I have just heard the news about the Taliban massacre of 141 school children in Peshawar, Pakistan. Children. Shot. Forced to watch their teachers burn. This is the darkest of the dark. I do not usually think of the world as dark and light, good and evil. But today, I cannot deny that this duality exists. My body is twisted in pain and tight with resistance to really going there, to really feeling into the horror and grief. I see how my mind immediately thinks, oh god. No. this is like sandy hook. And somehow, this comparison provides some kind of rationality or understanding or grouping that puts it in its proper place, so that I feel a bit less, numb out a bit more. I see how easy it is to instead turn my attention to what else is on Facebook, or the upcoming travels to visit family, or to my lipstick or hair. The mind is an incredible thing. It can somehow create the idea that killing children is brilliant and needed. It can equally as much refocus attention so that we can feel less, numb out, move on...all so that what happens over there remains over there. Their act in murdering innocent children is a war on life itself. The darkest of the dark. But the numbing out, the turning attention the other way -- this too is the darkest of the dark. Their darkness also lives in me, and it is called apathy. To fully see, to look, to feel -- the agony, the shattering grief -- is the only way to have humanity, to have the light, somehow triumph in this tragedy. Its the only way we will find the strength and the wisdom to then stand in the face of devastation and ask -- what can we do? What can we do? Dont be a devotee of distraction. Feel this. Feel them. Really go there. In a time when the darkest of the dark is deepening in our world, we need your fullest light. And we can only get that through connection. We can only get that through feel it all - the dark and the light. THAT is the power of consciousness. This that happens over there is not really over there. In truth, there is no over there. There is only one breath that breathes us all. As much as we may wish it were otherwise or only felt good, perhaps it is through the intensity of shared extraordinary pain that we will wake up and realize that I am you, and you are me... that they are us, and we are them. Our next step in the evolution of our species-- if we are to survive here on this planet -- is a shared recognition of our oneness. I wish it were only a joyful dance in that direction. But it is not. I trust that this unimaginable tragedy is a crucial part of our humanitys journey to wholeness. The pull into the darkness of apathy and distraction is a formidable force, but it is nothing compared to the healing power of our attention, our compassion and our love. This is our salvation. I say all this as much to myself as to you. With my heart heavy with grief, I bow down in faith to love and to all I do not fully understand.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:32:44 +0000
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