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Shellen Lubin

Other
Some chapters of your life may allow many facets of your being,
others just cannot
and the feeling of failure that can arouse
is of no value.

Sometimes all you can do is ask yourself:
What must I do this week? today? next hour?
to continue the process as healthily as possible?
to accomplish the most?
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
It's a balancing act,
keeping hope
but not letting it drive you to distraction.
Because the flip side of hope, the dark side,
is the side that keeps you wanting to be
somewhere else from where you are, with
something else from what you've got--
the side that keeps you from appreciating
and feeling fully and deeply what there is
in this moment.

Hope keeps us in the flow--moving forward--
and I will not underestimate its value, but
hopelessness keeps us present in the moment,
whether it is the Buddhist hopelessness of non-attachment or
the hopelessness of despair.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
As a country, we revere ignorance.
We conflate ignorance and innocence,
and innocence is seen as divine.

Especially in women.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Catch the breeze.

Open to the changing season.

Yes, resist the political disaster we're living through
but open to the possibility of breezes clearing some of the air,
leading us to how and where we can keep the worst from happening
and how and where we can move it in a different direction.
There is still hope.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
The native population of this continent
deserves more notice taken than on
Indigenous Peoples Day.
But this day at least, please,
let's learn more about the people whose land we stole
(yes, even we whose forebearers came more recently,
because we continue to benefit from the theft),
and to sit in the complexity that is the building
and continuation of
our civilization.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
I think there is a place where hopefulness and hopelessness co-exist,
one of my beloved contradictory co-existing realities
(what others call a paradox,
but paradoxes can be mis-defined themselves,
not owning their true contrari-ness and/or co-existence):
something like joy-and-hope-in-the-process-of-being-and-becoming,
something like awareness-of-distant-goals-without-attachment-to-getting-them, something like satisfaction-in-dissatisfaction.

Like riding a roller coaster,
being and feeling where it is and feeling where it's going
all at the same time,
since where it's going is part of where it is, and,
whatever the now is, it will never
stay there.

Something like life.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Why does it matter, to re-find hope,
to regain hopefulness,
again and again,
in spite of loss, pain, grief--
even devastation?

Because, my love, hope is a feeling, and
how we feel about the world defines us,
defines our reality, our experience of our reality,
how we treat those around us
and ourselves.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Hope alone cannot create outcomes
but having hope affects outcomes.
Proceeding with hope
makes more things possible,
may just be what gets you up and out the door,
making anything possible at all.

But hope is an illusion, no?
Yes, my love,
but no more than fear and worry.
They are all illusions because they are all about the future,
and we cannot know the future.

But ...
hope is an illusion that opens us up, inspires joy,
reminds us of possibility,
gets us through trial and tribulation more easily
(like singing in the rhythm of a labor-intensive task
makes it easier to keep on going).
Hope
leads us to more, better, greater things--
maybe not the ideal, the fantasy, even the very thing you hope for--
but more, better, greater
than would otherwise be.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Hope is bubbling
in the ocean of our collective lives...

I can feel the hope bubbling inside,
popping little pockets of air
rising to the surface.

I try to suppress them--
too soon, unsure, can't afford to risk--
but why?
And why would I want to?
Those bubbles pop joy into the air,
spring action to life,
and they feel so good,
massaging the soul.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Change happens.
Loss happens.
With or without your input.
Afraid you’ll fall, you’ll fail,
You’ll flail, you’ll falter.
The more you fall, the sooner you learn
How to recover, repair, rebuild.
The more you flail
Or falter, the more you get
How to regain equilibrium.
The more you fail, the more you see
Success demands—requires—
Failure.

Make a move.
Now.
Or now.

Take a breath.
Catch a breeze.
Like riding a bicycle
Your legs going round and round
Will build strength
Gain balance
Find a way.
Forward.
Beyond thought.
Beyond instruction.
The internal systems
Never forget.

You just have to
Make a move.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I have learned,
we are not our happiest when we get what we want--
then we are prone to pick--
aware of all the flaws and tradeoffs
in our realized-but-imperfect fantasy.

We are our happiest
when we have hope.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness, Hope
Fear and despair are impediments.
Hope is a permission slip.

Today I give myself a permission slip to hope again.

And, if you need one--
as the designated hall monitor who loves to give out permission slips
(yes, you can go in that room;
yes, you can try that activity;
yes, yes, yes)--
if you're open to receiving it,
I've got one for you, too.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
For white Americans (whiteness itself a societal construct that has changed in it definition over time), this new national holiday of Juneteenth, this day off from work, should be like an American Yom Kippur, a Day of Atonement, a day of reflection, a day to keep learning more about how we have failed as a society to live up to our ideals, and what we as individuals can do to make it better, more real, closer to our vision of justice and liberty, a vision that our founding forefathers could not even imagine.

'Do better' should be what all who carry any kind of privilege in this society should say to ourselves and to each other - what can we do, what can you do, to 'do better'?
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Love mingled with grief, and rage.
Hope mingled with despair.
Sounds like the state of our world right now.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Some chapters of your life may allow many facets of your being,
others just cannot
and the feeling of failure that can arouse
is of no value.

