Time for Change

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(This is from a FB comment I shared on a post of mine in response to other comments. I thought it might also be worth posting here.)

Thanks for conversation on this and kind words at end — back at ya’.

There are many, many people you can read who can say much, much better what I will try to say here in this strange little forum some of us inhabit on FB. To read about the ultimately destructive and inhuman and unsustainable consequences of the ubercapitalist nation we have created in America, you can find far better thinkers than I. There are literary giants such as Orwell and Steinbeck; politicians from the past such as Abraham Lincoln or FDR; journalists and essayists through the ages too numerous to mention; and of course spiritual giants, such as Jesus, just to name The Big Guy.

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What we are seeing in America today is actually the end game of the system we have long called many things other than what it is. The people who have always benefited from this system have now benefitted to such an extent that their oligarchy is unassailable from within the system itself. And so they use other means — such as what communism actually is doing in this nation — our current government is taking public funds and private properties away from the citizens and giving it to either the nation under the guise of Republicanism or giving it to the olligarchy of billionaires that are actually running this country. The way they best do this without our catching on is to make people afraid — fearmongering is the best trick up the sleeve of authoritarians and the men who want to be gods because it keeps people in the smoke and mirror world of creating the “enemy” that they need to fight against — rather than the reality that what we need is to change the very broken system — broken for us, not the greedy narcissists at the top.

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What these oligarchs and authoritarians don’t realize is that eventually the system will break down for them as well — they are committing national murder but it is really ultimately suicide. Take the current example you present in their sleight of hand magic show. Mom and Pop stores do not need to fear a change in the system, they need to fight against the current system that has destroyed small businesses across this nation in the same way it has destroyed privately owned farms, and our roads and toll systems, and now our public lands and national parks — that is the boogey man and he is not hiding in the closets of so called “communists”, he is in the halls of power of our current government and billionaires.

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So yes — I applaud any one who asks — is it so wrong to entertain the possibility — the hope — that we can change this 250 year old system? Because we have been a part of this system since we killed the people who lived here for their land or enslaved Black people to enrich white people. Today we are simply seeing the tragic results of no longer having any safe guards around the slippery slope. I am all for tryiing something new because this current American system is not only self-destructing at the speed of light but destroying our planet and taking the name of God and the message of Christ to a level of lies and lows that would grieve the most contrite sinner such as I.

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Would I rather see my “hard earned cash” go to my struggling neighbors than to the people making themselves rich off of my tax dollars? Yep. Do I see other nations with different named philosophies of true democracy not unchecked capitalism, in the world doing a much better “job” of caring for their citizens, keeping the world safe, and saving the planet — yes, absolutely. Do I want to believe the people in charge who don’t even pretend to hide their lies or greed or hatred? No, I will not believe them and I will not believe there are that many people in America who do want to continue to believe this destructive hogwash.

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I have to believe that the soul of America is worth saving because the souls of the little people of every color, religion, job-description, and gender are worth more than any one billionaire or God help us, trillionaire. And if we need some radical changes to save the beautiful things this nation has always aimed for — bring it on.

© Jane Tawel, 2026

The Truth Is in the Spaces

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The Truth Is in the Spaces

By Jane Tawel

July 24, 2026

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Words are signposts only,

along the Narrow Way.

If you rush from point to point,

word to word,

you will never reach

the destination,

the place that you call “The Truth”.

Words will keep you traveling, traveling, traveling;

Anxious to find the right signs, or

Arguing with your copilots

Certain in your certainty,

that only you know best,

that your way is the Only!! route,

the single road to Happiness, to Heaven, or to Holiness;

And never knowing deeply, truly,

that there are many trued and true paths

leading Home.

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Words, especially those on ancient maps,

can also keep you stuck,

content to stay within your deepening rut.

Eventually you can dig yourself

so far down and down and down

you barely have a finger to raise above your ditch,

a small and useless pointer at the stars which you can’t see,

down there in the dark and dank, determined ditch you’ve dug.

Or perhaps you raise an angry, upright digit

raised in indignation, raised against

the perceived enemies out there,

a digit wiggling out and up,

a solitary soldier in the slumbering stand you take

against awakening

and climbing up and out into

the fresh air of the Open Road.

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For a long time, inviting others

to join you in your rut

can make you feel safe.

Until the floods come.

