PERESTROIKA AND GLASNOST

It always takes courage to take up the subject of restructuring—whether it involves just the personal life, or our very society. Openness takes even more courage…and humility.  We are talking about the state and the individual and the relationship between.&… Read full post »

 BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLICANS
 
 From the Good Book…
 “And the man said,
 The woman whom thou gavest
 to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
 and I did eat” ...
 
 Consciousness in motion...
 What ho now! How goes
 this old dragon fro/… Read full post »

The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.

--Dalai Lama

 

Every step of the journey—

Whether into a puddle

Or onto a rocky shore

Or into the green glade—

Is valuable

Beyond all reason

Beyond all… Read full post »

A MUCH NEEDED GIFT FROM DAVID MAZEL

By Barbara Smith Stoff

Some time in that amazing decade we call ‘the seventies’ I discovered the stories of David Mazel, who was then publishing them in The Christian Science Monitor. It happens also that, during those years, I was teaching high… Read full post »

ELECTION TIME - A MEMORY

Esalen Institute on election night in 1980…I am participating in an extended study program there which involves honored scholars from a number of disciplines. On this night, Ronald Reagan is winning the election.  After dinner, we are all invited to remain in the… Read full post »

THE DANCE OF INTUITION AND INTELLECT—THIS IS THE REAL EVOLUTIONARY JOURNEY

 By Sheldon Stoff

 

Approximately twenty-five years ago The New York Times Magazine published an article about marriage.  It pointed out two items which have stayed with me.  First, people were mar… Read full post »

grazing on green violets in spring

we hear with gentle hearts

                     the soft sounds

              &n… Read full post »

THE SOUL TO KEEP

In a green glade
wherein the deepest pool,
I have carved a cedar box
and lined it well with pearl.
I have cast it all around
with silver fleur de lys
and made a latch from finest gold,
then laced it through with dream.
In it I have kept
the song… Read full post »

REFLECTIONS IN UKAIAH’S GOLDEN EYE

This cat you rescued from the night

has grown sleek and shiny black.

Here in my lap she wafts her tail

in contented response to my praise

and looks at me.

Sunday is quiet now, before Christmas.

Vivaldi deepens… Read full post »

Message for Newt Gingrich: In 1788 the Chimney Sweep Reform Law—a great humanitarian reform act—decreed that no child under eight years old would be allowed to be a chimney sweep. All should be allowed to bathe once a week, and the chimney had to be cold before having it swept.
… Read full post »

EARTH EGG NUMBER ELEVEN
Hexagram Prayer—
given the seasons,
we eat the yellow squash
of summer
and spit the seeds
into still warm soil
of autumn.
New Moon Earth Mother
keeper of all unsorted seeds
keeper of curling green wands
Oh! protect the best of these
from the cutting knife—
reasoning beyond dept… Read full post »

 

THE HEART’S MURMUR…MURMURATION OF THE COLLECTIVE HEART…ON THIS PLANET…

About Birds...and other matters...and remembering Loren Eiseley

As I watch the news, I reflect upon the role Twitter is playing in the shaping of world events, I remember the news images of the… Read full post »

ICELAND BECOMES FIRST WESTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRY TO RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE

I am pleased to read this. Oh so many years ago, when my children were in high school, we had an exchange student from Iceland, for a whole year...what a wonderful experience that was...and we all learned…

Read full post »

ICELAND BECOMES FIRST WESTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRY TO RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE

I am pleased to read this. Oh so many years ago, when my children were in high school, we had an exchange student from Iceland, for a whole year...what a wonderful experience that was...and we all learned…

Read full post »

"SIMPLY GENIUS' AS CODE WORDS ASKING FOR GUIDANCE FROM THAT REALM

 A review of Ervin Laszlo's Simply Genius! And Other Tales from My Life

Early on the expression "simply genius" had become his password into the genius beyond. This password came to him through music. His mother, who first… Read full post »

NAVIGATING THE CHAOS GRACEFULLY – A review of Kingsley Dennis’ new book (just published by Inner Traditions), New Consciousness for a New World: How to Thrive in Transitional Times and Participate in the Coming Spiritual Renaissance

By Barbara Smith Stoff

While writing of how whole syst… Read full post »

BEING GOOD ANCESTORS

Jonas Salk so much liked to say “We must be good ancestors!”…I say…Folks, lets’s get on with it!  For those who are pondering the significance, or value, of the media focus/”hype” upon the 911 memorial…I share some of my own…

Read full post »

Hope walks through the dusty streets with a golden sieve--winnowing truth and beauty from the ashes of destruction. --Barbara Smith Stoff

  Read full post »

camp cedar glen/barbara smith stoff

 CAMP CEDAR GLEN

The children find me here on the rock—

four girls and one boy, they climb up,

and spread out their towels to sunbathe.

Jenny, April, Autumn, Holly, and Sean.

April says everyone else has gone to chapel.

I tell them Indians… Read full post »

THREE SHORT POEMS ABOUT WORDS…and other matters…

Emily Dickinson has this to say:

 

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

 

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

--Emily Dickinson

 

 … Read full post »

THREE SHORT POEMS ABOUT WORDS…and other matters…

Emily Dickinson has this to say:

 

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

 

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

--Emily Dickinson

 

 … Read full post »

My husband actually sent this letter to President Obama.  When I asked him if I could post it here, he said, "Yes"...It's trying to be good citizens we are. --bss

July 26, 2011

Dear Mr. President:

My wife and I watched and listened with attention to your televised address on the… Read full post »