Lighthouses, Revolutionary Love, and a Blind Date

Good Morning from Prince Edward Island. 

Put the kettle on. Oh, you are on your second cup?. What are you having this morning? I am enjoying one of my favourites, our 2020 Organic PEI Breakfast

Are you interested in having me send you a bag of our blended-in-house 2020 Organic Prince Edward Island Breakfast Tea? Please respond in the comments, and I will put those names in the hat and choose three winners. 

I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to believe it is August 22, 2020. 

The conversations around the building with staff is interesting as we have teachers who work here part-time, and we have Mom’s preparing to send their children back to school for the fall. And with all the talk of a second wave, the stress levels are moving the needle a bit. 

We have to keep moving, thinking and acting safely. I also feel we need to treat each other with decency and empathy. 

Do you like lighthouses as much as I do? The history lives, and stories behind them have been the fodder for many books and films.  

One of my favourites is the Blockhouse Point Lighthouse, built-in 1876 as the outer light for the Charlottetown Harbour.  Take a peek at Brian McInnis’s photo essay of 19 of Prince Edward Island’s lighthouses. 

I mentioned two weeks ago that I was back in book reading mode to complete 20 books in 2020. Happy to say, I finished #8 this week, “See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valerie Kaur

Valarie Kaur is a renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer. Her excellent storytelling takes readers through her own riveting journey as a brown girl growing up in California farmland finding her place in the world; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantánamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with police violence and sexual assault. Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists, Kaur reclaims love as an active, public, and revolutionary force that creates new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and our world. See No Stranger helps us imagine new ways of being with each other—and with ourselves—so that together we can begin to build the world we want to see. (taken from her Amazon bio and edited)

There were many items I highlighted in this book, and some of my favourites were: 

"The more you love, the more you grieve.”

“Any act to change the world around us begins within us.”

“I do not owe my opponents my affections, warmth, or regard. But I do owe myself a chance to live in this world without the burden of hate.”

“Listening is a strategic choice. The more I listen, the more I understand. I am persuaded that there is no such things as monsters in this world, only human beings who are wounded.”

“Empathy is cognitive and emotional-to inhabit another person’s view of the word is to feel the world with them.”

“We can have all the empathy in the world for a group of people and still participate in the structures and systems that oppress them. We might believe we are listening, but we have journeyed only half of the circle. We have drawn close to the story and lost ourselves in another's experience, but we haven't returned to ourselves and asked: What does this demand of me? Is it the reckoning of my privilege? Is it an expansion of whose struggles connect with mine? What will I do differently now?

“True understanding is not possible unless we risk changing our worldview.”

“You don't have to make yourself suffer in order to serve. You don't have to grind your bones into the ground. You don't have to cut your life up into pieces and give yourself away until there is nothing left. You belong to a community and a broader movement. Your life has value. We need you alive. We need you to last. You will not last if you are not breathing.”

“Without loving ourselves, our other efforts to love fail.”

“Joy returns us to everything that is good and beautiful and worth fighting for.” 

If 'See No Stranger" is a book you would be interested in, I am happy to pass it forward to one of you. Please let me know in the comment section of the blog if you are interested. I will add everyone’s name to the hat and do a draw. 

Yesterday, I started #9, The Library Book by Susan Orlean. 

From My Learning Journals this week. 

Active vs. Passive 

The hard truth is that most things in your life – good and bad – are your fault. The sooner you realize that the better things will be. Here’s how to cultivate an active mindset and take control of your life.

The passive mindset is defined by an attitude, an assumption that life happens to you, and you’re not responsible. People with this mindset also say things like, “Why does this always happen to me?”

When the language you use about things going on in your life is passive, you slowly convince yourself that nothing is your responsibility. This makes you feel good because it absolves you from responsibility. It means you don’t have to look inside yourself and change anything.  It means you’re not in control.

Well, I have news for you: you are in control. You’re in control of how you respond to the ups and downs of life. You’re in control of how you talk to yourself.

An active attitude means ownership. You own your failures. An active mindset means you are responsible for the things you control. ~ Shane Parish, The Knowledge Project

With children heading back to school soon, perhaps the teachers could get some inspiration from the following or better yet the principal and the administration could welcome the staff back to school. What do you think? 

Today, I have been listening to Gabriel Stern, Bach: Goldberg Variations. Sample listen here. 

With love from Prince Edward Island. 

Have a wonderful day, let’s dance...

Sincerely, 

Bruce & Mille

ps.

"How was your blind date?" a college student asked her roommate.

"Terrible!" the roommate answered. "He showed up in his 1932 Rolls Royce."

"Wow! That's a very expensive car. What's so bad about that?"

"He was the original owner!"