"Yes, that's where we're going."
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David Sparenberg
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David Sparenberg posted a blog postDAY PRAYER
Do we dare to live the life of freedom, responsibility, maturity and the dialogical affirmation of mutuality? Do we dare to be the change we desire? Will we come together in the late twilight to be the sacred activism and the shaping of God into prayer that is an embracing compassion and our deliverance from the addictions of greed and violence, ignorance, hatred and fear? Enter then together the pattern of biotic solidarity in the conversion of inner evolution into a spiritual and cultural…See More
David Sparenberg posted a blog postTEACHERS & TEACHINGS: Reflections on the 1st Day of August, 2011
Here we are. Being here we are bound to unfold our lives within a shared context of our species-wide most significant and challenging dilemma—a truly unprecedented Earth condition—making choices ever between the dynamics of activism and the processes of reconnection which bring with them the processes of disconnect into voluntary simplicity and experiential wealth. An activism that is genuinely sacred activism, as Andrew Harvey teaches, reconnecting work by way of acts of beauty, which are…See More
Billy Howell-Sinnard commented on David Sparenberg's blog post FREEDOM"Thanks, David for this fine poem. I was reminded of a very short poem by a poet outcast. It's not exactly like yours, but I think it speaks to similar ideas.
LETTER FROM KICKAPOO (pop. 250)
I’m
hiding out
from the heat…"
David Sparenberg posted a blog postFREEDOM
Freedom! What is it? Freedom from— freedom from nothingness even though we are always facing into death, freedom from fear of nothingness and freedom from the shadows of that fear, too often cast by the will to power of some over the vulnerabilities of others. Freedom to— to discover and explore with recognition and respect, to live in a uniqueness of sovereignty a life which is simultaneously an earth-walk-light in balance, in the spectrum-integrity of many relationships and to give breath and…See More
David Sparenberg posted a blog postTHE DEMOCRATIZATION OF DELIVERANCE
You cannot be all things You cannot have all things You cannot say everything righteous or beautiful or even everything that needs to be said You cannot be the world governing order You cannot be the prince of peace in glory and the founding father of trust, truth and community You cannot be synagogue and mosque and catholic church You cannot be the bank of ambition or the pulse of aspiration, inspiration or the pillar undergirding the mishaps of the poor You cannot be the estuary of ubiquitous…See More
David Sparenberg posted a blog postINKTOMI’S MESSAGE, a retelling out of oral tradition
Inktomi, spiderman, visited the tribes of the Northern Great Plains. Each time descending from the sky on a silken thread, Inkto brought a message of desolation to the Arapaho, the Blackfoot, the Crow, the Cheyenne, Dakota, and Lakota. Each time, Inkto told the people, “Changes are coming, a harsh time, and mother earth will suffer. Her oldest children will cry out in terrible pain.” Each time, Inkto looked around and spoke: “Remember the cottonwood growing here by the living stream. The tree…See More
David Sparenberg commented on David Sparenberg's blog post LIFE IS A DESIRE, NOT A MEANING: an addendum to “On the Foundations of Green Acting”"good morning and thanks, Billy. i appreciate your affirmation in faith. we are in this together my friend. individual choices and our solidarity are important. thank you for your attention and your reply."
Billy Howell-Sinnard commented on David Sparenberg's blog post LIFE IS A DESIRE, NOT A MEANING: an addendum to “On the Foundations of Green Acting”"Again, you've said it in your own inimitable way. As a Bahá'í and seeker of truth and life, I agree whole-heartedly with your assessment.
Love, Peace, and Unity,
Billy
"Most men lead lives of quiet…"
David Sparenberg posted a blog postLIFE IS A DESIRE, NOT A MEANING: an addendum to “On the Foundations of Green Acting”
Life is desire to create life, to proliferate, to be alive; to encroach upon nothingness and to exceed beyond death. Meanings are variables. With a disposition of openness meanings remain questionable—Socratic. Because we endanger life when the imposition of meaning becomes extravagant and overruns the vital dynamic of desire. For example: If the meaning of life is assumed to be the earning of money for the consuming of material goods, quantitatively and with increasing velocity, and this…See More
Barry Hesperus left a comment for David Sparenberg"Hi, David,
Thanks for inviting me to be your friend.