Sometimes all you can do is ask yourself:
What must I do this week? today? next hour?
to continue the process as healthily as possible?
to accomplish the most?
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
It's a balancing act,
keeping hope
but not letting it drive you to distraction.
Because the flip side of hope, the dark side,
is the side that keeps you wanting to be
somewhere else from where you are, with
something else from what you've got--
the side that keeps you from appreciating
and feeling fully and deeply what there is
in this moment.

Hope keeps us in the flow--moving forward--
and I will not underestimate its value, but
hopelessness keeps us present in the moment,
whether it is the Buddhist hopelessness of non-attachment or
the hopelessness of despair.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
As a country, we revere ignorance.
We conflate ignorance and innocence,
and innocence is seen as divine.

Especially in women.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Catch the breeze.

Open to the changing season.

Yes, resist the political disaster we're living through
but open to the possibility of breezes clearing some of the air,
leading us to how and where we can keep the worst from happening
and how and where we can move it in a different direction.
There is still hope.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
The native population of this continent
deserves more notice taken than on
Indigenous Peoples Day.
But this day at least, please,
let's learn more about the people whose land we stole
(yes, even we whose forebearers came more recently,
because we continue to benefit from the theft),
and to sit in the complexity that is the building
and continuation of
our civilization.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
I think there is a place where hopefulness and hopelessness co-exist,
one of my beloved contradictory co-existing realities
(what others call a paradox,
but paradoxes can be mis-defined themselves,
not owning their true contrari-ness and/or co-existence):
something like joy-and-hope-in-the-process-of-being-and-becoming,
something like awareness-of-distant-goals-without-attachment-to-getting-them, something like satisfaction-in-dissatisfaction.

Like riding a roller coaster,
being and feeling where it is and feeling where it's going
all at the same time,
since where it's going is part of where it is, and,
whatever the now is, it will never
stay there.

Something like life.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Why does it matter, to re-find hope,
to regain hopefulness,
again and again,
in spite of loss, pain, grief--
even devastation?

Because, my love, hope is a feeling, and
how we feel about the world defines us,
defines our reality, our experience of our reality,
how we treat those around us
and ourselves.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Hope alone cannot create outcomes
but having hope affects outcomes.
Proceeding with hope
makes more things possible,
may just be what gets you up and out the door,
making anything possible at all.

But hope is an illusion, no?
Yes, my love,
but no more than fear and worry.
They are all illusions because they are all about the future,
and we cannot know the future.

But ...
hope is an illusion that opens us up, inspires joy,
reminds us of possibility,
gets us through trial and tribulation more easily
(like singing in the rhythm of a labor-intensive task
makes it easier to keep on going).
Hope
leads us to more, better, greater things--
maybe not the ideal, the fantasy, even the very thing you hope for--
but more, better, greater
than would otherwise be.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Hope is bubbling
in the ocean of our collective lives...

I can feel the hope bubbling inside,
popping little pockets of air
rising to the surface.

I try to suppress them--
too soon, unsure, can't afford to risk--
but why?
And why would I want to?
Those bubbles pop joy into the air,
spring action to life,
and they feel so good,
massaging the soul.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Change happens.
Loss happens.
With or without your input.
Afraid you’ll fall, you’ll fail,
You’ll flail, you’ll falter.
The more you fall, the sooner you learn
How to recover, repair, rebuild.
The more you flail
Or falter, the more you get
How to regain equilibrium.
The more you fail, the more you see
Success demands—requires—
Failure.

Make a move.
Now.
Or now.

Take a breath.
Catch a breeze.
Like riding a bicycle
Your legs going round and round
Will build strength
Gain balance
Find a way.
Forward.
Beyond thought.
Beyond instruction.
The internal systems
Never forget.

You just have to
Make a move.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I have learned,
we are not our happiest when we get what we want--
then we are prone to pick--
aware of all the flaws and tradeoffs
in our realized-but-imperfect fantasy.

We are our happiest
when we have hope.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness, Hope
Fear and despair are impediments.
Hope is a permission slip.

Today I give myself a permission slip to hope again.

And, if you need one--
as the designated hall monitor who loves to give out permission slips
(yes, you can go in that room;
yes, you can try that activity;
yes, yes, yes)--
if you're open to receiving it,
I've got one for you, too.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
For white Americans (whiteness itself a societal construct that has changed in it definition over time), this new national holiday of Juneteenth, this day off from work, should be like an American Yom Kippur, a Day of Atonement, a day of reflection, a day to keep learning more about how we have failed as a society to live up to our ideals, and what we as individuals can do to make it better, more real, closer to our vision of justice and liberty, a vision that our founding forefathers could not even imagine.

'Do better' should be what all who carry any kind of privilege in this society should say to ourselves and to each other - what can we do, what can you do, to 'do better'?
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Love mingled with grief, and rage.
Hope mingled with despair.
Sounds like the state of our world right now.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Some chapters of your life may allow many facets of your being,
others just cannot
and the feeling of failure that can arouse
is of no value.

