Another World Is Probable

I want a magic wand to make everything better. Or a Deux Ex Machina situation. Maybe some aliens to set us straight. More in this week's post.

Many cultures, especially in the West, treat Earth as a set piece, the stage upon which life happens. There’s nature and then there’s humanity. We’re seen as separate and dominant. But as former NASA scientist James Lovelock stated in the 70s with the Gaia Hypothesis, we are not managers of the planet, we are the planet. We are a piece of the complex, self-regulating system. More in this week's post.

I’m the type of person who likes things to stay the same at home. I don’t rearrange furniture for fun or swap out pictures to bring new life into my space. No. I have a poster hanging above my bed and when it gets old, faded, or ripped, I plan on buying the exact same poster and putting it in the exact same place. More in this week's post.

I have a truly wild story. About 13 years ago I lived in an in-law unit and the landlady wanted to show the apartment to potential tenants. I didn’t want to be home and at the same time wanted to safeguard my valuables. The most valuable piece of jewelry I owned was a diamond pendant necklace from my Grandma Libele. She died when I was 13 and the necklace was the only physical thing of hers I owned so it was valuable for multiple reasons. More in this week's post.

I feel incredibly off. In large part, it’s because I’ve been sick with a cold for the last nine days. Add in lack of sleep due to said cold, disruption at my apartment because of construction, Trump returning to the White House, the collective heartbreak around the LA wildfires, continued destruction of Gaza, and all the other tragedies in the world, and I want to pull a Rip Van Winkle. If I could go to sleep and wake up once everything is better, that would be great. More in this week's post.

Over and over again life surprised me with curveballs both good and bad. So instead of making lists of what I want to accomplish, I’m embracing something poet Mary Oliver said: “Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” More in this week's post.

As I thought about how to close this year (last post of 2024!), the blog that kept coming to mind is one I wrote almost exactly eight years ago. So no, I’m not in Malibu, nor have I flown home from a retreat just yet – that happens on Wednesday – but the message is still relevant. Enjoy. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

The past few weeks I’ve toggled between wanting to do things my way and wanting to do things other people’s way, with my inherent goodness at stake. My therapist encouraged me to change my definition of good to encompass living in harmony with nature and all created beings. She specifically told me to look up “walking the beauty way path,” a Navajo/Diné concept. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

I have a confession: I make mistakes. I know, that doesn’t seem like much of a confession because everybody makes mistakes, but with the amount of shame and fear that comes up from admitting it, you’d think I stole money from little old ladies and kicked their dogs. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

On the heels of my post from last week about making new milestones, the phrase that keeps coming to me is, “Let go of the way you think things are supposed to be and embrace what is.” That’s a big one for me because I have a lot of “supposed tos.” More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

If you’re listening to this on December 1, today is my 40th birthday. I’ve had numerous feelings about this birthday. I’ve cried many tears about it because I’m not at all where I thought I’d be at this age. I don’t have anything society told me I “should” have at 40 as a cis-het woman: I’m single, childless, and don’t own a home. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

A friend sent me a podcast he created solely using AI and it freaked me out. By feeding a discourse into a language learning model, it spit out a realistic conversation between two “people.” From there I spiraled into “AI will replace me” territory because I’m not a plumber – I’m a writer. And then my higher power wrote me a letter. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

This has never happened to me before but last week a chestnut-backed chickadee pair flew to my living room window. One of them chirped at the sill as if it was talking to me directly. I exclaimed in delight at this tiny bird watching me as I watched it. The encounter reminded me of the power of joy. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

There seem to be endless ways that people are cruel to one another and I know many people are worried that the recent U.S. elections will embolden more of that kind of behavior. But people aren’t only cruel, they’re also kind. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

I had an interesting experience on Friday. I walked by the yoga studio where I used to host a weekly group meditation before the pandemic. I discovered the building is no longer safe to enter and has been stripped to its studs! I don’t know if they’re renovating the building or tearing it down, but regardless, I likely won’t be in that yoga studio again. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

All week I’ve been thinking about how people are complicated and contradictory. A person can be a mass murderer and an excellent dog parent. A man can beat his wife and act meek at work. A woman can preach love and kindness and be sharp and cutting with her inner circle. Instead of trying to puzzle out which side is the “real them,” my perspective is it’s all them. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

I watched a reality TV show where every single contestant wanted to boot off one guy. He was inept, mooched off other people, annoyed everyone, and was consistently in the bottom two. I kept waiting for him to be eliminated but he wasn’t. That guy won the whole competition. It felt like such a fluke and reminded me of two sports stories. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

As I’ve continued to process the devastation in North Carolina from the hurricane, what occurred to me is love is here, too. It’s the people who are helpers, but it’s more than that. Love is all around, holding us in good times and bad. It reminds me of an experience I had in 2017. More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

It’s been heartbreaking for me to witness the news coming out of western North Carolina. I spent ages 6 to 12 just outside of Marshall and as an adult, many of my friends moved to the area and I’ve visited them. The whole thing is tragic and I’ve cried many tears about it. All of that is true. But what’s also true is that quote from Fred Rogers. More in this week's post. And you can donate to www.amurtel.org. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support

Related to my post from last week about accepting the mystery is a Sanskrit word: liilá. What we don’t understand, what we can’t explain, is called liilá but the more literal translation is divine play or sport. My spiritual teacher says, “The numerous ways in which the divine game of [Cosmic Consciousness] is being played is simply beyond human imagination.” More in this week's post. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/another-world-is-probable/support