Author Archives: hnoakes

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Waking Point by Helen Noakes “Just for today, do not worry. Just for today, do not be angry. Earn your living honestly. Count your blessings. Honor your parents, teachers, and friends. Show gratitude to every living thing.”—Dr. Mikao Usui SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—3/28/11—My good friend, editor, and Reiki student, Elizabeth Boleman-Herring, suggested that I write [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “Say what’s your purpose then,” I said. “Or tell me mine. I think I have lost it.”—Katherine Beutner, “Alcestis” SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—2/28/22—Myths never die. They might disappear for a while but, because they speak to our human condition, we resurrect them on the screen, in books, in music, and [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “The greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being.”—Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—1/31/11—February boasts two holidays: The Lunar New Year, on February 3rd (the [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “. . . wounds we have had . . .” —William H. Gass, Emma Enters a Sentence of Elizabeth Bishop’s SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—1/3/11—2011. Even after eleven years, I look at the “20” and wonder where the “19” went—wonder at the wonder of having lived through the transition from one [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “And in despair I bowed my head/‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said/‘For hate is strong and mocks the song/Of peace on earth, good will to men.’”—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—12/6/10—Peace: that eludes us as a race. It seems that from the moment that humankind began keeping [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “’But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ said Alice. ‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the cat. ‘We’re all mad here.’” —Lewis Carroll SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—11/22/10—A few news items in support of the theory that we have all gone a bit gaga in these United States, and [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” —Earnest Benn SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—11/8/10—So, the vote is in: America is a nation of lemmings heading for the precipice at breakneck speed. Either that or we’re [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “Do not go gentle into that good night,/ Old age should burn and rage at close of day;/Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” —Dylan Thomas SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—10/25/10—When I first read Thomas’s words, I was in my 20’s. I thought them sound, wise, eloquent. And, although I [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species. Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not [...]

Waking Point by Helen Noakes “. . . where love is lacking, power fills the vacuum.”—C. G. Jung, “Four Archetypes” SAN FRANCISCO, CA—(Weekly Hubris)—8/30/10—Centuries ago, or perhaps yesterday, the powerful goddess, Demeter, accompanied her daughter, Persephone, on their annual perambulations through the verdant meadows of Epirus. The day was glorious, the goddess would not have [...]