No words

I consider myself a pretty optimistic person. I think the glass is half full much of the time, but today, the glass is broken.

The tragedy that happened in Connecticut is fucked up. Period.

You can run through all the possible culprits trying to make sense of it. You can rage out trying to find someone or something to blame, somewhere to funnel the rage and despair. But nothing that’s done or said can possibly ever “fix” what’s happened.

So what do you do in the face of an unexplainable tragedy? How do you deal with the anger and fear that comes from an act so incomprehensible? How do you live with the sense of helplessness and lack of control?

Most importantly, we send love and light to all those in pain…

As a mom, I just can’t even begin to imagine the pain…so much lost…

…At times like this, even though throwing up our hands and saying fuck it seems appropriate,  I feel the need to recommit to living lives of compassion and love…

This means standing up and rejecting the culture of violence surrounding us…this means connecting with our humanity and reaching out to others…this means speaking a language of non-violence with everyone around us and ourselves…this means spreading the change and refusing to participate in destructive practices…

…it also means taking time to feel sorrow…

…a capacity for love brings with it a capacity for pain.

Hold those you love near, and send love and light through the universe…there are many souls who need it tonight.

Love and light

It’s time for a change…will you join me?

Let’s strive to live lives of love and light.

Fuck apathy, bigotry, hatred, violence.

Fuck self loathing, excuses, denial…

There’s too much destruction happening right now: destruction of our earth, destruction of each other, destruction of ourselves…

It ends now.

We need to wake up and instill consciousness in our actions.  Our words and deeds have a profound effect on ourselves and our interconnected world.  We need to take the violence out of what we say and do and speak from a place of love and light.

Living this way isn’t just sitting around contemplating rainbows (though they are fantastic), but rather it’s an active way of living.

Living from a place of love and light means being fully present and building awareness of the effects our actions have on the earth, each other, and ourselves.  It means standing up for the oppressed and standing against destructive ideas.  It means putting forth the energy to heal our broken world and strengthen the threads that connect us all.

I’m far from achieving this, but it’s so so so important that I’ll keep trying to get there.  Imagine the change we could create if we strove to live everyday with love and light…

will you join me?

Why are some people so threatened by love?

Tuesday’s election was historic for many reasons.
I am proud to say that I live in Washington state where the people voted to approve Referendum 74, reaffirming the decision the legislature had already made earlier in the year, that same sex couples should have all the legal rights of marriage, just as any heterosexual couple.  We voted for love!
I am ecstatic that there appears to be a mounting surge of greater acceptance, compassion, and understanding among people…however, we still have far to go.  There is still so much hatred and bigotry out there.

Honestly, it’s sad to me that we had to vote on this at all.  I view it as a civil rights issue…and I believe that civil rights are just that, rights…groups that are in positions where they are targeted by others should be protected, not put up for a vote…I mean, how would it look if the ballot contained questions like, is it okay for people to follow Buddhism? or should Hawaiian’s be allowed to get driver’s licenses?  Could you even imagine the uproar?  The indignation?  I can’t even begin to know how insulting and dehumanizing having put to a vote your right to marry the one you love…

And the vote was sickeningly close.  It should have been an overwhelming landslide of positivity…but it was soooo close.

I find it sad that there are still so many people that feel that somehow, another person’s committed love is somehow a threat.

Fortunately, more and more people seem to realize that there is no threat.  Another person’s love is not going to somehow bring the downfall of civilization, quite the contrary, that love is what could ultimately save us all.  We have a choice at this point in time, as we always have choices in our lives, we can go down the road of divisiveness and hate, or we can come together to create a more loving and compassionate world.  I know which road I want to go down, what world I want to be there for my daughter and the people she chooses to love someday…what road will you choose?