Your muscles that once could have found The Way,

Out into the Open Air, free in the Wide and Open Spaces,

are too weak by now, atrophied by the fears of your Unknowing.

You have languished long, far from the Road,

feeling secure in the tight confines of your pit,

Unable to pull yourself out of the rut of

your necessary belief that somehow, stuck down there,

you will eventually rise to Something, Somewhere Else.

But a pit leads no-where, my friend.

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And in the hidey- hole that you’ve dug,

you never see the many ropes

that others have thrown down

to let you pull yourself out from

the ditch that you have dug around yourself.

So many lovely, lovely things,

have through the eons

of this lovely, lovely World’s circuitous

spiraling, mysteriously moving expedition,

thrown out life-lines,

shown, not spoken,

and pointed to all the Truth we ever need to know,

to Trust that only Love can lead The Way.

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Nature has the truest Trueline.

Her roots have been threaded by Eternity,

threaded into thick, strong cords,

leading in and out, and down and up,

The Way of Our Salvation.

The World is full of Glory

to save us from drowning

in idolatry of texts,

from continually bashing ourselves

upon the rocky walls we make

out of our own silly and inflated egos.

Nature has never built a wall.

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When the Flood comes,

and finds you in your high-walled ditch,

Words won’t help you float.

You need something with air in it for that,

Something that breathes,

Something buoyant like a raft.

Cast aside your useless euphemisms,

your cries and yells and sermons,

your documents and equations

none of these can save you.

You can only release yourself to The Flow.

Let go

and float

and let The River lift you up and out,

out from in your trenches,

out from your revenges and your fears,

and let The Water take you,

clean you and restore you,

back from chosen Death to freely given Life.

Trust the Flow.

All Rivers flow to The Source.

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Truth is not a map

that anybody owns.

The Way is the play between,

the give and take

and push and shove

and gentle flow of

of letting go;

the looking up and out

and gazing long

at what is not there to be seen

but that which opens us.

And when we do not know

then we know

it is not our seeing that matters,

because we sense

we, at last, are Seen.

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Don’t throw away your maps,

but rest assured,

while Compasses are often useful things,

True Truth is only in the gaps.

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Truth is in the spaces –

The small bits and gentle pauses

The breaths between the hub-bub

and the clean-rooms that scour out

the hubris of our “feeling”

that we are right and they are wrong.

Peace is only found in the spaces

between the small stones in your shoes,

only in the vast open-places

glimpsed only

out of the corner of your eyes,

perhaps magnified into

kaleidoscopic wonder

by tears of sorrow or

tears of aching Awe.

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I wish they had used better punctuation

in the things that Jesus said.

There needs to be a lot of Space — 

 — Between — 

between the Truths that only Love can know.

I add a lot of dashes — 

Between the words of Christ.

I AM — 

The Way — 

The Truth — 

The Life — 

Seek — 

and you will find.

Love — 

Love — 

Love.

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Yes — let me live and move and

Find my being

in the Dashes — 

of

I Am-ness — 

And Your IAm.

of

my seeking — 

and Your finding.

of

my longing — 

and the only thing that fills that longing — 

Love.

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The Spirit People do not hand us maps — 

We make those up ourselves.

And while a map can be a useful thing,

we shouldn’t mistake it for The Way.

Look for the crevices and cracks –

There is a crack in everything,

That’s how the Light gets in.*

Look up from your maps,

And follow The Light.

There is a Light in The Window,

and The Light of The World

will lead us Home.

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© Jane Tawel, 2026

*by Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

Don’t Be Deceived by What You May Hear

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Okay, I don’t want to be preachy or proselytizy (good made up word right?). But here goes anyway….

The bad news: Jesus warned us that “many will come, claiming to be the Messiah or claiming to come in my name, and many will come in order to deceive you, and I will (sadly, I like to add) say: ‘I never knew you’.” Not my place to name names, but you have to be foolish not to see who these folks are in America today.

This is for anyone who may be very confused by what they are hearing today and witnessing in those who claim a religion that has become known as “Christianity” and at one time, was simply called “The Way”. It was a natural byproduct of the amazing life of a Jewish rabbi and embraced as an amazing alternative way to live in wholeness, truth, and grace by people who wanted to learn how to be close to God (in an experiential way, like a loving child with a loving Parent); and learn how to live as the best humans they could be with love and care for all other humans. The radical and core teachings of Jesus, as remembered by his followers, and what was supposed to enlighten Jews and Gentiles as The Way, are summed up in what are called “The Beatitudes” (Matthew 5).The bad news: Jesus warned us that “many will come, claiming to be the Messiah or claiming to come in my name, and many will come in order to deceive you, and I will (sadly, I like to add) say: ‘I never knew you’.”