Sometimes all you can do is ask yourself:
What must I do this week? today? next hour?
to continue the process as healthily as possible?
to accomplish the most?
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
It's a balancing act,
keeping hope
but not letting it drive you to distraction.
Because the flip side of hope, the dark side,
is the side that keeps you wanting to be
somewhere else from where you are, with
something else from what you've got--
the side that keeps you from appreciating
and feeling fully and deeply what there is
in this moment.

Hope keeps us in the flow--moving forward--
and I will not underestimate its value, but
hopelessness keeps us present in the moment,
whether it is the Buddhist hopelessness of non-attachment or
the hopelessness of despair.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
As a country, we revere ignorance.
We conflate ignorance and innocence,
and innocence is seen as divine.

Especially in women.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Catch the breeze.

Open to the changing season.

Yes, resist the political disaster we're living through
but open to the possibility of breezes clearing some of the air,
leading us to how and where we can keep the worst from happening
and how and where we can move it in a different direction.
There is still hope.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
The native population of this continent
deserves more notice taken than on
Indigenous Peoples Day.
But this day at least, please,
let's learn more about the people whose land we stole
(yes, even we whose forebearers came more recently,
because we continue to benefit from the theft),
and to sit in the complexity that is the building
and continuation of
our civilization.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
I think there is a place where hopefulness and hopelessness co-exist,
one of my beloved contradictory co-existing realities
(what others call a paradox,
but paradoxes can be mis-defined themselves,
not owning their true contrari-ness and/or co-existence):
something like joy-and-hope-in-the-process-of-being-and-becoming,
something like awareness-of-distant-goals-without-attachment-to-getting-them, something like satisfaction-in-dissatisfaction.

Like riding a roller coaster,
being and feeling where it is and feeling where it's going
all at the same time,
since where it's going is part of where it is, and,
whatever the now is, it will never
stay there.

Something like life.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Why does it matter, to re-find hope,
to regain hopefulness,
again and again,
in spite of loss, pain, grief--
even devastation?

Because, my love, hope is a feeling, and
how we feel about the world defines us,
defines our reality, our experience of our reality,
how we treat those around us
and ourselves.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Hope alone cannot create outcomes
but having hope affects outcomes.
Proceeding with hope
makes more things possible,
may just be what gets you up and out the door,
making anything possible at all.

But hope is an illusion, no?
Yes, my love,
but no more than fear and worry.
They are all illusions because they are all about the future,
and we cannot know the future.

But ...
hope is an illusion that opens us up, inspires joy,
reminds us of possibility,
gets us through trial and tribulation more easily
(like singing in the rhythm of a labor-intensive task
makes it easier to keep on going).
Hope
leads us to more, better, greater things--
maybe not the ideal, the fantasy, even the very thing you hope for--
but more, better, greater
than would otherwise be.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Hope is bubbling
in the ocean of our collective lives...

I can feel the hope bubbling inside,
popping little pockets of air
rising to the surface.

I try to suppress them--
too soon, unsure, can't afford to risk--
but why?
And why would I want to?
Those bubbles pop joy into the air,
spring action to life,
and they feel so good,
massaging the soul.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
Change happens.
Loss happens.
With or without your input.
Afraid you’ll fall, you’ll fail,
You’ll flail, you’ll falter.
The more you fall, the sooner you learn
How to recover, repair, rebuild.
The more you flail
Or falter, the more you get
How to regain equilibrium.
The more you fail, the more you see
Success demands—requires—
Failure.

Make a move.
Now.
Or now.

Take a breath.
Catch a breeze.
Like riding a bicycle
Your legs going round and round
Will build strength
Gain balance
Find a way.
Forward.
Beyond thought.
Beyond instruction.
The internal systems
Never forget.

You just have to
Make a move.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Success
I have learned,
we are not our happiest when we get what we want--
then we are prone to pick--
aware of all the flaws and tradeoffs
in our realized-but-imperfect fantasy.

We are our happiest
when we have hope.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Happiness, Hope
Fear and despair are impediments.
Hope is a permission slip.

Today I give myself a permission slip to hope again.

And, if you need one--
as the designated hall monitor who loves to give out permission slips
(yes, you can go in that room;
yes, you can try that activity;
yes, yes, yes)--
if you're open to receiving it,
I've got one for you, too.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope
For white Americans (whiteness itself a societal construct that has changed in it definition over time), this new national holiday of Juneteenth, this day off from work, should be like an American Yom Kippur, a Day of Atonement, a day of reflection, a day to keep learning more about how we have failed as a society to live up to our ideals, and what we as individuals can do to make it better, more real, closer to our vision of justice and liberty, a vision that our founding forefathers could not even imagine.

'Do better' should be what all who carry any kind of privilege in this society should say to ourselves and to each other - what can we do, what can you do, to 'do better'?
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Education
Love mingled with grief, and rage.
Hope mingled with despair.
Sounds like the state of our world right now.
NOT YET RATING ▼
Topic: Hope