April: The Trust, Faith and Hope of the Wise Fool

We have to allow ourselves to realize that we are complete fools; otherwise, we have nowhere to begin. We have to be willing to be a fool and not always try to be a wise guy. We could almost say that being willing to be a fool is one of the first wisdoms.

~Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Greetings to our friends and community,

I am foolish enough to hope. Foolish enough to embrace the unknown and the unknowable—to dance with the alternative to the optimist and the pessimist and be with what is while looking for those openings in uncertainty that allow me to contribute beauty, truth and goodness in all the small ways I can.

The ripples of the eclipse season and clashes in the worldly domain have had me asking the question: How do I show up and squarely face the world’s shadow and suffering, and my own, and yet remain hopeful enough to be present for every good moment? We are living at a time of great transformative movements and momentum. We are living at a time of nightmarish reactivity. It takes spiritual courage to be fully engaged. It takes spiritual courage to explore the reflection of outer circumstances and internal landscape.

The louder the external cacophony becomes the quieter my inner world becomes. In silence, my mind which can creatively create scenarios of disasters great and small fades into the background and I find myself in the spaciousness of the heart. To paraphrase Pema Chodron, the noise is the weather, the silence is the sky. When I live as sky, the trust, faith and hope of the fool comes naturally. From that internal quietness we will inspire, nurture and hold inviolable the vision of a future filled with environmental sustainability, peace, justice and joy for all.

May we be as brave and courageous as the wise fool.

Love to Mama Earth and all of you.

Teresa, spirit of Thule, Tucker, Huxley and all at Paradise Found

Every day is Earth Day here on planet Earth.