As Richard Rohr writes: “The Beatitudes are paradoxical “commandments.” They don’t tell Christians what to do; they tell them what they will be like if they are living in the kingdom: They will be poor in spirit, pure in heart, merciful and gentle peacemakers; they will thirst for what is right and be persecuted because of it, and they will mourn.”
—Richard Rohr

So, if that is not what you are seeing that someone is trying to be, then they are not trying to be like Jesus. No matter what they may believe or say they believe. Is it easy? Goodness no! But the whole point is — we aren’t alone in this search, path, life.

The good news: Jesus claimed that God “has sent me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4). How thankful I am to see so many people of all faiths doing this but as a person raised in the faith of Christianity, I am so thankful to see it in those who claim to follow Christ. When we “look for the helpers” as Mr. Rogers told us to, there are many who are still following in The Way of Jesus.

We used to sing this song in church, “They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love”. Over and over, the only command we have from Jesus is “to love”. Love one another. Love your enemy. Greater love has no one than she who lays down her life for another. “Love the Lord Your God will all your heart, soul, and mind and love your fellow human being as you would like to be loved yourself.”

In this time of trial, in this time when many of us mourn and are fearful, in a world seemingly gone mad, let your light shine where you can. And however you get there, keep walking The Tao, The Way, The Path of Love. Whereever and however you can. The good news is — Love wins. Everytime. And that is the real message of the man we call Jesus, the Christ.

YOU

https://unsplash.com/@domiesharpin

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YOU

By Jane Tawel

June 10, 2026

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Open our eyes,

and let us see.

YOU are Way,

not wall.

YOU are the Open Door

not the closed borders.

YOU are process,

not product.

YOU are not container,

but Cosmos.

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YOU are OTHER,

and yet, not other.

Like a MOTHER,

YOU womb me,

Birth me,

Nurse me,

And with opened eyes,

I see only YOU,

And YOU and I are One.

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May the Light of Your Love,

Blind us into healed eyes

and new sight.

May the Grace of Your Goodness,

cause us to stumble from our marches

so that we may hold out hands of help

to the bruised and to the fallen.

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May the Wonder of Your World,

make us weep with longing

and humble us, and gladden us

to care for this Our Home,

with the same parental care

that YOU, oh, Father care for Your World.

May we fall in love once again,

with this our Home, and these,

our Brothers and our Sisters;

And may we treat all Life — as YOU do — 

with the same kindness and nurture

that a Gardener and Farmer gives

the blessed, life-giving Land.

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May the Freedom of Your Mercy

Heal our hatreds.

May the selflessness of Your Justice,

replace our false desire for punishment.

And in the Court of Your judgement,

May the oppressed be restored,

the prisoner set free,

the lame walk and the leper dance.

And May Your rivers of righteousness roll down,

rolling and roiling,

as the first become last,

and the last are the first,

and all tumble and meld

into the Oneness that is

Your Kingdom come.

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Parent, Creator, Foundation, Friend:

May the Love that is

Of YOU,

And that is beyond comprehension,

May the Mystery of Love that You are

and that You can only be, and can be no other — 

May that same Love

that is beyond all human understanding,

and that is also the miracle of Love

available to all humble hearts,

Keep our feet inching forward on The Way,

Keep our minds open to Your Truth,

Keep our wills muscular with the joy of Your Spirit,

And may our hearts beat as One

with You and with All that You Love.

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May the Lure of Your Love,

make me, as You were and are,

a fisher of lives — 

to patiently cast out the lure of your love

to catch them and release them

back into the OCEAN of YOU,

Just as YOU have caught and released

this small guppy of a girl.

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May it Be.

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© Jane Tawel, 2026

Truth and Love

By now, I am assuming people who want to know the truth are reading people like Heather Cox Richardson or It’s a Lovely Life by Heather Delaney Reese or Robert Reich. I have posted their sage words many times and could again and again, for they report on what is happening in this nation with truth and integrity and big hearts for the people of America. 

