Prayers for Peace
I write today with a heavy heart at this weekend’s unfolding in the Middle East. This latest act of violence and hatred penetrates deeply for me and my family with many beloved extended family members, including our 97-year old aunt with her 70-something daughter, whose husband is in Germany for business not able to return home, the mother of 3 grown children and grandmother to 7 grandchildren, now hiding for their lives.
Her middle son, in his early 40s and the father of 3 young children, has been called back into service for the Israeli army.
It is difficult to fully digest and comprehend the magnitude of what they are experiencing in midst of this humanitarian crisis. They have asked for our prayers and to hold them close as they navigate this true fight for their existence.
Those of you who have been with me for many years know that I am a champion of looking for the deeper meaning in hard moments of life, that I believe that these past years have shaken us all loose in order to propel humanity into a new way of existing…out of the dysfunction and towards health and harmony.
That I truly use my platforms of speaking and writing and sharing with authenticity, to help usher humanity through this enormous portal of change….layer-by-layer-by-layer.
I do believe that from darkness comes light, that from pain comes medicine, that from death comes birth….and, yet, I acknowledge that in moments like these it is easy to lose faith in this journey we are on.
However, in my own death and rebirth processes, in experiencing several highly traumatizing events, in not knowing whether or not I could go on or would be able to go on….I know that there is gold at the end of this mess, even if we have no clue when it will shine again, it is there.
The questions I continuously ask myself with every pivot of these exceptionally wild times are:
How can I keep rising up in myself and showing up with authenticity and integrity in service and support of the whole?
How can I translate the tools and resources that I know in my bones in a way that others can extract from and hopefully absorb into theirs so that they/you/WE may continue to move forward on this path of life no matter what appears around the next bend?
Today’s offering is a gesture of recognition of the massiveness of the impact that hatred and violence continues to have on a global level (and locally for so many). It is an offering to those of you reading, to perhaps have a moment of pause in your day to turn within, to breathe into your bodies, to feel the feelings that are bubbling in you, and to stay close to yourselves.
To use this connection to YOU to fuel the possibility of sending out deep prayers for peace across the world.
That this madness will come to a close without the senseless loss of more lives.
And, perhaps, this is a moment for us all, to vow to ourselves that we will continuously show up to the best of our abilities…for ourselves, for our families, for our communities….and, do our work to end the war within our own bodies, minds, and hearts so that we may truly live….TODAY….in this precious life that we have been given.
That we can choose to do the work that we need to to heal, to unwind the traumas and dramas from our systems, to focus on what is working in our lives rather than all that is not, to open our hearts and soften ourselves to each other with love and compassion and acceptance.
To cultivate that embodied sense of peace from within where we can feel all that we need to feel and remain connected to ourselves from a grounded, balanced, loving and kind-hearted place.
Allowing this work we choose to do on ourselves...to get our systems regulated, our relationships balanced, our connections with self and each other aligned, our hearts healed, and our minds spacious and hopeful...will absolutely have ripple effects on the whole.
As always, if you are struggling, PLEASE REACH OUT. You are not alone.