Best wishes and blessings,
Barry
"
Billy Howell-Sinnard commented on David Sparenberg's blog post FROM KABBALAH"Being truthful, being honest, trustworthy, generous, does not take a scientific, academic degree, does not take esoteric knowledge or a miraculous mystical experience (though this can happen in the process of practicing these and other virtues).…"
Billy Howell-Sinnard commented on David Sparenberg's blog post FROM KABBALAH"Interestingly, Native Americans consider that humanity has been in the stage of adolescence, that we have been exploring what it means to be an animal. We are on the verge of becoming human beings and reaching the stage of maturity. There may need…"
David Sparenberg commented on David Sparenberg's blog post FROM KABBALAH"Wow Thomas, trying your best is where it is at and nothing wrong with dirty hands and feet. Says you are making contact and staying in touch. Keep it honest, keep it simple and let your feelings flow outward over and into the place where…"
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- Do you believe we're now in a global emergency?
- Yes. Unfortunately, it is an urgent and increasingly dangerous reality.
- What does climate change mean to you?
- A GULL BLOWN INLAND
All things of Gaia—the magnificence of Mount Rainier, the flow-dance of encircling ocean, ring of fire rounding the Pacific Rim, plankton in the salt dependent sea, metamorphic migrations of Monarch butterflies and congregations of earthwise crows—may someday be reabsorbed into the mystic godhead. Or
re-enfolded into the Sefirot strange dialectic structure of divine potencies or moved hence back as subtle imagery into astral parallel places of dimensions without seasons. Or even
recalled into the spirit houses of eternal ideas of fixed unchanging symmetry.
These heavy schools of human thought provide small comfort to the panic stricken human heart before the raging voracities of death geared technologies and destruction. But asymmetric nature is not consulted. No council of all beings has been convened; no parliament of biotic democracy ever chartered.
The proud and powerful towers of disembodied philosophies present a bitter ending to the evolutionary narrative of creation. To Earth-forgotten of God’s excesses that we have long since failed to know befriend and heal or lovingly defend. Around
midday today this day in calendar year of mere human measurement 2011 I stopped to watch a gull blown inland on high wind and stood reminded by instincts of my natural self that the alternatives to global warming nuclear winter worldwide madness and tipping toxicity begin in openness and widening rhythms of echoing hearts with many re-Earthing relationships and many souls alert with open eyes in motive second naivety.
In a future already near at hand we humans will not be encrypted urbanites or techno-addicts. We will not remain self-referential (if we care to remain at all). But will either become a mature species in process of eco-anamnesis and sanity or primitive survivors in the aftermath of all consuming chaos and the black hole of global dead.
This is not prophecy, although there is in the depths a truth of words. This is of choices. Of mountains and rivers of forests and coastlines of lands and waters. Of gulls blown inland on high winds and of the feeling sense of coming rain and coming changes.
And it is not that this is merely black and white, but rather that the gray is twilight and it is to be decided yet which is which—the emerging of rejuvenating dawn or “progress” descending into lasting night.
20-21 Jan. 2010
from forthcoming THE WAY OF THE GREEN TROUBADOUR, Musings on an Ecozoic Way by David Sparenberg
- What does peace mean to you?
- BEATITUDE
Blessed indeed are the poor and the wild things of the Earth, although pushed to the edge of existence and extinction sniffs and looks into our eyes with deadly indifference, day after day and minute by minute. For the wretched of the Earth and the wild are made homeless in common. And without habitation, multitudes are driven by the betrayal of greed into the abomination of desolation.
Yet One there is who watches. And after much suffering, the scales out of balance shall rise with a mighty ringing. And justice will abide everywhere. For there is no mending but by preserving unity through diversity; no healing but in the bestowal of dignity. And there is no salvation, except by the wayside, in the ghettos of the forgotten, where the vulnerable await the unfulfilled promises of welcoming love.
