Father Sun will reach his zenith on the lightest day of the year
on the Summer Solstice on Thursday, June 20th.

Is it a coincidence that Father’s Day is on the Sunday before that?

Adding to the festivities is the arrival of a
Full Strawberry Moon on Monday, June 17th.

There are a lot of celebrations in the air right now.
High School graduations, and award ceremonies galore.

I wonder what would happen if these seasonal celebratory
vibes were less staged, compressed, and instead were
organically woven into everyday life?

And what if celebrations were less about recognizing winners and losers –
but more about simply catching each other being good, like
noticing random acts of kindness?

When I think about the power of empathy in relationships,
I remember to notice the common core standards of the sun and the moon.

Without one, we would not have the other.
Nor would we have any water to drink, air to breathe, or planet to live on.

The Sun has his fire, and the Moon has her emotional tides.
But they don’t judge each other for their different approaches.

They are good role models that way.

We could stand to remember that when we think about the
popular desire to win an argument with someone else.

Who really wins anyway?

If the Sun remembers to bring his light to the Earth,
and the Moon remembers to bring her waters –

Then it stands to reason that we can learn from the Nature about
the power of male and female energies working together during these
difficult times of change and transition that we are living in right now.

Nobody really wins with dripping sarcasms, and us and them kind of thinking.

Yeah, you might feel special when you are given a secret decoder ring to
belong to a club that boasts privileged entitlements.

But a sense of entitlement – that things will be given to you,
or you should get your way, is a receipt for unhappiness.

It isn’t easy to be present with someone who is saying
something that you don’t like to hear.

And it doesn’t get any easier when someone is abusing their power
by throwing their voice by using disrespectful language.

Perhaps you feel fed by getting charged, or developing an attitude
against someone or some group of people that you demonize or see as an enemy.

But you aren’t going to balance the wheels by making them pay
via a punitive, heavy hitting consequence.

A lot of people in jails still see themselves as victims,
and don’t take any responsibility for their actions.

And plenty of folks in mental institutions never leared how to emote,
or speak their truths through the voice of mental health.

To wit: that doesn’t just go for the workers in those social environments.

You all know about the rampage of school shootings these days.
We aren’t going to reduce violence by adding more bullets on the streets.

Remember that those hardest to love are the ones that need it the most.

And you are not going to be able to give love to the tough ones if you
put your nose to the grindstone,
and forget to make yourself a priority to love yourself.

Otherwise, you’ll just burnout and develop compassion fatigue.

Rather, you’ll actually strenthen their resentments, and build
their impetus to retailiate against you, instead of be more more likely
to see where you are coming from.

Just look at the way President Trump,
and plenty of faux news pundits do that in everyday current events.

A lot of people that are Trumpites, follow him because of their
hatred of Hillary Clinton, and the Politically Correct movement.

Or they saw him as the lesser of two evils, and felt like a muzzle was
taken off their mouths because he says things that you felt,
but weren’t supposed to say.

Just like that opposite side of the same coin thought when they took
down Nixon during Watergate.

Real systemic change must come from the inside out.

The times we are living in, like back in the 60s, shows us
that the stars are aligning in a way that we can
cocreate systemic transformation.

But to do that, we need to align with the
Universal pillars of Love and Truth

That doesn’t happen when you hate the guy next door
because you don’t like his politics or the way she looks.

See you at the next trail junction,

Ari