May 4, 2013
Click on Logo (below) to visit NoHo Pride website for details of this year's events!
~ 2013 Theme Article ~
“Our Journey Is Not Complete”
By The Reverend Tinker Donnelly
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law …”
President Barack Obama
By The Reverend Tinker Donnelly
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law …”
President Barack Obama
“NoHo Pride” demonstrates principle-in-action through community events, services, and organization. This year’s “Pride” theme echoes President Obama’s inauguration speech as a mantra for the continued “journey” toward human rights and a call to action on the way to lawful equality.
Every meaningful journey offers the challenge to persist, accept each increment of progress as it is gained, and appreciate the experience of each step as it is taken. Our journey has brought us to the point of taking true pride in what we’ve accomplished so far while dynamically applying it to what remains for us to do. Our progress has been quick enough to effect radical cultural change in a single generation, yet slow enough to deeply plant the seeds for future shifts in consciousness.
The “Tao Te Ching” is an ancient Chinese text containing ideas fundamental to both philosophical and religious Taoism. The title, translated as “The Canon (classic book) of the Way and the Power”, offers this familiar wisdom, "A journey of a thousand li starts beneath one’s feet" or “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
As our journey of equality continues, may we thoroughly comprehend “the way and the power” beneath our feet and remember that it starts anew with every single step. We have only to manage the terrain upon which we currently tread where we possess the full force of our creative power. Our experience of progress is determined by how we choose to relate to each forward step.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, these synonyms specify the experience of a journey: “Trek: to make one's way arduously; broadly … Odyssey: a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune; an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest … Pilgrimage: a journey of a pilgrim; especially : one to a shrine or a sacred place.”
Our journey is not a casual jaunt to the corner store, but a “trek, odyssey, and pilgrimage” where we are called to travel broadly, through radical change, on a quest for what we regard as true and sacred. Such travel necessitates a clear vision, cultivation of inner resources, and ongoing passion and patience.
“Pride” events are intended to invigorate us with purpose, resolve, and inspiration. Sharing a sense of community unites and reminds us to nurture the unfolding vision seeking to emerge by means of our collective determination. By participating in that vision we evolve a personal experience of the collaborative journey that forever empowers our mission and ourselves.
President Obama’s inaugural statements referred to arriving at equal treatment under the law, but while we wait upon the “law-of-the-land”, our native equality already exists under the “law of Spirit.” We do not need legal confirmation of our innate Wholeness and Integrity of Being. This realization informs, fuels, and directs our acceptance of only that which reflects its confirmation. This spiritual verity continues to guide our actions and choices, attracts helpful resources, and sustains our vision from a felt-sense of who we truly are. We claim our lawful rights by the mandate or our truest inner authority which will not be denied.
This year’s march and rally moves us toward the destination of lawful rights, and forward in freedom as the progress of our united journey is revealed. Through such community action we take another foothold, gaining ground for every one of us to be “treated like anyone else under the law”.
“NoHo Pride 2013” honors those who’ve gone before us – whose courage and commitment blazed the path we continue to clear toward legal equality. In steadfast solidarity, we commemorate and celebrate together our “journey of a thousand miles”. We join our hands and hearts uniting a diverse LGBTQI community with a shared singleness of purpose by pledging that until every one of us has reached that Promised Land, “our journey is not complete!”
Every meaningful journey offers the challenge to persist, accept each increment of progress as it is gained, and appreciate the experience of each step as it is taken. Our journey has brought us to the point of taking true pride in what we’ve accomplished so far while dynamically applying it to what remains for us to do. Our progress has been quick enough to effect radical cultural change in a single generation, yet slow enough to deeply plant the seeds for future shifts in consciousness.
The “Tao Te Ching” is an ancient Chinese text containing ideas fundamental to both philosophical and religious Taoism. The title, translated as “The Canon (classic book) of the Way and the Power”, offers this familiar wisdom, "A journey of a thousand li starts beneath one’s feet" or “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
As our journey of equality continues, may we thoroughly comprehend “the way and the power” beneath our feet and remember that it starts anew with every single step. We have only to manage the terrain upon which we currently tread where we possess the full force of our creative power. Our experience of progress is determined by how we choose to relate to each forward step.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, these synonyms specify the experience of a journey: “Trek: to make one's way arduously; broadly … Odyssey: a long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune; an intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest … Pilgrimage: a journey of a pilgrim; especially : one to a shrine or a sacred place.”
Our journey is not a casual jaunt to the corner store, but a “trek, odyssey, and pilgrimage” where we are called to travel broadly, through radical change, on a quest for what we regard as true and sacred. Such travel necessitates a clear vision, cultivation of inner resources, and ongoing passion and patience.
“Pride” events are intended to invigorate us with purpose, resolve, and inspiration. Sharing a sense of community unites and reminds us to nurture the unfolding vision seeking to emerge by means of our collective determination. By participating in that vision we evolve a personal experience of the collaborative journey that forever empowers our mission and ourselves.
President Obama’s inaugural statements referred to arriving at equal treatment under the law, but while we wait upon the “law-of-the-land”, our native equality already exists under the “law of Spirit.” We do not need legal confirmation of our innate Wholeness and Integrity of Being. This realization informs, fuels, and directs our acceptance of only that which reflects its confirmation. This spiritual verity continues to guide our actions and choices, attracts helpful resources, and sustains our vision from a felt-sense of who we truly are. We claim our lawful rights by the mandate or our truest inner authority which will not be denied.
This year’s march and rally moves us toward the destination of lawful rights, and forward in freedom as the progress of our united journey is revealed. Through such community action we take another foothold, gaining ground for every one of us to be “treated like anyone else under the law”.
“NoHo Pride 2013” honors those who’ve gone before us – whose courage and commitment blazed the path we continue to clear toward legal equality. In steadfast solidarity, we commemorate and celebrate together our “journey of a thousand miles”. We join our hands and hearts uniting a diverse LGBTQI community with a shared singleness of purpose by pledging that until every one of us has reached that Promised Land, “our journey is not complete!”
Blessings and Namaste'
Rev. Tinker
Rev. Tinker