Blessed indeed are the peacemakers. For such shall teach and lead us out of the terror and confusion of deception and destruction, and away from the wars of men against men, and the warring of men on nature. But the day of peace will come with the dismantling of walls and the dissolving of boundaries and borders. And the gentle and visionary—whose palms are as their souls, and both are without bloodstain—will surely show us the shade of a life-bearing tree and seat us among lions and lambs. And we will come to share of who we are in harmony and without hatred.
Blessed indeed are the innocent and pure of heart. And those who time cannot stoop and wither into bitterness; and who are not skillful with the wiles of shallowness and success, but for whom both prairie stars and daybreak star remain embracing miracles. And for whom the pattern of a spider's web in autumn garden is a form of scripture. And for whom a cloud of yellow pollen blown over the desert in springtime is a breath of mystery. And for whom the soaring flight of an eagle is the utterance of a holy word.
For all such are of the Kingdom of God and are beloved of creation, even as children are loved in the eyes of elders.
Blessed indeed are those among us today and tomorrow who walk the good talk and who are Earth-walkers. For such have seen with the eyes of the soul and know in the knowledge of experience that soul-seeing is truth. And this truth is simple and belongs to life.
Blessed indeed are those disciplined and profound with silence, and respectful in their measured words. In the chaos of upheaval and in the ordeals of betrayal, still they value honesty above profit and integrity, which bestows freedom, above possessions and enslavement to things.
Blessed indeed are the myth-singers, who have gone down into the ancient and recovered the medicine of sanity, and the storytellers and poets, and those who re-enchant us and initiate our bodies into dancing with the rhythms of the Earth.
For such celebrants give bone and living tissue to the dreams of God, but shake off disfiguring shadows and blow away, with chanting breath, the dun smoke of nightmares and misdirecting lies. For those who are deep are collectors of power. And beauty is most precious among the gifts we come giving.
Blessed indeed are you who have prayed with these words. And are pregnant now and are nurturing them inside, as words of your own. For you shall drop upon the Earth in your seasons as seeds of the Tree of Life. And the fruit that ripens from your roots shall be the food of salvation.
In those days, even angels will enter your orchards, smiling the smile of grace, and with the open hands of holy beggars. And you who are but of the Earth will feed them and satisfy the hunger of Heaven.
from THESE ARE THE WORDS by David Sparenberg
- What does community mean to you?
- CHILDREN OF THE EARTH
Something happens here, this perpetual—the Earth. Call it God-seeds, seeds of light, the miracle of life; call it love or call it magic. It fills our veins, yet teems beyond us.
The squid, the jellyfish, the sea lion, the orca, the elegant ray, the humpback whale; dove, raven, hummingbird, robin, the heron, eagle and the jay;
butterfly, dragonfly
fire ant and bee; the wolf, the fox,
white tiger, black panther, tree toad, desert tortoise, the panda and the polar bear. Then there is us. Human. Question mark.
The unanswered asking that snakes through everything; screams terror, dreams in ecstasy. The ones who
boast of speaking with God—God interpreters—who cast thick shadows of destruction and amplified death. Listen now.
Say with me: Roundness all around. This perpetual—the Earth. Scurrying in the grass, humming on the wind, whispering melodies along motive water; sun on the colors of flowers, the carnival benign of pollen down flanks of praying mountains, out over meadows, into the humility of valleys. The swish of frogs and fishes among rushes; rattling reeds.
The reverent are amazed and will forego explanation. Goodness is to abide. Thanks, an antidote to violence, gladly given. Wisdom is to be still at certain intervals along this pilgrimage and observe with godlike laughter gutting, though yet demure. Look now. Listen.
Say with me: Behold the interplay intimate of angels and trees. Prophet,
what will you tell your lover when asked to recite the psalms of creation? And as you were held tenderly in dreamtime of childhood, how do you forget
the children of the Earth
30 December 2008
from THE GREEN TROUBADOUR SOURCE BOOK by David Sparenberg
- What does politics mean to you?
