Greater Works Vision

08/14/2025

Peace is not the absence of conflict
if that absence comes at the cost of your own voice.

If you constantly find yourself staying quiet,
pretending you're okay,
or agreeing just to avoid discomfort,

you’re not keeping the peace,
you’re suppressing yourself.

That kind of peace is fragile,
one-sided,
and unsustainable.

Real peace includes your voice.
Your boundaries.
Your truth.

It welcomes honest expression,
even when it’s uncomfortable.

If you have to abandon parts of who you are
to keep things calm,
then what you’re maintaining isn’t peace,

it’s control,
it’s fear,
it’s performance.

Your well-being should never depend
on how much of yourself you’re allowed to show.

Protecting your peace
means honoring your voice,
not silencing it.

So speak your truth.
Even if your voice shakes.
Even if others resist it.

Because your voice matters.
And if you lose it, you lose yourself.

~ 'Speak Your Truth' by Spirit of a Hippie

✍️ Mary Anne Byrne

~ Art by Klara Hawkins

07/08/2025

07/07/2025

Coming Soon… from the skies above.

Narrator (deep voice):
In the burning sun of southern Texas and the jungles of Mexico… an ancient terror is crawling back.

[Thunder rumbles. A swarm rises on the horizon.]

Billions of flesh-eating monsters… born to devour, programmed to die.

They feast on the living, burrowing into wounds, laying their eggs in raw flesh. Once inside, there’s no escape. Cattle collapse. Wildlife vanish. Even pets are at risk. It’s not a virus. It’s not a parasite. It’s screwworm and it’s back.

[Cut to government scientists in hazmat suits, staring at glass chambers filled with squirming larvae.]

The only hope? A strange experiment. Inside secret U.S. labs, a bizarre weapon is being bred:
Sterile male flies, irradiated, winged and released by the billions from airplanes. Their mission? Mate, fail and die.

Professor Edwin Burgess (voiceover):
“It’s weird science… but it works.”

[A montage: cargo planes unleashing shimmering clouds of buzzing insects, flies crawling across lab trays, a rancher examining a wound oozing with larvae.]

Michael Bailey, AVMA:
“A thousand-pound bovine can be dead in two weeks. You don’t treat it fast, you lose everything.”

From Panama to Kansas, the war is on. The USDA is opening a new fly factory in Mexico. A fly distribution center rises in Texas. The clock is ticking.

[Cut to Don Hineman, silhouetted against a dying sunset.]

“I saw it once as a boy. You don’t forget what it looks like… when they eat a cow alive.”

“Operation Screwworm: Rise of the Flesh Flies” Based on horrifying true events.

Coming Summer 2026 — Don’t Look Up.

Sources =
Present:

https://www.avma.org/news/usda-unveils-texas-screwworm-facility-eradication-strategy-amid-reopening-southern-ports

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/us-plans-begin-breeding-billions-flies-fight-pest-123398866

https://www.agdaily.com/livestock/screwworm-eradication-lessons-from-a-longtime-veterinarian/

Past: https://www.fdacs.gov/Agriculture-Industry/Pests-and-Diseases/Animal-Pests-and-Diseases/New-World-Screwworm

https://www.flaentsoc.org/webbaum/baumhover.html

06/22/2025

Instead of saying, “I know what it feels like,” let’s offer something gentler—something more honest:
“I cannot even begin to imagine the weight of your heartbreak, but I want you to know that I’m here, and I care. Deeply.”

Instead of saying, “You’re strong, you’ll get through this,” let’s say something that makes space for the ache:
“You will hurt—maybe in ways words can’t reach—but you won’t have to go through it alone. I’ll be right here, through every wave of pain, holding your hand when the nights feel endless.”

Instead of saying, “You look like you’re doing well,” let’s be more tender, more present:
“How are you holding up today, really? Not the smile you wear, but the truth behind your eyes—how’s your heart managing the storm?”

Instead of saying, “Healing takes time,” let’s honor the journey with more grace:
“Healing doesn’t follow a schedule. It’s not a race or a deadline—it’s a tender, unpredictable unfolding. Some days you’ll feel okay, other days will feel like starting over—and both are valid.”

Instead of saying, “Everything happens for a reason,” let’s not try to explain the unexplainable:
“This must feel so painfully senseless right now—and maybe it truly is. Sometimes there is no reason. Sometimes it just hurts. And that hurt deserves to be seen, not solved.”

And when words begin to fail—when nothing you say feels like it could possibly be enough—
Just be there. Hold their hand. Sit beside them in the silence. Because sometimes, love speaks loudest when it says nothing at all.
It lives in the stillness. It breathes in the pauses. It comforts in the quiet presence that says: “You don’t have to carry this alone. I’m not going anywhere.”

05/10/2025

03/29/2025

“I saw that worrying
had come to nothing.
And I gave it up.
And I took my old body and went out into the morning and sang.”
Mary Oliver

Henri Manguin - The Aloes in Bloom, Cassis, 1912.

03/27/2025

Questions I ask myself when taking in copious amounts of news or doomsday scrolling:

1) Am I exacerbating that which is not of Love’s kind with my words, thoughts, or actions, or am I participating with Love in transformation?

2) How do I consciously choose to participate with love in my indignation of the injustices I am bearing witness to, so that I respond to the moment rather than project my reaction outward via blame, shame, accusation, or scapegoat?

May the energy through which we envision our solutions and our future be rooted in love for all, not love for some.

📸: Icon image of St. Oscar Romero by PsalmPrayers which reads: “Let us not tire of preaching Love; it is the force that will overcome the world.”

03/05/2025

When someone asked why I no longer speak to a certain person, I gave an honest answer. Their response? “Why don’t you be the bigger person and reach out?”

People often confuse being the bigger person with constantly reopening old wounds, hoping for a different outcome. But real growth means knowing when to step back. It means recognizing when a relationship has become toxic, when conversations lead nowhere, and choosing peace over endless cycles of frustration.

Reaching out over and over, only to be met with the same disrespect, broken trust, or unresolved issues, is draining. Being the bigger person doesn’t mean tolerating mistreatment—it means prioritizing your own well being. It’s okay to leave behind relationships that no longer serve you, to protect your peace, and to love people from a distance when closeness only brings chaos. Some chapters don’t need revisiting and some doors are meant to stay closed.

~ Empaths, Old Souls & Introverts
Empaths, Old Souls & Introverts

~ Art by Steph Edwards

03/03/2025

"I shall
Gather up
All the lost souls
That wander this earth
All the ones that are alone
All the ones that are broken
All the ones that never really fitted in
I shall gather them all up
And together we shall find our home."

♥️ “Gather up” by Athey Thompson,
from A Little Book Of Poetry

📸 Photograph taken from “Through the
back door,” by J. Pickford and A. Green
✨Tales of the old forest faeries