If Hatred Can Manifest Terror Then Love Can Manifest Peace
I’d like to think I’m a better person because of 9/11.
As I was watching them commemorate the ten-year-anniversary on TV this morning, one of the MC’s acknowledged that for some this anniversary is about love and for others it is about loss.
Grieving is the bridge that takes us from loss to love. It is a trek traveled in our own time, driven by our own desire and navigated by our own understanding.
On 9/11 the world as we knew it came crashing down and the personal lives of many came crashing down with it. Now we are all on the road to recovery—the road from loss to love.
When some one or some being (even a pet), who we love and who loves us, is seemingly ripped from our lives before we are ready to let them go, it is a shock followed by a cascade of emotions. I’m actually in the midst of the pet version. Our beloved kitty, Kiara, who went missing a few weeks ago is helping me to see grief and 9/11 with new eyes.
Grieving is the process of separation from the earthly bond. It brings awareness to the bonds that remain—all the ways we were touched by the one we have lost. This melting away of emotion reveals what we are grateful for and even what we are not so grateful for. We can use every morsel to be more loving. Grieving reveals the spiritual bonds that drew us together purposefully.
It is our choice to be more fearful and hateful or more loving and understanding because of 9/11. It is easy to be inspired and warmed by the outpouring of good that came from it. But to emerge more loving and understanding includes coming to know our own inner terrorists—the parts of ourselves that fear, blame, condemn, or wish harm to those we don’t understand. Never to condone terrorist behavior but to understand how, in ignorance and arrogance, we see separation and act on it, rather than oneness.
If the terrorists could have seen themselves in us, rather than judging and plotting harm to us, they could have manifested peace on this day rather than terror. They couldn’t make the leap, but, with desire, effort and education, we can.
Those who died on 9/11 live on in our hearts as a powerful force, but how we direct that force is up to us.
I hope you can draw from my reflections and I’d be interested in your own.
With love,
Trish
What a great and healing journey into soul searching in light of something so catastrophic. Your description of grieving as a process of separation from the earthly bond, revealing the spiritual, is so insightful and helpful. Thank you Trish for sharing your thoughts and your process on this powerful day of remembrance.
ReplyDeleteI hope your kitty returns. I've had the same experience. The "not knowing what happened" makes it even more difficult. But where your kitty is, he is in the hands of God and your kitty may yet be found. I had a dog stolen in Boston and got him back 6 months latter. So miracles do happen!!!
ReplyDeleteI know the value of learning to let go and the grieving required. I don't think we can avoid the heart wrenching part unless we are in denial of our humanness and 9/11 was definitely heart wrenching material. Sometimes all we can do is trust and pray for everyone to be healthy, happy and thriving, and surrender what that looks like.
ReplyDeleteAs my deceased mentor, JaneAnn Dow once said, "there's no such thing as drivethru enlightenment." Thanks for posting your comments and for the well wishes for Kiara.