Everything We Need

Within us and Between Us-

Photo by Pinakeen Bhatt on Unsplash

“Hate has caused a lot of problems, but it has not solved one yet.” Maya Angelou

“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better.” Daniel Berrigan

This morning, like so many of us, I’m catching my breath and trying to grasp a very public act of political violence. It is important to state clearly the bewildering destabilization and danger that is created when acts of political violence happen. Let us frame violence for what it is, a tragic attempt to address some kind of suffering, a pointed spear of fear or hatred that neither helps or shifts anything for the better. Political violence is a trauma that effect the victims of course, but it is also a trauma that effect us all. I hope that we can process this trauma individually and as a community with the kind of compassion and tenderness that trauma necessitates.

In our current political system it is not unusual to hear rhetoric that portrays anyone that does not agree with your side of the argument as sub-human or vermin or an existential danger, or somehow a person that does not deserve simple decency, understanding or consideration. This kind of rhetoric has created a culture of fear and even desperation.

Now is the time for clearer heads, for thinking before speaking, for tapping into the power of love which is always and forever stronger than our fears. It is for remembering not just the worst that humans can be, but to hold fast to the best of what we can aspire.

Perhaps this is a day to step back from too much social media or cable news, to have heart to heart conversations with trusted friends, who will allow us to process and find our way in this bewildering moment in time.

I’m heading out this morning to perform a concert at a gathering of Quakers in Indiana. Somehow it feels right to be in community and conversation with a group of people who have long dedicated themselves to a Third Way, who have worked toward finding peaceful active non-violent solutions to our most pressing problems.

So I am holding us all in the Light, of greater love, of cooler heads, to find the longings of our own hearts and star that points true north.

More thoughts on life, spirit, music, beauty, and hope that is faithful and daily in my Wednesday post.

As always…please feel free to share this post with anyone you feel might appreciate the message and this community.

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Practice

Breathe…..just keep breathing.

Question

No real question today, but an invitation to let others know that you are here, you care, and you are holding the community in the Light.

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Everything We Need

A Song about how what we need is not out there beyond or grasp…but right here, within us and between us.