11/26/24

Poem of the Week, November 22, 2024

The poem text is below.

T. S. Eliot wrote, “…a poet’s mind is…constantly amalgamating disparate experience… [it] falls in love, or reads Spinoza, and these two experiences have nothing to do with each other, or with the noise of the typewriter or the smell of cooking; in the mind of the poet these experiences are always forming new wholes.”

This hai-net series of seven loosely linked haiku “amalgamates disparate experiences” including these:
a late fall walk in very dry woods;
the election aftermath in our nation;
accelerating climate chaos and the possibility of extinction;
retirement, aging and not too far out there now, death;
John Peck’s poetry teaching fifty years ago;
Brian McLaren’s must-read book “Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart;”
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s classic “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants;”
David Hinton’s book “Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China;”
a love of Taoism;
a daily meditation practice;
Philippians 4;
the ancient Christian contemplative and mystical path of self-emptying (kenosis) leading to transformation of consciousness (metanoia) leading to an increased capacity for seeing oneness and acting with unconditional love (agape) leading to building the beloved, peaceable community of all creatures on earth (koinonia);
and separation from a beloved.

The result is, I hope, something that some may find beautiful or useful or both, but it’s just a first draft and first take video, so we’ll see if it sparks anything for you! Thank you! You can find more polished poems on my website at https://thomascarykind… Here’s the poem’s text:

beech sapling brown leaves
lush earth ritual dress robe
such beautiful
death

deep leaved forest floor
trees disrobed
bare limbs raised up
naked prayer
of hope

drought makes trees exposed
one spark
then dry fall leaves
flame
ghost dance
robed in smoke

old monk
like fall oak
lives by letting go
leaves
seeds
lose life to save life

drought says
reduce need
loss means grief
heart art spark dims
hope lost
in the haze

beyond hope stands
love
charred forest
of oak loves lost
one acorn
sprouts green

if there is any
beauty
love and nurture it
let it
seed
your heart

11/18/24

In All Things Thee to See

The text of this sonnet can be seen at the end of this reflection. You can download a pdf of the reflection and sonnet here: In All Things Thee to See reflection

This is a poem about seeing, both literally and, more importantly, figuratively—about where we focus our heart and mind and what truth we perceive.

How we see ourselves determines how we treat others, it determines our ethics, so it has enormous consequences in the world.

How we see the earth and our place in it determines how we treat other creatures and the ecosystems that support all life.

The Golden Rule, or loving your neighbor as your self, is at the heart of all the major religions and systems of ethics.

Loving your neighbor as your self requires having both a true perception and a healthy love of your self and the world.

Loving your neighbor as your self does not mean merely that you love your neighbor in the same way that you love yourself. It means waking up to the reality that you and your neighbor truly are one self in very slightly different manifestations.

Loving your self does not mean selfishness or self-infatuation or narcissism, because your true self is not your selfish ego. Your true self is the spirit of the universe that created you flowing through you, it is the part of you that every other created being shares.

Your self is not your self, it belongs to the universe. As Teilhard de Chardin saw, our self is not a part of the universe we own wholly, it is the whole of the universe that we own partly. (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Science and Christ (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), pp.12-13)

To love your self, then, is to love the whole universe that you share with every other self as one.

We see this truth by shifting our focus away from our old way of looking at our self.

The slogan of John the Baptist and Jesus is translated in most Bibles, “Repent, for the realm of God is at hand.” The word translated as repent is metanoia in the original Greek. In this context it means to expand the vision of our heart, mind and spirit to a new perspective that can see God’s realm of true oneness here on earth.

We have to let go of our old focus in order to have a new focus. We need to empty ourselves of the self-will and craving and clinging of our ego so that we can look more deeply at our true self and the true nature of the universe.

The Christian spiritual path calls this step kenosis, the Greek word used in the New Testament for self-emptying. Kenosis leads naturally to metanoia. When we empty ourselves of our false self the true self becomes unhidden.

The result of kenosis and metanoia is agape, the Greek word for a love that is God-like and Christ-like, that sees universal oneness and loves its neighbor as itself. Agape is not based on the worthiness of others, nor is it trying to make ourselves worthy, it is simply allowing the spirit of the universe to flow through us. It is what we were created to do.

We urgently need to let that spirit flow through us now because our world is in trouble.

Every time we practice expanding and deepening our vision, seeing ourselves and our world more truly, we are moving humanity a step closer to creating the realm of God on earth, a sustainable harmony grounded in justice, compassion and love, what my brother George calls a Golden Civilization.

It all starts with seeing—seeing what is golden in our hearts, and recognizing that same ember in all things.

