Reflections on Those of Us Who Are Survivors

My dear friends, Olivia and Carl.

These are incredible times in which to be alive, filled with beauty and horror, love and greed, compassion and war, abundance and starvation (of the body, mind, heart, spirit, soul), consciousness and incomprehensible violence perpetrated upon humans, other beings, and our Sacred Earth Mother. So much is bubbling up to the surface in clear view for increasing numbers of us to absorb, embrace, transform, or to turn away from. In the midst of so much suffering is an equal degree of profound opportunity. What will we choose?

 

Above is a photograph of my beloved and beautiful long time friends, Olivia and her husband Carl. They radiate joy, love, courage, and passionate caring for our planet and all life. Like many who have grown more deeply connected with their hearts and the Heart which permeates all, Olivia and Carl have each had many experiences which have broken their hearts open again and again, clearing even more space for love. Now they can add surviving the mall shooting at Clackamas Town Center on December 11, 2012. Then, there was no time to even begin to heal from the flashbacks of terror and the sounds of the semiautomatic riffle when the horror at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurred -- just three days later.

 

Today Carl and Olivia went to Salem to participate in the Senate hearings, joining countless others who are advocating for gun control. This follows their participation in the rallies at the state capital yesterday, again doing their part to stop the madness and transform this tragedy into a vision of a kinder, more compassionate and caring world. Of course, there is no one thing, no magic, no simple effort which will stop the shootings or the NRA or any of the multitude of forms that the sickness of our culture and the planet takes. That said, there is something that each and every one of us can do, hopefully increasingly so, to work toward a more peaceful, just, sustainable world, one which the children yet unborn may someday hold gratitude to us for. 

 

Meanwhile, today there is indeed much work to be done -- many hearts and minds to heal, expand, and open to remembrance of what we have forgotten. I experience the gun control debate and the NRA as a symptom of the shadow side of America. As are the shootings, corporate scandals, Monsanto, Tar Sands, child abuse and neglect, the extreme upward redistribution of wealth, the countless other faces of greed, domestic violence, the many forms of addiction, global warming, resource depletion, lack of healthcare and housing and other basic necessities, etc., etc. etc. Even with so many crisis facing humankind, it is so important to not become part of the cult of powerlessness.

 

Over the course of my nearly thirty years of being on a path of awakening, I have discovered that the intentions we hold are powerful. No one can ever take prayer from me because my intention, one day at a time, is to live my life as a prayer. Unlike my once deeply wounded, disassociated, asleep self of several decades ago, today I experience the Sacred in all life. It is also true that it is easy to go back to sleep, to lose sight of the Sacred thread that runs through all of creation. Still, it is there. I have found that looking in the mirror is incredibly important, as is doing so with as much compassion and tenderness as we can muster up. 

 

Truly, if we experience our connectedness with all beings, then who can we harm? If we hold ourselves with deep compassion, then who among us can we not hold compassionately? Does that mean that I will stop illuminating the shadows in need of illumination, healing, transformation within myself and wherever I experience them - including the NRA and others who are in positions of power who cause great harm -? No. To me, this is not an either or proposition, not a black/white, only this or that is true. There are many layers, many nuances. May we all increasingly awaken. May we increasingly be peace.

 

The eye cannot see what the mind is not conscious of. If our vision is simply for what might emerge in the next week or month or within our lifetimes, our vision is too small. Still, each and every step any of us takes matters. Matters deeply. So thank you to my dear, sweet friends Carl and Olivia for what they did today. And bless all the peacemakers, the passionate ones who will not give up, the ones of great heart who help us remember to open ours, and the courageous visionaries who illuminate that another world is indeed possible. Blessed be.

 

Bless us all. And - Tag!, we are all it! ♥ Molly

 

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I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

What do we most need to do to save our world? What we most need to do is to hear within us the sounds of the Earth crying. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Spiritual practice involves, on the one hand, acting out of concern for others' well-being. On the other, it entails transforming ourselves so that we become more readily disposed to do so. ~ Dalai Lama

 

The more we love, the more real we become. ~ Stephen Levine