Here And Now

If in the midst of your enjoyment of the world you have a moment, try to help in however small a way to those who are downtrodden and those who, for whatever reason, cannot or do not help themselves. Try not to turn away from those whose appearance is disturbing, from the ragged and the unwell. Try never to think of them as inferior to yourself. If you can, try not even to think of yourself as better than the humblest beggar. You will look the same in your grave.

     - The Dalai Lama

Just in case 2012 really is the date of the Apocalypse, here's some good advice from astrologer Rob Brezsny:

There's no use trying to plan ahead for it. It's counterproductive to hold a particular scenario in our mind as the likely development. And it's downright crazy to harbor a chronic sense of dread about an unknowable, unimaginable series of events.
The best way to prepare for a Big Shift is to cultivate mental and emotional states that ripen us to be ready for anything: 

* a commitment to not getting lost inside our own heads; 

* a strategy to avoid being enthralled with the hypnotic lure of painful 
emotions, past events, and worries about the future; 

* a trust in empirical evidence over our time-worn beliefs and old habits; 

* a talent for turning up our curiosity full blast and tuning in to the raw 
truth of every moment with our beginner's mind fully engaged; 

* and an eagerness to dwell gracefully in the midst of all the interesting 
questions that tease and teach us.

Everything I just described also happens to be an excellent way to prime 
yourself for a chronic, low-grade, always-on, simmering-at-low-heat brand 
of ecstasy -- a state of being more-or-less permanently in the Tao, in the 
groove, in the zone.

     - Free Will Astrology

The insertion of the word "drama" as a stand-in for emotional confrontation tells us a lot about our psychological state in this self-conscious, unenlightened age. While e-mailing, texting and tweeting are acceptable ways to communicate important feelings and ideas these days, shrugging, proclaiming noncommittally that "it is what it is" and outright avoidance are widely embraced means of signaling our shifting emotional needs. Conversely, by stating your feelings directly to another human being face to face, you risk becoming known as someone who loves "drama," standing in sharp contrast to "sane" individuals who "don't want any drama," i.e., would prefer that, instead of expressing yourself, you'd simply drop off the face of the earth, or at the very least have the common decency to boil your feelings down to 140 characters or less.
....We're all slowly backing away from each other, nodding and smiling reassuringly, our fingers poised over our hand-held devices, eager to tap out a few soothing parting words to smooth our transitions to the next impoverished non-engagement.

    - Heather Havrilesky, Salon.com (my favorite TV writer: this is from a review of medical dramas)

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

—Naomi Shihab Nye from Words Under Words: Selected Poems