“We have a fear of facing ourselves. That is the obstacle. Experiencing the innermost core of our existence is very embarrassing to a lot of people. A lot of people turn to something that they hope will liberate them without their having to face themselves. That is impossible. We can’t do that. We have to be honest with ourselves. We have to see our gut, our excrement, our most undesirable parts. We have to see them. That is the foundation of warriorship, basically speaking. Whatever is there, we have to face it, we have to look at it, study it, work with it and practice meditation with it.”
~ Chögyam Trungpa

Lately, I have to confess, I’ve felt dispirited about my role at Elephant.

For many years, I wrote my heart out, wrote about issues that matter, wrote a book (I’m completing my second, finally, just now). I started up our five twitter accounts, and they won national awards. I started our 60-plus Facebook pages, which now total 12 million fans (with zero budget—by comparison, MSNBC, a corporate entity that can afford to market and buy fans and likes, has just south of 2.5 million fans). We grew Elephant itself to many millions of readers, annually. My youtube channel exploded, and our four Instagram accounts grew to close to a million fans. Our staff grew to 25, and deepened in experience. I myself grew as a human being, becoming softer, more mature, and better at taking care of myself (I’d always been “good” at overworking and caring urgently, but these qualities tended toward burnout).

But, lately, I feel Facebook/Instagram/Youtube/Twitter—you know, Big Tech—close down upon us. Only our site itself stands strong—our writers, our readers, our subscribers. That’s you. If you get our free Daily Wake-Up Call newsletter, open it, share an article, comment, heart, you’ll now see your Activism score increase. You’re keeping Elephant alive. And, in doing so, you’re sharing the good word about the mindful life beyond our choir, to all those who might give a care.

Finally, please do subscribe. Even 40 a day keeps us not only alive, but thriving. Because we give 98% of our articles out for free, it’s the 2% of you who enable me to pay our dear staff and top-voted (by you) writers doing good work for you, and this fragile, heartbreaking, precious world.

Subscribe here. “Generosity is the virtue which produces peace.” ~ Buddhism

And if you do (or already do) subscribe, please comment here so that I can thank you personally.