The Way of Grace

The grass has come up. The doves are cooing as they sit on the electric wires that cross along the backyard wall. It’s not raining. All is peaceful here.

Thousands of miles away a deadly war is raging in the land of my ancestors and distant cousins. I remember their names and faces now as they are now pulled into my immediate social network because of need.

What to do? Where to send my donations? How to help my cousins? Some have evacuated, some still there. My heart is breaking. My natural self is angry, shocked, stressed out. I send words of encouragement to my family, friends, and relatives who are experiencing this carnage that does not have to be. I send them my prayers.

It’s not enough. It does not assuage the rage I feel towards the invaders. I imagine myself taking up arms, playing superhero. Followed by the fear of an overreaction, overreach, incitement for starting World War III. More fearmongering. Perhaps we’re toast if we do escalate, but how can we let so many people suffer?

I go back to my childhood, remembering the wars of my fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts and grandfathers and grandmothers. They spoke about, participated in, and suffered from them. Then there was the war that took classmates away from my town, my college. Away to Southeast Asia. Away to a life of desolation and despair. Another war with no good reason, that took too long to end, that did not have to be. Repeat: Iraq. Repeat: Afghanistan.

How did I act then? What did I do? I marched, protested, sang. Some of my friends were arrested. Practical nonviolence. Now again I must act. Raise my voice. Help others. Pray for a speedy end. Follow my higher self. Let go of baser instincts. The way to peace is nonviolence. Love not hate. I choose the way of grace.

I know, feel, and appreciate more as I am older. The earth is alive. What happens in one part of the globe resonates with all of us. The birds tell us this with their songs. The bees buzz this in our faces. Fires are ravaging forests, glaciers are melting, oceans are rising, extinctions are happening. Do we need to make it worse?

We are all connected. Deliberate destruction of towns, cities, habitat hurts people, animals, nature, pulls us backwards. Inflicting pain on others keeps us reflexive, feral, fearful, full of hate. The opposite of self –actualized, enlightened, free. Pulled back towards the darkness that no longer serves us, that no longer suits us.

Now we are moving forward. No anger, no despair. We pray for the empowerment of those in harm’s way, are grateful for what is in process, see the end of this violence coming. Conscious of our past, hopeful for our future, trekking towards peace, seeking the light.

A river of relief has been launched. No one group or person can stop it. It’s a river of love. A deliberate and conscious rendering of support, sustenance and caring for the victims and defenders in this undeserved war. It is upending everything. Our collective consciousness is rising to the occasion, pushing back on the darkness, shredding logic, creating a new trajectory, rewriting the narrative, a world connected with those yearning to be free.

We will share a peaceful world with one another, with the creatures that live with us in sea and sky, forest and desert. Seeking and becoming who we who we truly are, who we are meant to be.

We choose love not hate. We choose the way of Spirit. We choose the way of grace. Then God’s light and good prevails.