- MAKING REVOLUTION
Let’s become an experiment. Let’s see how we can change our inner landscapes, seascapes, dreamscapes, focus and projections. Let’s keep it small—small and simple. This: this one step, this paradigmatic turning point, for example.
Instead of “F-you” being the main content of the script, let’s try Thank you. Let’s see if we change the world by being the change we seek, with this little contagious about face—this humble and utterly courageous facing. Thank you for getting in my way, getting up into my face, blowing that smoke, like a much needed smoke signal, to bring me to the place of choices, to my choosing kindness instead of cruelty, compassion rather than violence, sanctity and not obscenity.
And giving us both a new possibility to explore our lighted fuses, our lightless faces, our angers, fears and frustrations and what may, after all, be yet behind each. And for this chance to find if we are not matchsticks after all, but might be an oasis of the heart, shared vulnerability, the miraculous power of listening, and the pathway up the mountain to the promise land of mutuality, reverence, biotic democracy, respect.
So let it start here when and where we don’t eat the tainted meat of hatred, bigotry and betrayal, but might become the eucharist of love and change this troubled, tormented world from war in our eyes to peace between our souls.
Consider: Thank you is no bigger than a mustard seed. But when the mustard grows it spreads out like contagious freedom over the entire land.
I still do not know what to call the making of this revolution, unless to name it transforming vileness into beauty, bringing the invisible into generosity, giving prayers and dreams flesh, and healing the encrusted wound and rupture between what we say and do and how we cradle what we cradle and who we are. For while I cannot speak for any, all, or even you, for myself within this context of place, being yet alive, I have grown tired of lies, compromise, and how it is. But long to be instead the truth within me, to embrace the urgency of openness between us, and be touched by the truth that is you. This deep ecology of kingdom wild and holy.
There are three ways of making that which might yet complete the circle—Earth—howsoever hurt and broken: One, that we are all vulnerable. Two, that the vulnerable may be hallowed. Three, that we belong.
18 August 2010
from forthcoming THE WAY OF THE GREEN TROUBADOUR, Musings on an Ecozoic Way by David Sparenberg
- What does money mean to you?
- "To live simply, so that others may simply live." To be dedicated with honesty, courage, humility and passion to ecozoic acts of beauty and pathfinding ways to freedom from addiction to consummerism.
- What makes you truly happy?
- Creating and putting into the world soulful and ecosophic work... sharing with others, participating in change and being part of an emergent, sustainable, "green" shift in Earth relationships toward a future biotic democracy.
David Sparenberg's Blog
DAY PRAYER
Do we dare to live the life of freedom, responsibility, maturity and the dialogical affirmation of mutuality? Do we dare to be the change we desire? Will we come together in the late twilight to be the sacred activism and the shaping of God into prayer that is an embracing compassion and our deliverance from the addictions of greed and violence, ignorance, hatred and fear?
Enter then together the pattern of biotic solidarity in the conversion of inner evolution into a…
ContinuePosted on February 2, 2012 at 12:07pm — 1 Comment
TEACHERS & TEACHINGS: Reflections on the 1st Day of August, 2011
Here we are. Being here we are bound to unfold our lives within a shared context of our species-wide most significant and challenging dilemma—a truly unprecedented Earth condition—making choices ever between the dynamics of activism and the processes of reconnection which bring with them the processes of disconnect into voluntary simplicity and experiential wealth. An activism that is genuinely sacred activism, as Andrew… Continue
Posted on August 2, 2011 at 8:01am
THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF DELIVERANCE
You cannot be all things
You cannot have all things
You cannot say everything righteous or beautiful
or even everything that needs to be said…
Continue
You cannot have all things
You cannot say everything righteous or beautiful
or even everything that needs to be said…
Continue
Posted on June 2, 2011 at 8:15pm
Comment Wall (2 comments)
- At 6:41pm on May 14, 2011, Barry Hesperus said…
Hi, David,
Thanks for inviting me to be your friend.
Best wishes and blessings,
Barry
- At 4:49am on May 10, 2011, Vesna Radovanovic gave David Sparenberg a gift…
© 2012 Created by David Woolfson.
