#8 Being with War
These are difficult times, with a deeply unsettling and dangerous situation in Iraq, and many hard feelings at home. What do we do?
One response keeps calling to me: we love--as big and deep and openly as we can.
This is a time to love what we have--this earth, beauty and sunlight and rain and fresh air and growing things, little children, democracy and civil rights, music and art, the moments of peace in our hearts, connection with friends and strangers.
It is a time to love what could be, to love the institutions of society that have strayed from their true vocations. It is time to hold those vocations--to serve, to protect, to ensure livelihood--in our hearts, and to call our institutions home.
This is a time to stretch our love. It is a time to love our families--and to extend our idea of family to include as many people as we can take into our hearts. It is a time to love those who work for peace, and those who engage in war. This is the time to love those who have lost their way, to truly love those we see as enemy.
Why love? Because it is the truest expression of who we really are. Because we cannot transform anything--or anybody--that we do not love. We cannot heal what we do not love. We cannot grieve where we do not love. Our poor battered world needs to grieve. It needs to heal and be transformed. It needs our love.
Pamela Haines
Philadelphia, PA 3/03
One response keeps calling to me: we love--as big and deep and openly as we can.
This is a time to love what we have--this earth, beauty and sunlight and rain and fresh air and growing things, little children, democracy and civil rights, music and art, the moments of peace in our hearts, connection with friends and strangers.
It is a time to love what could be, to love the institutions of society that have strayed from their true vocations. It is time to hold those vocations--to serve, to protect, to ensure livelihood--in our hearts, and to call our institutions home.
This is a time to stretch our love. It is a time to love our families--and to extend our idea of family to include as many people as we can take into our hearts. It is a time to love those who work for peace, and those who engage in war. This is the time to love those who have lost their way, to truly love those we see as enemy.
Why love? Because it is the truest expression of who we really are. Because we cannot transform anything--or anybody--that we do not love. We cannot heal what we do not love. We cannot grieve where we do not love. Our poor battered world needs to grieve. It needs to heal and be transformed. It needs our love.
Pamela Haines
Philadelphia, PA 3/03
posted by Pamela Haines | 3:23 PM
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