As We Pray
In the darkness of Thursday morning, a monster slammed into the Gulf Coast of the United States. Terror filled the news as the beast made landfall and threatened the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.
We prayed. We prayed for mercy and grace to hold them all dearly. I pray that compassion will bind all the hearts involved.
This year is hard. I will not deny its brutality, but I can say that it has come with an unprecedentedly beautiful side. Through the horrors and trials, through the pain of truth, we as people have found a way. We have discovered the depths of our hearts. Everything is amplified. That includes love, compassion, and every stunning aspect of the human heart and spirit. While we pray, meditate, and heal the duality of judgments upon others and ourselves, we begin to forgive. As every structure that we have set our faith in seems to disappear, what is left is the simplicity of our very nature—the true soul of the human experience.
A birth is happening. Labor is painful. It’s bloody, messy, and dangerous for both child and mother. There is an inherent risk in simply being alive; in actively co-creating. There is a choice being presented to every incarnation of the human race. We can set aside what holds us down, mourn it, and leave it. Or it can be ripped from our bloody hands as we all come to the understanding that with the baggage, we will not have the strength to survive the storm. We can leave behind the illusions that have always been a part of societal teachings and see the beauty in true freedom. The illusion that we are not enough and not deserving of the utopia that we all feel is just under the surface, waiting for us to work hard enough for it, or win it in the lottery, as if what we know is inherently safe.
True freedom is a heavy responsibility that every soul on this planet has denied itself. It requires discernment over judgment. It requires faith in humanity. No one is immune to life’s trials and pains, but everyone has the capacity to love with a whole heart. The enormity of our reality on this beautiful and raging planet is that nothing is truly safe. It is the delicate dance of light and dark within us all. It is in the undoing of this balance that the scales have tipped. Without love and compassion, we suffer under exploitative conditions in an economy. Without the drive of ambition and leadership, we wallow in our feelings. There is a need for an acceptance of both, with the understanding that the ends never justify the means. What derives from a heart left squandered and barren is fruitless. As we pray, let us also be.
