Firecrow & I stopped watching television over a year ago during which we vowed only to turn it on when

Extreme Makeover:Home Edition played on Sunday nights.

We call it our crying show as he & I spend the entire show passing kleenex to each other.  These individuals are doing some wonderful good in the world.  Obviously, ABC would not continue show this unless it was making a pretty substantial profit; we try not to focus on that.  People must be watching and supporting the project.

 Not viewing TV does not mean we live in a bubble, with no world information. We have the internets:the tubes.  And no commercials:the best part.  The obscene nature of blaring commercials is enough to cause my blood pressure to rise.  Even viewing the one show we do watch, we have to mute the commercials when they come on.  It’s all buy, buy, buy–but that’s a diary in itself.

One of his students asked Buddha, “Are you the messiah?”

“No”, answered Buddha.

“Then are you a healer?”

“No”, Buddha replied.

“Then are you a teacher?” the student persisted.

“No, I am not a teacher.”

“Then what are you?” asked the student, exasperated.

“I am awake”, Buddha replied.

The wealth of information coming at us on a given day can be overwhelming and takes some time to weed through with a healthy dose of skepticism.  This can be time-consuming, but we’re not spending mindless hours in front of the propaganda box, so it balances.  

 I don’t need to point out to the readers at Docudharma all the issues that face our world.  We read and research all of them on a daily basis.  Each of us has our passionate buttons for issues which we share very readily here which allows all of us to become more richly informed.  The value of this site, for me, has truly been immeasurable.  I know Firecrow feels the same.

Go Forward With Courage

When you are in doubt, be still, and wait;

when doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with courage.

So long as mists envelop you, be still;

be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists

— as it surely will.

Then act with courage.

Ponca Chief White Eagle (1800’s to 1914)

 Because there are so many issues I feel passionately about:addiction, hunger, war, poverty, racism, the environment;  I have found myself overcome by my lack of ability to just get up and go help “there”, wherever “there” may happen to be.  My resources, or lack thereof, limits my get-up-and-go power.  Working in the addiction field, the holiday season brings tighter strings on the money coming in as my clients would like to try to salvage some holiday cheer that does not come in the form of a bottle.

Firecrow–who is a union sheet-metal foreman of a shop–is the main bread winner of the compound and work has been slow these past several weeks.  With gas prices as they are and these circumstances, we are feeling the crunch.  

It does not change our want to help where help is so desparately needed.  This was our dilemma.

“Whenever you become empowered,

you will be tested.”

~ Caroline Myss ~

Difficulties are opportunities to better things,

they are stepping stones to greater experience.

Perhaps some day you will be thankful

for some temporary failure in a particular direction.

When one door closes,

another always opens,

as a natural law it has to be, to balance.

~ Brian Adams (from ‘How to Succeed’) ~

 Follow me over the fold if you’ve ever felt the need to assist somewhere and could not…