Some days I can barely stand to read what is being allowed to happen on our watch — our poor, poor children — what a mess we are handing them, that is, handing them if and should we continue to exist. For those people who either can not give up their false idols or who prefer an alternative reality that more suits their ego, or who just want to stick their heads in the sand and pretend things are not as they are or that there is nothing they can do, or that “they just want to enjoy their lives” — I pity you, I truly do. And while I still feel so very angry that so many are allowing this nation, and the religion of Christianity, and the planet to be destroyed by their own ignorance, greed, fear of the other, power-hunger, or frankly for some, absolutely their evil intent, I also feel such sorrow for them; they have “given up their souls for profit” as the Good Man says, and given up their humanity and human dictate to care for the world in exchange for power and the illusion of happiness with more and more and more money. Some of their idols are obviously and literally insane — stark raving demented and insane. And still they never see the truth or that “money can’t buy you love” and that you cannot “worship God and material greed”. 

I feel such sorrow that on this our 250th birthday, we have slid down the slippery slope of uber-capitalism and empire so very far. I feel such a sense of shame by association and wonder how some people can feel no shame. 

 I am grateful for those still speaking truth. I am grateful for those who still believe in the idea of America and that we can be what we set out to be, 250 years ago. I am grateful to my depths for the brave people who have claimed the same religion I have for so long and who are sharing what that religion actually teaches, and who are speaking up for Jesus the Christ and for our sense of who a loving God is — “a God and a Christ who loves all humans — no matter what their background or identification”. as St. Paul taught us God and Christ love. And how I pity those people tied to a religious instutition that pays them to continue to tell people what they do here doesn’t matter — that all that matters is whether you go to heaven — something Jesus never, ever said. “The Kingdom of God is within you — here. Now”. â€Šâ€Š Or it’s not. 

Okay — ranting, I know. Sorry. I honestly day after day, just can’t get my head around it. 

But here is my hope — — today, on my jog, as usual, I pick up other people’s trash. This is my Father’s World and my Mother’s Breast. One day a couple thanked me and said, we teach our grandkids to do this and we make a game of it. There is my hope and encouragement. Today I will try my best to teach my students to write and read and think critically and ethically and spiritually — they are all in high school but very few schools seem to encourage this any more. But there are some who do and many parents who do, and these young people — they can take over from us any time in my opinion. There is my hope and anticipation that we — they — can turn this ship around. And today, I will tell my family and friends and the early morning workers at the end of my street who gather to find work to feed their families that I love them, and be safe out there, and I am grateful for your lives. And I will tell the bees in my lavender, and the lizards on my sidewalk, and the tree in my front yard, and the blue, blue sky — “I love you. Be safe out there. I am grateful for you.” I will hold all these lovely things and these other human souls in my heart and will send them thoughts of joy: “You make my heart glad and hopeful. Thank you for being wonderful, amazing you”. And even if sometimes I wonder where God is, or why He doesn’t “do something”, I will pray the only prayer I know: “I love you. Make me a being of Love. Please help us”. 

And there is my hope. Because I know there are lots and lots of people out there who are truly loving. And some are Christians, and some are Hindus, and some are Muslims, and some live in Iran and some live in Ukraine and some live in Palestine, and some live right here on my little street in SoCal. And Love is the most powerful force in the universe. “Now these three things will remain, “Trust in The Good, Hope despite the circumstances, and Love for all — but the greatest of these is Love”. (St. Paul). 

My hope is that little bits of Light and Love will overcome the darkness and hatred of this dire hour. I end this not with anger or hopelessness, but with determination to do my part — to be the light and be the love. And I have hope because I know enough people who are doing that same thing. And to quote another great saint, MLK, the “arc of the moral universe will bend toward justice” and we little Whos in Whoville will be heard by the One Who Loves and Who hears us, and “we shall overcome”. 
May it be so.

© Jane Tawel, 2026

De-linting the Soul

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De-linting the Soul

By Jane Tawel

June 30, 2026

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My life is like a woolen sweater.

And for better or for worse,

It picks up the lint of cares and woes, and leaves me — at best — fuzzy;

and on my worst days,

underneath the sticky bits and pieces,

You wouldn’t recognize — 

for all the obscurations — 

the lovely fabric

that I once called my Self.

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I wear my heart upon my sleeve

and grieve for wasted hours.

I have spent a life-time (so it seems), continually zapped and attracted to

the static electricity

that draws the small self

to the dross of info-mercials

and the shallow pools of beliefs.

