It’s tough to know what to do in the face of so much senseless violence in the world. It feels like the whole planet is tilting off its axis. Things are changing. What’s been hidden is coming to the surface too in the form of protests, arguments and people taking a stand for what matters to them.
Even though there is so much turmoil, I see it as a positive step. It’s like when someone is really sick but it’s underground and nothing can be done about it. Then symptom start to show and diagnosis begins. Eventually things come to a head, a healing crisis. I believe that is where we are now.
It’s an opportunity to heal but we must grab that opportunity with both hands and do our best with it, since there is no guarantee the patient will live. The opportunities to heal come in the choices we all make moment by moment.
This is not a one size fits all solution either. Each of us has our part to play in the healing of a country. Some are fighters and advocates, meant to be instruments of change.
Some are healers, visionaries and mystics. Others are helpers and caretakers.
What is your role?
If you know in your heart that you are meant to walk in a protest and use your voice to be heard, then do it.
If your soul is calling you to walk in the woods and pray, then do that.
Perhaps your heart pulls you to healing and helping others who are in distress. It’s all good.
We all have our contribution and it’s all needed.
What I do know is that meeting hate and violence with more hate and violence is adding to the problem and not helping. If you are a hater, take a good look in the mirror and see if you can find the source of your anger. Its ok to be angry but it’s never ok totarget others with aggression and hostility. Anger is a sign that something needs to change – how can we bring about change without adding more hate to the world?
Leaders like Gandhi and Reverend Martin Luther King show us the way.
For me it’s about deep contemplation and staying in my heart no matter what. It’s easy to want to shut my heart down and turn away from whatever horror the daily news is dishing.
It takes a lot of discipline to keep my eyes and my heart open.
To keep breathing and grounding.
To keep transmuting pain and suffering with compassion.
Living with an open heart requires all my attention. I spend some time each morning praying. Today it’s Las Vegas and Puerto Rico. And the world in general.
And for all of you.
