I have been pondering President Obama’s Inauguration speech - in particular his call for personal responsibility.  And this led me to the question:  What am I for giving?

In 2006 I launched the WITH Forgiveness Project.  Initially my forgiveness work focused on freeing ourselves from the experiences of the past that result in misery and suffering in the present.  As my experience of forgiveness evolved  I have been playing with the idea, What am I for giving?  If I am angry, resentful and judgmental in the present moment, then what I am giving through my thoughts, words and actions is just that, anger and judgments.  When I am feeling compassion, love, peace and happiness those feelings are what is evident in my thoughts, words and actions.

And so one of my commitments in accepting President Obama’s invitation to personal responsibility is to be responsible for what I am giving - in my thoughts, words and actions.  What are you for giving?

Just for fun…

Courtesy of wowOwow, here’s a question that made me smile… If you’d danced with Barack Obama at an Inaugural ball, what would you have whispered in his ear?  A sampling of the responses…

Marlo Thomas: “Yes we can.”

Joan Ganz Cooney: “I love you so don’t screw up.”

Liz Smith: “God bless you, Mr. President, and may you save this nation from itself.  I’m with you all the way.”

Candice Bergen:  ”Get a labradoodle.”

Joan Juliet Buck:  ”THANK YOU.”

… I don’t know what I’d say. He is the source of such admiration and hope in me.  Maybe thank you is about right.

What would you say?

As a very young photographer, I was greatly moved by the work of the WPA photographers, and one of my first favorite photographers, Dorthea Lange - her images were striking. I was struck too by the fact that she had been a photographer - that a ’she’ could be a photographer. I began dreaming for such a chance myself.

I remember the woman’s face in the image entitled ‘Migrant Mother,’ taken during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. I remember feeling at the time that Dorthea had so captured this woman’s experience in one photograph, I came to fear the poverty for which the Depression is known.

As federal funding of infrastructure projects is debated and considered, I want to bring up a point that I believe is important to take into account. Yes, infrastructure is important (although I believe building the digital highway is as important as repaving the Golden Gate Bridge), yet, we must keep in mind that the jobs that come out of that investment will be in the majority for men, after all, construction and road work jobs continues to be mainly for men (although definitely not exclusively). Given the nature of two parent working families, and the historical length of women in the work force, I really hope we don’t fall back on old models for stimulating the economy. Many mothers must support their children, as did the Migrant Mother. It will not be acceptable to assume that because a man has a job, a woman will be supported as was possible to consider in previous wars.

What do you think?

Here is a very creative way to share your priorities for the next four years - share a video letter with the President. This project highlights what innovative ways to communicate are developing to bring the people back into the political process. http://tothepresident.com/
Here is more info on the project itself: The Virtual Open Letter project was conceived and produced as part of the New Media Institute 2008. The project was conceived as community record of voices to the new President Barack Obama and his administration. Here are the voices of all Americans eager to give the president their honest opinions on what he should prioritize as his administration deals with a tall order of crises.

Credits

Produced by Anthony Marshall, Chelo Alvarez-Stehle (CA), Sabrina Gordon (NY), Ian Skorodin (CA).

Partners

Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Generation Engage

I heard it clearly and I was looking into his eyes

I said ‘why don’t you talk to me or be in touch, son?’

‘I don’t have anything to say to you right now’

‘Are you angry with me?’

‘No, I have only love for you’

‘Don’t you want to see me?’

“I think you are beautiful and amazing but I don’t need to be near you right now’

‘What can I do with my desire to be in touch with you?’

‘I have been in your life for you.  You have learned what you needed to know, you have learned that I am a sovereign being, you have learned that you are not responsible for my experience, you have learned that we are mother and son and we do not have anything else in common.  We have served each other well.  I will see you sometimes, but the intense play- the act of life we have been in together–the holding of me like your precious pearl…is over.  I am a man and I am on my path.  You are not to walk with me at this time.”

‘I love you and I don’t know what to say’

‘I know you do.  You have loved me with the best of you and you know that you don’t want to or need to take care of me anymore’

Later in my meditation after the tears fell on my cheeks, I lay in a surrendered child’s pose on my yoga mat.  I saw us in the ether.  He said to me.. ‘You are free and so am I’.  He held my hands gently in his…’I will always have your hands’… he gazed into my eyes…’I will always have your eyes’….’our love is eternal and you know we are One’…. ‘I have never needed you and we are One.’

My son came for a visit from Iraq last October.  I haven’t heard from him since then.  He is in touch with his father and his sister and brother.  This ‘conversation’ came to me during a deep breathing practice of yoga.  I will keep breathing and loving from where I am.

Must everything always change? Did my imagination show me the truth or was this a truth only in my imagination and does it matter?

Posted originally on my blog at www.imspirit.com  January 19^th 2009.

Join the Obama family, the American people and the international community in re-engaging in our humanity of hope and change. Jeanie, Bonnie & Teresa, co-hosts of The Conversation Campaign blogtalkradio show posted this invitation out to the community. We hope you will call or write there or write here your response to the question.

Dear Friends,

In the midst of your Inauguration Day celebrations, we would like to invite you to another one on our blogtalkradio show, The Conversation Campaign, Tuesday, January 20, 5-6 pm PST.  On this day we are marking the beginning of a new era in human history with these questions:

What are you inaugurating in your life?  What are you stepping into, and saying yes to that is your personal contribution to the new era?

Join us on the show and, for only 1-2 minutes declare your intentions into a field of collective intentions, to inspire and promote all that you stand for, all that you are, as a global citizen of the 21st century.  If you cannot join us, consider declaring your beginnings wherever you are celebrating… we will meet you in the field…

If you can join us, you have the choice to call or login and share with us your response to these questions.  If you call, we ask that you be brief to allow others to also share their declarations.  You can also sign up and write your declarations in the Chat Room:

To call, use the Call in number: (347) 838-8753 (you may need to wait a few minutes before we can patch you in…stay on!)

To write in your response, use the Login url:  www.blogtalkradio.com/The-Light-Show <http://www.blogtalkradio.com/The-Light-Show>, then click on Chat Room to enter your declaration.  You can turn on the volume on your computer to hear the conversation going on while joining the chat room, writing your response and reading others’ contributions. You can sign your name and town if you are comfortable doing so.

Looking forward to taking this collective step with you toward co-creating a new world,
Jeanie DeRousseau, Teresa Ruelas, Bonnie Kelley
Co-hosts for The Conversation Campaign

Today, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr’s life and work, Barack Obama asked Americans to volunteer for service.  If you were able to, we’d love to hear about your experience!

Recently a good friend of mine brought up the concept of (dis)illusions, and, admonishing himself, he said he should be more grounded, that he needed to throw aside his wish for a new world because this world he envisioned was so alien within the old world. He felt pressure by what he saw as judgments, critiques of what is doable, and views of what is ‘responsible’ as evaluated in the old world. I wondered aloud why old world (dis)illusions necessarily have to trump new world visions - if we believe in maya or universal consciousness or a larger being in charge, and all is but an illusion, the culmination of our thoughts, then why not choose new world illusions?