How constricting to Experience

are the tight constraints of creeds

and the ego’s flimsy needs

of knowing the Unknown!

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We are so apt

to attract the small things of this world,

and wear them like jello-ey armor.

Snake-charmers offer us

the splith of polyestered promises

and we exchange our Robes of Righteousness

for scraps of fame and fortune.

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The heart longs for a Soul washed cool and clean;

and to wear upon the breastplate of Desire,

some Super-Powered magical coat-

a cloak to drape over

this worn and lint-y sweatered, sweltering self;

a cape of invisibility against the clawing chatter;

a coat of many colors to be set-apart;

a cape with wings to fly above and

to soar beyond the latest news or views;

to uncover a covered face that looks only down

upon sinking sandy shoals of un-real real-estates.

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I seek the fabric-proof of Wonder

to daily use upon my sweatered self — 

the warm embrace of sun on skin

and breeze in hair

and watching dust motes fly

from my small self to scamper in the air.

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I seek the Washer

of sweaters, fish, and feet

to wash away the chattel and the floss

of doctrines, policies, and cults

and the small iotas of informational-dross;

of lint, and dust, and things that tear

and all that makes me unaware

of how the Soul longs to be freed,

unclothed and standing unashamed.

As Eve once waltzed

before a Glorious World,

I yearn to cast away this linty life;

clothed only in the glory of

Created Good,

casting off my tattered rags,

uncovered and unclothed,

dancing unencumbered

into our Deep Divinity

and an Eternity of Life

lived Whole and lint-proofed

unraveled and unashamed

the un-Sweatered-Soul 

now naked as a baby 

that is purely Loved.

© Jane Tawel, 2026

Last Night’s Beautiful Game

Kaan Ahyan from Turkey

Last Night’s Beautiful Game

by Jane Tawel

June 26, 2026

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It truly is the “beautiful game”. Okay — disclaimer — I am always and ever shall be a sucker and cheerleader for the underdog. (I will stand up and cheer for the hapless, foolish coyote every day over that vain, smart-elecky road runner.) Secondly, it was super easy yesterday to root for the home team, but also cheer the good plays of the underdog, Turkey, since our own amazing USA team had already scored a place in the next knockout round. And Turkey! — and herein lies the beauty of soccer (the real “football” according to, well, everyone in the world but us of course 😊) — even though Turkey knew they were out of The Cup and would go home tomorrow no matter what happened — they played their hearts out and it sure did pay off. 

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What a match it was! Austin Trusty scored for the USA in the first 2.15 minutes of the game (and did any one else notice this? — Trusty seems to be able to leap straight into the air from an almost standing position — what is he, part Impala?!) And the game went on keeping us focused and curious at a well earned tie of 2–2 until, as if by the magic of pure desire and well — again — the beauty of this beautiful game — Good golly Miss Molly! Yowza! — Kaan Ahyan from Turkey scored IN THE LAST SECONDS of the game. 

Austin Trusty, USA Men’s Soccer

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Each game of soccer is like a gorgeous new puzzle — you never know quite how all the pieces will come together. It is a game like chess — all the pieces have to work together, move together, and sometimes someone sacrifices for the good of the whole. For instance — My goodness, how in the world the Turkish goalkeeper, Ugurcan Cakir, didn’t break his arm and various other bones in his body last night on that dive in the second half I have no idea. 

Turkish goalkeeper, Ugurcan Cakir

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Okay, so those of you who know me — I don’t watch sports much any more, especially professional sports. Ever since moving to SoCal in the late 1980’s when I was the lone voice cheering for the Celtics in Laker land and no longer in Celtic land and well, getting busy in the 1990’s raising my own almost enough to be a soccer team family; and also, now that my kids don’t have their endless soccer games or tennis matches any more for me to cheer at and bring orange slices and gateraide to, last night’s game was unusual for me. (Okay, so yeah, cool Dodgers and all that, but I have always been a basketball and soccer girl — I mean, I’m from Indiana long before the Colts and watching baseball to me is a bit like waiting for paint to dry.) But goodness sakes, it was so wonderful to be rooting for a game last night and a team (or secretly both teams — you know, underdogs and all that). It was so nourishing and wonderful to be cheering for something America is doing right and well in this moment, it was great to see nations come together in friendly competition, using amazing skills, both physical and mental; it was a gift to see played out on a playing field the beauty of the human spirit. It was and is, truly, the beautiful game. And I am grateful.

