Cultivating Peace

There was a shooting today at Clackamas Town Center, a mall I used to frequent. Two of my dearest friends were there just feet from flying bullets. Gratefully, they are alive.

I am moved to post something, to say something in honor and deep

caring of my friends and of all those who were harmed by what happened. I am moved to give voice to my fierce gratitude, passion, and consciousness that there is another way than responding to violence with yet more violence, to fear with yet more fear, to rage and blame and separateness with more rage and blame and separation. There is another way. May we each find it now. And nourish that. Nourish and attend and be mindful of what we take in and water and feed within our hearts, minds, bodies, spirits and souls. And may we choose peace. May we please have the courage, the wisdom, and the fierce compassionate intention to not add to the violence in the world - to choose peace instead. May we each look in the mirror and reflect on how we can grow and evolve and expand on how it is that we are truly walking the walk and being the peace we want to see in the world. May we hold all those harmed by this event today, including the deceased gunman and his family, in our hearts and prayers. And may we grow even more fierce about setting our roots even more deeply into the conscious evolution that is occurring on our Sacred Earth today.

We are all in this together. We are all needed. Acts of unspeakable violence are ripe with the hardest and yet most profound opportunities to truly become more of who we truly are. Blessed be.

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"When we hold on to our opinions with aggression, no matter how valid our cause, we are simply adding more aggression to the planet, and violence and pain increase. Cultivating nonaggression is cultivating peace. ~ Pema Chodron