@genuinemichael
Opti-mystic writer & futurist; father of two. Author with Richard Rohr of 'The Divine Dance.' Co-founder, Wild Goose Festival . Curator, TheSpeakeasy.info Read my stuff @ MikeMorrell.org/BonusChapter
This is the time that we opened for The Cramps, Danceteria, on Halloween as “it crawled from the south” and we only played songs about death. I wore a pink gingham bunny suit complete with bunny ears mitts and footies. The sweatshirt came off after the first song. Photo by Laura Levine. 1982? ‘83?
Has everyone heard the new @michaelstipe.bsky.social song yet? If so, what do you think? Personally, I’m loving it.
folks, the Wall Street Journal is not the NYT, it is a paper for people who want a headline like "New Dictator Installed, Stock Market Up." they do not mess around
if they're getting worried, there's reason to be worried
Trump was raised in a family that disparaged military service. He thinks people “dumb” enough to serve have what’s coming to them. Remember what he told the widow of the soldier who was killed in Niger: “he knew what he signed up for”
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017....
Thank you @anthropic.com for standing up to the Pentegon's insane demands! www.opb.org/article/2026...
Trump’s billionaire allies will now own CNN, Fox News, CBS, WaPo, WSJ and NY Post — plus 185+ local tv stations and news in 100 markets.
They also control X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, TikTok, Truth and Twitch.
This is all by design to manipulate and surveil us.
Pay attention.
Outrageous.
This is so important!
'We’re praying with our feet': a year of pro-democracy prayer vigils in New York
religionnews.com/2026/02/16/w...
𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠
"Only the imprints of conscious labour and intentional suffering are real and can be used in the future for obtaining a good."
— G.I. Gurdjieff
Free. 7-8pm EST. Details & RSVP here:
Where have I seen this before…?
Why thank you! 📿
To dust we shall return.
But oh — what dust we are.
However you're observing this rare convergence of holy seasons — or simply feeling the weight of these times — may you find something today worth releasing. And may the releasing itself become a kind of feast.
Mercy to us all. 🌑
A minute universe where she thought there would be only darkness.
We are marked with ash today. Stardust pressed into skin. A visible, public remembering of our mortality — and, paradoxically, our belonging to something vast and ongoing.
Appalachian preacher-poet Missy Harris reminds us of the secret we keep forgetting: 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴. When Gabriella Reyes Fuchs peered at her father's ashes under a microscope, she expected ruin. Instead—nebulae. Pearlescent galaxies. Purple and pink plumes.
"𝘈 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦,” the Sly Man observed, "𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨."
What if the ruminating meaning-making we layer onto our legitimate pain is what we place on our altar this Lent? What room might this clear for Spirit in our lives?
This year, I'm giving up a particular kind of suffering — the self-generated kind. Renegade Wise Guy G. I. Gurdjieff drew a sharp distinction between conscious suffering (the kind that opens us) and mechanical suffering (the kind we cling to like a lover who’s moved on).
I didn't grow up with Lent. But I've come to love what it asks of us — swapping my usual acquisitiveness with release. Jesus opens his hands in a gesture of trust, 𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘴; as he said to Mary Magdalene while sharing a resurrection glance: “𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘱.”
Amid this luminous gathering of traditions, amid so many birth pangs across our planet, apprentices of Jesus walk forward to be marked with ash.
As scholar Celene Ibrahim invites, "The February moon is capacious enough for carnival, lion dances, and taraweeh prayers; for dumplings, dates, and king cake."
The Crescent belongs to no one and everyone.
cc @christiancentury.bsky.social
It’s a remarkable convergence: Lunar New Year, the first day of Ramadan, and Ash Wednesday are visiting us together — a triple alignment that won't recur for decades.
Earlier this year, I went to Brazil to try and answer a question: why did their Congress and Supreme Court stand up to an authoritarian while ours won't?
The answer I found helped me understand where the US had gone wrong - and what a post-Trump reform agenda needs to do www.vox.com/politics/479...
"KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: RECORDING FEDERAL AGENTS IN PUBLIC. You have the right to photograph or film anything in plain view, including federal buildings and law enforcement, so long as you aren't trespassing or violating a lawful order.If you're not under arrest, law enforcement needs a warrant to confiscate or search your device.If you're arrested, officers still need a warrant to search your device's contents.The government may never lawfully delete your photos or videos.While the Constitution protects your right to record and helps you defend against unjustified retaliation or arrest, the exercise of this right can still carry risks. ACLU."
The First Amendment protects your right to record government officials performing their duties in public.
This applies to ICE agents, police, FBI, National Guard troops, and any other government officials.
Learn more at aclu.org/kyr_record-
"Surely, if God exists, there will be mercy, compassion, and love" - amen!
If you want to stay n touch, I offer a bonus chapter of a book I wrote here, which shares more about this idea of God-as-Loving-Relationship. And I share other interviews via this newsletter, Opti-Mystic Meditations!
"So the FCC won't let me be
Or let me be me, so let me see..."
This is the interview they don't want us to see, so let's spread it far and wide! Thank you, @stephencolbert.bsky.social and @jamestalarico.bsky.social!
Thank you! Would love to hear what you think if you tune in!
WOW - Someone finally not only gets it but is willing to say the truth out loud.
What once was thought fiction is now reality.
This is what it sounds like to me whenever someone decries “polarization” as the problem.
If you’re tilling the soil between deconstructing and reconstructing, between head and heart, between letting go and holding on…this conversation might be for you.
Watch here! youtu.be/tBVE9UeAFnw?...
Or listen on any podcast platform here! afamilystory.org/2025/12/mike...
There’s also a passionate detour into why progressive Christian worship music often sounds like NPR (and not the cool tiny desk concerts), why speakin’ in tongues still has a place in my contemplative practice, and—of course—our favorite tacos.