© Jane Tawel, 2026

Gratitude for Hope at Obama’s Grand Opening

There was sooooooo much to celebrate at the Grand Opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago today. I was choking up to hear one of my favorite “hymns” — “To Dream the Impossible Dream” sung right after “The Star Spangled Banner” — oh indeed! — with Bill Clinton mouthing the words — it broke me with — yes! oh yes! First Lady Michelle Obama’s call to remember and then to act in hope. The intentionality of the center itself — communal, welcoming, diverse, fun, lovely. Angela Merkle! Bono! John Legend! Marc Anthony! The Boss! The guy playing Tuba!! Stevie Wonder! (“All praise to God for this moment.”) And the whole Obama family singing along with him!

Presidents and leaders of our past — when presidents used to be for us, not against us. Of course they made mistakes. Did you think they were gods? But they really did believe in America and in us and they did their best with the times they were given. Thank you.

Of course I personally could watch the ASL signers sign for hours — just them alone brings me deep joy beyond even understanding — the glorious language of hands and faces — I mean seriously did you see just the hands signing trumpets, drums, guitars playing? People clapping? Hands. Our hands. Let us make our hands stretch again to clasp each other across this nation, throughout this world.

The smiles — the hugs — hard, deep hugs. The laughter (George Bush and Michelle Obama). The love of the daughters, Malia and Sasha, now beautiful women. Once children — now examples of goodness and love for the next generation of children.

Children on stage, children from all across the nation, with parents who wanted them to see what we could be, coming to remember and to hope again what it is to believe in US, in the U.S. — to hope, to celebrate what we are and can be. “You better believe”.

Okay — again — Michelle Obama. Yowza. Amen. I had a constant “gulp” — throat gulping — eyes tearing up. I could feel my heart beating for the first time in a while with that deep connection to what we can be at our best.

And it was about one man who made us realize it is never and never has been about one man — no matter what someone with power or access or obscene amounts of money tell you. Someone with a name that took us aback at first — until we got to know him —Barack Obama. I wept with deep, deep joy the night he was elected as the first Black president of this nation that we had become the nation we had set out to be. But it was never about just one man; it was never about just him. It is about one man, and one woman, and one boy, and one girl, and one Latinex, and one Black, and one white, and one farmer, and one teacher, and one mechanic, and one restaurant owner and one waiter, and one and one and one and one becoming All of Us. I can’t wait to see this center someday — where people come to garden and play Bball, and read in the reading room, and laugh and walk with those who pray in a church or on a rug or near a wooded glen or in a closet — it doesn’t matter — this is a testament to place and people — where we remember it is about one and one and one who long to see a history that can encourage us to make a future. “No gale can topple us over”. Believe. Hope.

And oh, the love. And oh, my heart — Thank you, Obama. The Love. How could anyone turn away from this? How could anyone doubt that this is what we are meant to be? We had it in our grasp to be this, to do this, to know this. This is what we are called to be. This is what we are at our best — anywhere, any time, any color, any gender, any nation, any tribe. As Barack Obama said truly: “Everyone has a sacred story to tell if you just care to listen — full of courage and grace and purpose”. How amazing it was to hear a leader who could put words to thoughts with truth and care and grace and compassion and vision! Community! Do you remember what that feels like? Can you imagine what that will feel like to be again?

Our common humanity and bonds can be based on trust. When is the last time you heard a leader say “we” — this is about “we”. — “us”? Oh my. Wasn’t it lovely to use our brains again? To be not only back in reality but in memory of what we have been and hope in what we can be? Wasn’t it a strange combination of peace and exhilaration? Wasn’t it amazing to hold up a mirror that we haven’t held up to ourselves in so long — -the mirror of us as a democracy, as a community, as a force for goodness not just in this country but in the world — One in God, One in grace and justice, One in the desire to make the world, this nation, the planet a place our children and grandchildren will inherit with gratitude and fulfilled dreams — One in purpose, One in hope?

Remember intelligence? Remember compassion? Remember world vision? Remember sharing? Remember stories of not billionaires or mockers or deniers — but stories of hard workers, care-givers, embracers, and families, and students, and faithful, simple, hopeful — people like us?

Today — I remembered and rejoiced — that we are here. We. Are. Here. And as long as we are here, we are responsible and we are able.

