Every time I visit my friend in prison I am fascinated by the people who work there.
Who are these men and women making a living by driving every day to a building that houses so much pain? How is someone capable of working for a system that kills men like human refuse?
How do they manage to silence their humaneness? Who's hiding behind those uniforms that give them an illusion of power? Who are they, those guards who often make us visitors feel like we too should be punished?
Are they aware that the prison system they work for could be a reflection of their own inner world — their own prison of fears and frustrations ? If they don't feel their souls of light, these guards could easily project their unresolved issues onto those behind the bars.
When confronted with a stuck-up guard, I try to see the wounded child under the armor. I send light from my heart to theirs. And I try to understand why this person appeared on my radar screen. Everything is energy! What vibration within me is reflected by this guard? Am I in some way abusing power against someone? Against myself? Or is this simply an invitation to stay in my heart?
Master St-Germain teaches that every challenging encounter is a chance to release aspects of our own smaller selves that still resonate with that heaviness. 

And of course, I  also want to honor the countless guards who spread human warmth inside that cold world
— who understand that being locked up is the sentence, and that humiliation was never part of the deal.

If you think

the Eccentric God who made

the octopus

is gonna judge you

for your sins,

I’m afraid you’ve missed

the mark

If you think this

Wild God

that spins galaxies

as a pastime

cares to get fussy

about your mistakes

or has ever made anything

that wasn’t born

perfect and luminous,

you might need to repent

If you can’t yet admit

how lovable and

infinitely worthy

the fullness of your human nature is

and if you think God

wants to do anything

but perpetually pour

an abundance

of love gifts

upon you,

well, my dear, your soul

just might need

to go to confession.

                      Chelan Harkin

CALLING . ALL . GRANDMOTHERS

We have to live differently or we will die in the same old ways.

Therefore I call on all Grand Mothers everywhere on the planet

to rise and take your place in the leadership of the world.

Come out of the kitchen, out of the fields, out of the beauty parlors, out of the telelvision.

Step forward and assume the role for which you were created:

to lead humanity to health, happiness and sanity.

I call on all the Grand Mothers of Earth and every person who possesses the Grandmother Spirit of respect for life

and protection of the young to rise and lead. The life of our species depends on it.

And I call on all men of Earth to gracefully and gratefully stand aside and let them do so.

—Alice Walker, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing

I read the NYT bestseller "Between the world and me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates, hailed by Toni Morrison as the successor of James Baldwin.
In this book Mr Coates explores how Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages everyone
but most of all black women and men — black "bodies" exploited through slavery and segregation, and today threatened, locked up
and murdered out of all proportion.
It's a gripping account of what it means to be a black man in America, and the writer sums it up by stating that "in America it is traditional to destroy the black body — it is heritage." I knew that Africans have been enslaved in America for 250 years — at least
ten generations!— but only through real life stories of my friend on death row could I guess how deep the legacy of slavery
is seared in their flesh, and Mr Coates' harrowing description of it all left me breathless. 
The book is very well written, yet after turning the last page I felt hungry for an answer to all that suffering that goes deeper than just the "body." Mr Coates doesn't believe in an afterlife nor in any invisible force. He fully identifies with this physical dimension, and the only solution he offers is to keep up the struggle. There is indeed a strong moral imperative to fight America's institutionalized racism, and especially the police brutality targeting black men. But balancing the scales of power is only part of the solution — true healing will take more. Because reacting solely from a perspective of anger and revolt, no matter how justified, keeps all those dynamics alive and kicking. Everything is energy — if we don't convert whatever comes our way into what we want it to become, we only get more of it. 
Reducing life to this physical reality is like being colorblind; everything is black and white. You are triggered by what you see and experience: victims and perpetrators, and your automatic response is distrust, defense, and struggle.
However, you reap what you sow, without any exception. Your distrust keeps attracting distrust. Your hate only begets more hate. 
But obstacle after obstacle the pain becomes so unbearable that you're ready to look at life from a different angle.
It may come in many ways: through a word, an encounter, a dream or a nightmare, lyrics of a song...
And suddenly there's a crack in your mind’s armor, and colors start seeping in. You open the door of your physical limitation
and you discover a Universe! You tentatively step into an infinite Energy that is luminous and loving and unconditional,
and you sense that this Life Force is actually the substance of everything that exists.
You start to see people beyond their toxic behavior, and without condoning that behavior in any way you choose to focus
on the Light in them. It's buried under many layers of fear or pride or violence, but it's always there. Always.
And what you focus on becomes stronger.

That is true healing, that is redemption: letting go of every charge except Love.

Love, the only Force capable of transmuting the collective pain of racism into brotherhood.

Friendship — true friendship — is a recognition on the soul level,

beyond any form of human perspective or judgment,

which allows us to meet each other without armor.

In such openness, friends become antennas sensing each other’s light and shadow.

And naturally, they encourage one another in the unfolding of their most luminous

talents — those for which their soul has come here, that make their eyes sparkle,

and with which each, in their own unique way, makes the world more flourishing.

And friends help each other to let go of what has become too heavy.

They discover together that humor is far less exhausting than drama,

and that those who inflict pain are always in pain themselves.

Thus, a friend becomes a catalyst for learning to truly see ourselves —

our real self, that magnificent being of love,

that we so often sabotage out of fear or woundedness.

And when we go inward and dive into that light within us,

we touch an undercurrent of joy — a joy that embraces life without any conditions,

and remains untouched by all the scenarios that come and go on the surface.

A joy that unites everything, and from which everything has begun.

In this way, friendship can inspire us on the most challenging journey of our lives:

the journey from head to heart —

because the only meaningful thing we will leave behind is the trail of love we’ve left in our wake.