Journal

2016/11/27

REFLECTING THE DOOM

I have taken a good look at the doom & realised that the only response is to breathe the whole dam world into your soul, convert it into love & exhale joyously. Am not at all down with the doomsdaying. Whenever was the world resolved, fixed, perfected? Its the dam challenge that stimulates us, that shows us who we are. The ability to rise which kicks us out of our slumber, which shows us the energy & courage we never thought we had. Are we up for the challenge? Its always a challenge of the spirit. Can i keep on my feet in the midst of the earthquake? Will i buckle when the hurricane hits? Will i tremble when the psychopath glares or stare him down, watch the bully disintegrate because he recognises a foundation so deep, so powerful, so resilient, that his language of hatred, division & flames burns up in its own wild fire! Let the storm energise our spirits, sometimes the best of us is only pulled out by the confrontation with the greatest darkness. And in our moment of reckoning we stare back the abyss & let it know, in no uncertain terms: “we are at hand”

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2016/11/26

JOURNEYS

After 6113 miles driving through the US I arrived at the Pacific Coast. I took a deep breath in, and realised that I’d arrived at the end of a long road. It’s a road that has taken me now through China, Africa, Russia, Europe and the US. Along the way I’ve witnessed the world changing slowly around me, and sometimes, like during the long hours alone on the Trans Siberian Express, witnessed my own changing. The road has led me to many places I never intended to go to, and one of its gifts was, within the movement, to hear the calling of events, issues and sometimes screams – and to be drawn towards them READ MORE ☞

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2016/11/19

A PERSONAL RECKONING WITH HISTORY

Just arrived in New York & headed down to Trump Towers on 5th Avenue. My head is muddled to have come full circle. Has my own belief in human beings blinded me to something uglier & darker lurking in human nature? I know my understanding has grown through so many experiences, conversations & invitations into people’s stories. But I knew that something was amiss (in the election predictions) simply through finding so few journalists or pollsters in the deeper corners, nooks & crannies of America. The abandoned vast buildings, the boarded up little businesses, the sheer volume of homeless, the students saddled with vast debt, the sense of a certain degradation in infrastructure. All made me wonder if the polls were off. But much more i feel left with questions. What of this leadership, this racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia. People want change. But at what price? What does it say that we put our own economic advancement over parents, children, families feeling safe in their own countries & homes? We’ve entered “post-truth” but we’ve also entered “don’t give a fucking dam”. We’ve abandoned the history our Grandparents lived through & in amnesia history is locked in a never ending repeating cycle. So yes, i feel questions for myself. I know that my faith in humans is built on solid ground, upon journey upon journey, mile upon mile, person upon person. But equally if we cannot see that things are deeply unlatched at the moment, we’re just getting deeper into this collective blind spot. I feel all our premises & suppositions & presumptions need examined at this time. For now i’m left with questions. A sense of deep uncertainty. A knowledge that a sense of actions & a developed purpose is required. That its a moment of history each of us must have our own personal internal reckoning with. And that my own begins as my journey ends. Or maybe i’m just tired, travel weary & in need of some company.

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2016/11/14

A CONVERSATION WITH AMERICA

A vignette of just some of the 100’s of people I have had the luck & blessing to speak with across this great, turbulent, divided nation…

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2016/11/02

AMERICAN STORIES #7 | Jamell Richardson

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