3 Stories In Honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day
Faith, Hope, And Love During The Worst Of Times
We really can dive into the murky pits of the worst of times and find faith, hope, and love.
Julian Bilecki was a teenager from a family of poor farmers. They risked their lives to help innocent people hide in underground shelters on the family farm during Hitler’s reign.
“We dug a hole in the ground and made a roof with branches and covered it with dirt,” Bilecki recounted. “We burned wood and cooked only at night. It’s hard to believe we all lived through that time.”
To avoid…
Call The Police! Ask Them Questions!
(feel the fear and do it anyway)
I feel ENRAGED. Fearful. OUTRAGED. Paralyzed.
Not submitting. Not posting. Everything I want to say seems like not enough. Everything feels like appropriation. I listened to the news, ordered the book, White Fragility, wrote 4 essays (then could not hit send — talk about white fragility!), re-read Homegoings, and engaged in Facebook conversations with my black friends (I wanted to say I engaged in real conversations, but I have NOT- I stayed OUT of the “fray”, aka Forceful Racism Administered to YOU, not me(whew!).
I have faced my own racist silence. Holy. Crap.
Reflections On Grief
Listening to Trevor Hall and Brett Dennen singing “Put Down What You Are Carrying”, thinking of people who’ve experienced the insufferable loss of a child, a spouse, a parent or a best friend in wartime. They can’t ever put down what they are carrying.
Many people have lost more than one family member or friend in battle. In addition, the lives of veterans who survive war are stolen by suicide and permanent injuries every day.
Yet we don’t say we are sorry for your loss on Memorial Day; we say thank you. This symbolic gratitude echoes through patriotic social media…
“What’s it like to be you?”
Posed by the brilliant philosopher Charles Eisenstein, this question naturally evokes empathy with people unlike us, other species, and the planet as a whole.
More than a quarter of all birds in the United States have vanished since 1970, a loss of nearly 3 billion animals.
As you listen to birdsong or admire a red cardinal, spend a moment wondering — “What’s it like to be you?”
According to the latest research, it will take 3 to 7 million years of evolution to rebuild the biodiversity of mammal species lost in just the last…
I moved in and out of full-blown panic two days ago. Grateful for noble friends and family members and phones. Watching people around me be productive and peaceful and inspiring is great until the internal comparisons begin. Why don’t I offer a comforting meditation? I have recorded three, but I just can’t post them. Why aren’t I sharing mindful wisdom? I have written two essays, but they seem so inadequate. Who am I to tell anyone anything right now?
Yesterday, a friend told me she gave her son a big hug. We both felt an awkward pause after she said…
Mary Gustafson
Hi. I am a professional copywriter, a creative writing teacher and the author of My Wish, the biography of a Chief Buddhist Monk