In All Things Thee to See

A man that looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye;
Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heav’n espy.
from George Herbert’s “The Elixir”

My woodstove has a window in its door
because it warms the heart to watch the flames.
Right now, my vision through the glass is poor,
part glare, part soot. My eyes are playing games.
They seek my presence in the vague reflection,
or fixate on the dark, obscuring flaws.
I have to force my eye to shift direction
and choose to see the gold behind the gauze,
beyond this drawn-down blind that judging mind
can make of anything we crave or hate.
Surfaces hold us when what wait behind
are gifts of light upon a sacred grate.
Training my eye to see past its desire
I pass through glass and fill with golden fire.

Eradicating Endlessly

The text of this sonnet can be seen at the end of this reflection.

A reader expressed some discomfort with this sonnet for two reasons. I realize that many if not most readers could have the same discomfort, so I will address it as a way to reflect on what usefulness I see in this poem. Before I do, though, I suggest you take two minutes to watch the video.

Their discomfort: On the one hand, wine and chocolate are not problems to them. On the other hand, guilt and shame are serious problems and this poem pushed those buttons.

The sonnet says,

he binged on wine and sinful chocolate cake,
helpless, possessed by fleshly appetite,
his one concern, the shape his flesh would take.

I realize that wine is not harmful for everyone and that chocolate cake may be “sinfully good” without being sinful in any other way. They happen to be problems for the character in the sonnet, but readers should interpret them merely as symbols of whatever similar substances, activities or thoughts have the same effect for them.

What is it in your life that hooks you and makes you think, say or do something that you know is not good for you? What makes you feel helplessly possessed by desire to some degree, however small? What swings your focus onto your ego or surface self? What makes you overly concerned about your appearance or any other superficial means toward feeling worthy of approval in others’ eyes or your own?

The last line talks about dirt, and that’s one of the jokes in this poem. You can see in the video that I am treating lightly and humorously this heavy and important spiritual topic. The poem is about the dirty little secrets we all have, the weaknesses, flaws and foibles we would rather hide. It is about throwing open the curtains and windows and letting light and fresh air get in to expose the dirt for what it is and then transform it.

The usefulness of the poem is exactly the opposite of making us feel guilt and shame. A good organic gardener will have weeds that need to be pulled. That is part of the job—dealing with a natural occurrence that is not bad, not sinful, not anything to feel guilty or ashamed about, but something that is counterproductive to a garden’s beautiful fruitfulness.

Every once in a while the weeds will get ahead of the gardener. That’s life. Again, it’s not an occasion for guilt or shame, but for understanding and compassion and, yes, if possible, a sense of humor.

Coleman Barks’ translation of the Rumi poem entitled “The Guest House” captures this delightfully. It ends:

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

(Click here to read the entire short poem. If you don’t know it, I highly recommend it. It’s a treasure!)

So where is the “guide from beyond” in the sonnet, “Eradicating Endlessly,” leading us?

To have humility and accept the dirt and the unhealthy, unwanted plants that naturally keep sprouting in our very human humus.

And then to get down on our knees and pull more root.

It’s just part of the job of being a gardener, tending the growth of our true self, clearing the way for the Spirit so that we can fulfill our calling and use our gifts and our entire life to bear the fruit the universe needs of us.

The Greek word “kenosis” is what we call self-emptying in the Christian spiritual tradition. The concept is not exclusively or originally Christian—it is at the core of every contemplative path, every form of meditation, every process of seeking the oneness that is the most mature stage and state of human development.

If you want to grow horticulturally, you will need to practice weed-control; if you want to grow spiritually, you will need to practice self-emptying.

It will be a struggle sometimes, but as Swahili wisdom puts it, “celebrate the struggle!” You might as well greet the weeds laughing as they sprout in your soul.

You will probably reach your goal sooner if you can do it from a place of humor and compassion rather than guilt and shame. You will probably get more skillful more quickly at eradicating the dirty-secret thought-roots before they become action-fruits if you are not also having to eradicate the more pernicious ego-weeds that stem from taking yourself too seriously or pridefully.

I hope this sonnet will help you remember to do your work cheerfully, or at least to do your work! And I hope you will find it useful to remember that you are not alone in that garden. We’re on our knees right alongside you, day in and day out, and will be forever, celebrating the struggle. Happy eradicating!

Eradicating Endlessly

He meant to write about a sick plant’s death,
and how he pulled its roots up from the pot,
and how the hole it left inhaled fresh breath
and gained new life, refilled with rich, dark rot.
He thought to symbolize his ego’s rout,
how he effected its eradication
and nurtured his true self—aversion, doubt,
attachment, gone! A fertile, new creation!
He would have written that, except last night
he binged on wine and sinful chocolate cake,
helpless, possessed by fleshly appetite,
his one concern, the shape his flesh would take.
His worst self sprouts another fat, pale shoot.
His hand sinks back in dirt to pull more root.

Thomas Cary Kinder

Spiritual Growth and Change of Consciousness