Chicago, the home of the Obama Presidential Center, was once my city, and I think your first city is always what you believe a city really is — can be. I am proud to be from that part of the world — the middle part of this great nation, the “fly-over zone”, the “bread basket” and “bible belt” — and now to be a part of Los Angeles, California, yes, as my relatives in that heartland where I once lived call us — yes, we are the “fruits and nuts” — and proud of it — we are what feed you and feed your sense of openness and delight in this glorious, diverse, beautiful land that we call The United States of America. We have been given so much here. May we remember that we are stewards. We are care-takers. We are borrowers from our children.

As President Obama said, “let us turn towards each other, not further away”.

“Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually strive to improve this great Nation of ours”. (The Boss quoting Obama from his speech at Selma.)

Thank you for today, Barack Obama and family —family both given and chosen. Thank you for pointing us towards The Land of Hope and Dreams! May it be so. Let it begin with us. Today. “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”.

“We see what faith without fear can do”. “We know in the Spirit that positivity will win”. “Keep on tryin’ til we reach our higher ground”. (Stevie Wonder.)

Yeah! Amen! Let it be so!

© Jane Tawel, 2026

Today in History
 if Only it Were only History

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“Today in history” often interests me but today as I read my daily local newspaper’s blurb on it, well, it seemed
. well
 you read it and see if you see and feel what I did.

1942: Anne Frank, a German-born Jewish girl, received a diary for her 13th birthday, less than a month before her family went into hiding from the Nazis. Less than 3 years later she would die in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

1963: Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot and killed outside his home in Jacksonville, Mississippi.

2016: A gunman opened fire at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida, leaving 49 people dead and 53 wounded in what was then the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. History.

There are not enough sorrow emojis for me to write. I wish so much I could consign this to history — but then I read the rest of the newspaper
.. and I ask: Why do humans continue to do this to other humans? Why do people have to hate? Or as Rodney King, one of our patron saints in Los Angeles, poignantly asked, “”People, I just want to say, can we all get along? Can we get along?”

© Jane Tawel, 2026

Pulling the Flesh Apart

https://unsplash.com/@andresloquesea

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Pulling the Flesh Apart 

By Jane Tawel

May 26, 2026

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Let us pull it apart — bit by bit.

Lay the body of our transitory knowledge

on The Surgeon’s board.

True, the words became flesh;

but this stuff — this meat — 

must be bound on the rack,

pulled out like taffy,

’til our bones bend and crack.

Words should be tortured,

eviscerating the bowels we call facts.

*

Our gut tells us something

is Realer than real — 

Deeper than definitions,

Truer than the skeletons of

Only what we can see and taste and touch –

Oh! We are meant to touch the very Being — 

We are meant to be stretched into smallness

Split into Wholeness,

and cured unto death.

Only oxymorons, symbols, metaphors and myths — 

Only songs and pictures — 

Only stories of salve — ations,

Only tales of trudging the long road toward home,

Only legends of those who die for Love,

Only these are meant to live forever.

*

Oh, we must lay our small selves on the Cross.

We must die to the language of our answers

And float in the ocean of our questions.

How mysterious is the human hand!

How awe-inspiring the body’s eye!

And what beyond what I am called to name,

Can I sense beyond my wonderous senses — 

Moves and lives in the being I call “myself”?

*

There is Some-thing, Some-One, Some-Life/Self — 

Who is beyond all language — 

beyond all materials and all body,

beyond the mind’s best truest truths.

There is a Word the mind knows not.

A Name. A Life. A Presence.

The Word that sweetly sings to us

to be let in the cages of our heads and hearts,

and once, when homing there,

flutters like a small bird,

Singing songs of wordless Love and Life,

in flight and free within the Heart — 

Though not a “thing”, a word must do — 

Beyond, above, deeper, wider, purer, timeless — 

Some thing — visceral — 

Some thing — that moves and breathes and has its being

Some thing — despite all longing, we can not name — 

from a heart that no longer beats

but Swells –

Cresting until it bursts through

the walls of this poor substance

that I call, “myself”.

The Soul — burst asunder into

pieces of The Whole.

No longer words on paper

But The Word made flesh in us,

a Picture worth an Eternity of words.

No longer flesh and blood,

But Bread and Wine.

Given, so all may have Life,

And Life Abundant.

Life granted, beyond syllables.

Life, lived beyond flesh.

Life, here and now

in the Stillness

here beyond death.

*

© Jane Tawel, 2026