“O, the book, it will perish, and the steeple will fall,
    But the Light will be shining at the end of it all.” 

                                  ~Sydney Carter, The Ballad of George Fox

11.22.2015
 

Dear Friend,

Last week, I joined vigil here in Bozeman inspired by the Paris attacks for the experience of mass murder everywhere. A poetry reading reminded me that grief makes peace possible. What was not possible before November 13 is possible now. With every terrible reaction followed by a more terrible reaction, we are one step closer to peace. The question is, how much more will it take until we see that revenge is the culprit? Who will be the first one to feel the blow and choose to feed the striking fist rather than strike back?

I hope you will join for Joy-Giving to Lost Species: 108 Bell Rings, 11.30.2015. We practice 108 bell rings to move through emotions inspired by loss of individuals among an estimated 75 to 200 species per day in the past year of the present mass extinction event. In Bozeman, 3 bowls representing past, present, and aniticipated emotions will be rung 36 times each. Inviting all the emotions, we remember and celebrate lost species, acknowledge their joy in living, and restore peace to those surviving their loss. 

Wherever you are, the practice is. Bells can ring the 24 hours of November 30. With singing bowls ringing an average of 20 seconds with each strike, allowing a moment of silence between, and a group beginning practice every 30 minutes, there will be overlap. Please post to the Facebook event page or be in touch with me if you intend to practice. It will be a pleasure to know that, throughout the day, somewhere a bell is ringing. You can review the Bozeman schedule at the Bozeman Dharma Center website.

Humanity is on the list of anticipated losses given species extinction is a rule and humanity is at the cliff edge deciding whether to stay or go. The embrace of that possibility along with all other possibility, the way of uncertainty, can pull us through this transition. What we'll get then is nothing like the vessel we thought we were crafting, yet something unashamed of rough dark edges always beneath the shimmering surface. There is no surface without what is underneath and at the center of it all is love's blinding light.

Let us be blinded by the light that we may see no difference between the terrorist and saint who join the ends of the circle, one existing only to meet the other, both on a holy mission for peace, neither offering anything very meaningful except the inspiration to live honestly. If there must be religion, please let it be Friendship.

We have been here before and this is the most challenging time, a time when the common response is to let love go and succumb to hatred because hatred is catching like wildfire in thick tinder. Someone with a curious knack for cooling me down recently told me to "be water". My initial response was, "I am water, water on fire. That is the challenge. I am so sensitive. Everyone is hurting". Then I remembered that just as water has sensitivity enough to take the shape of the container, water has strength enough to shape the container. Because of this strength, water can do what is helpful. Water's strength is fluid emotion.

Each can be a fluid vessel, allowing emotion to shape their person and become someone strong enough to shape the larger body. And in that becoming, influenced by the spirit of all elements, as if someone long in hiding is found, the vessel cracks at the fragile spots to reflect the lasting light. 

The heart must break to know love. Resistance to heartbreak is suffering. Suffering lends to vengeance, the terrorist's approach to peace. What emerges through the individual magnifies in the fold. I control only my own influence. 

With love,

Megan

"It’s the history books that warn us about the consequences of staying quiet."
                 ~ Dan Satterfield, Scientific Method and the Better Angels of Our Nature