Lately I’ve been thinking about the crushing nature of our current news and information system. It is important to stay informed to what is happening in the world, our commercial information sources are based upon keeping the consumer in a state of outrage, anxiety and fear. If these sources can keep us frightened enough we’ll stay tuned in through the commercial, or into the next cycle as they recycle the same scary or salacious stuff. Balance is hard to come by without being intentional about how I take in information. There is the news of the world, and there is what my friend Parker J. Palmer calls “The News of the Heart”. It is important to stay aware, so that I can dedicate my daily actions with intention. But I find without balance, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, which gets me stuck or leads me to despair. No, I cannot personally stop the terrible tragedy unfolding for our kindred in Eastern Europe. But I can support organizations that are trying to help refugees, I can support the companies that are refraining from doing business in Russia until the violence stops. I can also do my daily meditations, and prayers, I can remind myself to do and notice small acts of kindness and amplify them in the world. I can take good care of the bit of natural world around me. I can add art and music to the ether of the world.
The news of the heart is that the world is still filled with extraordinary people of good heart and spirit. If you ask someone, “Do you know anyone who is generous of spirit, who cares about living true and with intention, who will reach across all kinds of dividing lines for family, the food bank, for love, for a million other good reasons?” Most people will tell you “Yes, I know a lot of people like that…I’m like that.”
Sometimes it only takes noticing to shift a moment. Flying home from California yesterday, I was helped by the most lovely attendant. It was a late flight, and yet she was so kind and pleasant and she had lovely eyes. So I told her so. “Thank you for being so kind and generous with me, it really does make a difference.” She stopped and was obviously touched. “I’m so glad you said so, its been a long day.” We smiled at one another and the moment shifted. A good hearted friend told me that when she is traveling and encounters a cleaning person in an airport bathroom, she gives them a 20.00 bill and thanks them for making the restroom safer and cleaner for everyone. She’s gotten all kinds of responses, but in every situation the person felt seen and their work honored. Creating a shift might come in the form of stopping and pausing before you enter a room and asking yourself, “Will I enter this room in love or in fear” and then choose love. I’m serious, try this sometime. Its not woo woo…you will be surprised at the shift in a space, the shift in co-workers or whoever you encounter, but mostly there will be a shift in your heart.
Perhaps today is a day when you make it a point to step into a room intentionally with love. Perhaps this is a day you can contribute to what makes the world better by noticing the honorable work of someone that so often goes unacknowledged. Perhaps this is a day when your life shifts, and the world feels a bit more balanced because you’ve been engaging intentionally with The News Of The Heart.
Question: Try this practice - pause before entering a room, a cafe, a grocery store, your place of work or classroom. Ask your self “Will I walk into this space in love or fear” and then choose love. Then tell us what happened in the comment section.
Other Balancing News Sources
I’m listing a couple of news sources that might be a good counter balance.
Recently someone sent me a link to David Byrne’s Reasons To Be Cheerful. Its a newsletter for folks who are feeling crushed by hard and negative news. I’ve so appreciated David Byrne’s music & this website and newsletter is dedicated to news that is inspiring and hopeful.
To check it out click here
Here is another source for heart opening news, The Daily Good. The Daily Good is connected to ServiceSpace.org. It describes itself like this “Often times, watching the nightly news and reading mainstream newspapers it's hard to remember the presence of good in the world. And yet it is constantly around us. The world is full of everyday heroes and true stories of transformation”.
To learn more about The Daily Good click here
Me writing this post in the Minneapolis Airport :-)
I have exciting news to share: You can now read A Gathering of Spirits in the new Substack app for iPhone. A great way to organize all your substack reading! Hooray Substack :-)
Upcoming Online and In Person Shows
Carrie's Online Concerts in March & April
Special Women's History Month WomenSing Choral streamed on Mandolin
STREAMED ON MANDOLIN - MAR 20 SAT
A Very Special Women's History Month Choral Concert
With WomenSing & Carrie Newcomer
Arrangements by Gary Walters * Directed by Ofer Dal Lal
On Mandolin 8:00pm ET/ 7pm CT/ 5pm PT
** This Show was filmed Live on March 12, Carrie will be on chat in the virtual Lobby before and after the show to celebrate the event with you personally!
April 1, 2022
Until Now Album Release Tour @ Federated Church
West Lafayette, IN 7pm
TICKETS
APR 8 FRI Until Now: Album Release Tour at Vintage Church 7:30pm Lawrence, KS,
APR 9 SATUntil Now: Album Release Tour at Plymouth Congregational Church @ 7:00pm Wichita, KS,
APR 29 FRI An Evening With Carrie Newcomer 7:00pm Marriottsville, MD,
APR 30 SATWriter's Workshop with Carrie Newcomer 9:00am Marriottsville, MD,
APR 30 SAT Until Now: Album Release Tour at the Center for Spiritual Deepening @ 7:30pm New Alexandria, VA, United States
TICKETS
(Photo at rehearsal before the WomenSing Concert with Gary Walters and director Ofer Dal Lal and Paul Caccamo).
For More Touring or Online Concert Info Visits Carrie’s Online Tour Page
Spring Vernal Equinox Sale!
March 20th-March 27th Midnight
For All Free Subscribers to The Gathering of Spirits
Use code SPRING for 10% my entire online store.
For all Supporting Subscribers
You will be personally sent an email notification with your code for 20% off anything in my entire online store.
This is a public post, please feel free to share with your friends! It helps get the word out about A Gathering of Spirits!
I live in Valencia (Spain, that is!). The folk here are lovely but obviously busy so that in supermarkets they tend to be brusque and rushed at the checkouts. The staff, too, are lovely and I tend to shop mid-afternoon when its quiet and I can have a joke with a couple of the checkout folk. I try my rusty Spanish and they try their rusty English and we have a good chuckle. My aim is to leave them with a smile. They are kind, too, and when a senior citizen is struggling, they will help with counting change and packing bags. Often there is a long pause while this is sorted out and it is lovely to see the local folk in the queue pause patiently while this is done. It's a nice place to live.
Thank you, Carrie, for your messages of love, kindness and hope.
I live in Pittsburgh and just did this very thing--before reading your email. I was returning something at my local Target where staff and most customers are still masked. The young woman waiting on me had lovely eyes, eyes which were smiling at me beyond the mask. As I put my things on the counter, I stopped and engaged eye to eye with her. I, too, was smiling. And then I spoke to how beautiful her eyes were and how much I appreciated her smile even though I couldn't see her whole face. She was grateful and her smiling eyes showed it. We went on to have a lovely few moments in the course of our otherwise busy days. These moments are appreciated--both by me and the other person-- every time I remember to pause and allow it.