- Our ‘All Hands on Deck’ Moment is Here - January 15, 2026
- No Resolutions … Just the Work of Christmas. - December 31, 2025
- When the Darkness Around Us is Deepest - December 22, 2025
Time to Come Out & Level Up!
Dear Friends & Beloved Rascals of All Ages & Stripes, All Genders & Generations, wherever you were born, to whom, or under what circumstances … welcome to this precious NOW, the place between Light & Dark, where the real work of Christmas is already underway … and next year’s words are already forming on our tongues.
My ponderings, as always, are incomplete. But for starters, making music in the heart is right up there with my commitment to feeding folks. Thank you, dear friend Kim, for introducing me to this sweet song calling us to come out and level up.
The Place Between Light and Dark
The trapeze swings out
and you have to let go.
In between can be a hard place,
meant to teach you to trust
in something more than your own mind.When your hands
slip from the bar—
do you see the one
whose wrists you can grasp
flying towards you in the night?The heart yearns to soar,
but you can’t remember
how to be free.
Always hanging on so tight, afraid of the ride;
thrilling, risky, a little dangerous.A gift lies buried beneath it all.
Unwrap yourself from all you know,
let go and rise into the air,
into the deathless, exhilarating
moment of surrender where everything — is all right.Where love surrounds you, holds you
and a net, woven blue light, as wide
as your willingness to forgive,
waits —
with infinite patience.—Elise Stuart
My personal intention (not to be confused with a ‘resolution’) for much of my attention this year (I’m done with the language of ‘work’) will focus on what I’m calling “Intergen Conversations”. These began for me a few months ago around my supper table with a small group of amazing GenZs that I am grateful to know and appreciate. They range in age from 20 to 27 and for a variety of reasons, they are willing to talk to me about stuff … like Life and Love and Climate Change & AI & Charlie Kirk & Politics & Video Games & Gender Identity & yes, even History. I like to think we are teaching and learning from each other … I of the ‘silent generation’ who has lived through a different history than they are living now, and these wondrous beings who so easily grok the clicks and symbols of what I struggle to get my mind around 6-7. I think the fact that I feed them helps, but I’m not really sure that’s it. I think we are both hungry for these conversations. Change is upon us. Last year’s words belong to last year’s language and it’s time to level up. I believe (and I like to think I’m not alone) that GenZs are our Best Hope for the Future and if we can find ways to talk to each other, there is much to be learned.
For those of you who know me, you know that I listen best to the language of poetry. I don’t expect that to change, and I hope you will take a few minutes to read (or hear) this particular piece by Alexandra Umlas, recently featured in Rattle.
Alexandra Umlas: “If you are a teacher or parent of school-age kids, you’ve certainly heard 6-7 a few times now. Adults want to know what it means—kids seem to understand that the point is that it doesn’t mean anything. This week, as I discussed the 1920s with my 12th grade Humanities students, they managed to connect 6-7 to the Mona Lisa, and so this poem was born …”
Teaching the Twenties in 12th Grade Humanities (or 6-7)
Everything is roars—the auto, the crime,
the market, the dress across the floor, the jazz,
the market crash, the flapper, they want to know more.Each age has its slang, its giggle water, whatever
they consider the cat’s pajamas, what they’ll pay
a clam for, if it’s the real McCoy or just applesauce.We try to understand, but there is so much we don’t.
Just when we think we are on the trolley, just when
we know our onions, just when we are seeking truthEliot comes along, or some other thing to say
That is not what I meant at all; That is not it, at all.
We still don’t know so much, why we go to war,what that lady we call the Mona Lisa is really thinking—
It’s like 6-7 says one student, and suddenly
they are laughing because they’ve just setone of the greatest poems in the world, one
of the greatest works of art side by side
with two numbers that represent everything and nothingat all—meaning upon meaning, meaning piled,
meaning meaning too many things, and so
nothing at all. Why (they want to know)do we feel as though everything needs to be
explained? Frost was right, All the fun’s in how
you say a thing, or two numbers, side by side,juggled just because, the magic trick, the inside joke
of a generation that has learned how to make meaning
out of what is meaningless—
So … how to end this post. It feels like I’m just getting started. There is so much I want to share with you. But let’s take a breath and a little break to settle into this new space and time we’re calling 2026. All things remaining stable (LOL) let’s plan to get together again in mid-January. If you’d like a free subscription to my occasional Light Waves, you’re welcome to sign on here and receive them in your mailbox the moment they go up online, thanks to my web guru & publisher, Maya Bairey at Lingua Ink.
And now … let’s Level Up, Take the Leap Together, and Love Again & Again & Again. Until next time, Peace Salaam, Shalom.
Sulima
Buying me an occasional coffee helps me keep these stories coming … and gives me one less reason to cross my fingers when my Social Security payment is due!