DREAMING, VISUALIZING, PLANNING

“Let me just say: Peace to you, if you’re willing to fight for it.” ~ Fred Hampton

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”
~ Dr. Kenneth Bartlett

“I feel sorry for anybody that could let hate wrap them up. Ain’t no such thing as I can hate anybody and hope to see God’s face.”
~ Fannie Lou Hamerncifild

Hello Monitor readers,
Happy October! Although the daylight hours are decreasing every day, we are in the season of bright playful, grateful, and sanctified celebrations anticipations. Now days, I’m happy that my Google calendar acknowledges Indigenous Day on the second Monday in October, and I’m glad that we are creating safer fun places for family-friendly, respectful Halloween activities. Of course, I think/hope that we all are thankful for the fourth Thursday in November. Ironically (and not surprisingly), November is Indigenous Month. It is also the month in which we vote on the second Tuesday, an act which many people believe is the most awesome responsibility and powerful justice act of participation that we gift to each other. And, December is simply the great month of witnessing and experiencing divine and enchanting alchemy.
The fall season, like our other three seasons, is encircled with the energy and force of inter-generational focus. Please ponder that thought, particularly as you engage in playful activities, celebrate holidays, and/or mourn home-goings with families and loved-ones.

CELEBRATING TURBO TIM’S, MODEL CITIES,
IRREDUCIBLE GRACE
Yes, this month I’m feeling happy. I’m happy that the second Turbo Tim’s Anything Automotive shop is now in the Hamline/Midway neighborhood at 1671 University Ave. W. (1.5 blocks west of Snelling Ave.), which is just a few blocks from the innovative office space of the Capitol Regional Watershed District (CRWD), which you will hear more about next month. In the meantime, feel welcome to visit their site at 595 Aldine St.; they have great knowledgeable and friendly staff and a nurturing and revitalizing space that is good for the Monitor’s communities. Another resourceful institution in Midway is Model Cities, https://www.modelcities.org/model-cities-st-paul/#. I attended their 55th anniversary where the youthful group of Irreducible Grace highlighted the organization’s three excutive directors and the organization’s outstanding decades of work and love within the community! There are so many good and happy ongoing happenings that are weaving through our communities and neighborhoods. It’s too easy to only be drawn into the fall’s darker days and the seemly* and real wave of senseless criminal activities. Instead, I encourage us to look to the illumination of the goodness of our communities and to get to know your neighbors and the community groups and organizations, which I still believe is the best crime-prevention and pro-active community building method that we all can share in implementing.

MAKE RESOLUTIONS THIS AUTUMN
I recently read that now is the time to make your new year’s resolutions before our winter chilly season starts. I like the common sense idea of dreaming, visualizing and planning for what we desire for 2023 during our beautiful autumn instead of making resolutions in possible snow storms times. I would also suggest that 2023 New Year’s Resolutions actually starts on Tuesday, Nov. 8 with the elections. For instance, people often say that they like a certain political party’s social justice thinking or a political party’s economic thinking, and believing that it is a vote about social justice vs. economics without deeply reflecting that it is not about one, divorced from the other. Justice is about social, economic, environmental, food and water access, gender, racial, self-identified, faith-based, land, and … acknowledgement, respect, restoration and more!
What do you trust and what is your truth? I continue to trust that we will rise to the collective truth that we want the best for all! Stay optimistic which, is my 2022 New Year’s Resolution!

“Trust starts with truth and ends with truth.” ~ Santosh Kalwar

Trust
Reflective
Understanding
Silent or Listen
Truth
As Lissa Jones would say, “Can you dig it?”
May Peace Be In the Rondo, Frogtown, Hamline/Midway, Como, and Surrounding Communities...
May Peace Be In Our Homes & Communities…
May Peace Prevail On Earth (MPPOE)!