The Question...The Answer?

Hello Friends,

I will warn you that this post is not about food or exercise...it's not even about Christmas or a suggestion that you buy something from my clothing store this Holiday Season.  No, this post is about the heart, my heart, a heavy heart because of what happened in Newtown,Connecticut.  A sentiment I'm sure you all share because you are parents, and even if you are not, you are human.

I don't want to talk about gun control, or de-ranged people...I want to talk about EVIL...that vile presence that we try to keep out of our daily existence...yet sometimes it is just too big and powerful to block out. What is it's purpose? I am struggling to find some sense in the slaughter of children.  I find myself awake in the early morning hours with terrifying images in my mind.  More than once I've had to get out of bed to 'walk them off'. We have seen the pictures of the beautiful children, the moving tributes but many people are very far away from finding any Peace in this tragedy.

I will keep this brief.  Each morning I pray for guidance, express gratitude for the blessings in my life and let God know I am open to the lessons my soul has come to earth to learn, no matter how frightening or challenging.  I often reach for a favourite book during this time and just flip it open with the idea that 'this is what I'm supposed to hear today.'  The book I choose is most often 'Inspiration - Your Ultimate Calling' by Wayne Dyer.

I am including a letter that was in the Chapter I opened to today...with your own beliefs comfortably surrounding you, may you find additional comfort in this letter written by Spiritual Leader Ram Dass, some years ago, to the parents of a young girl who was brutally murdered.

Dear Steve and Anita,

Rachel finished her work on earth, and left the stage in a manner that
leaves those of us left behind with a cry of agony in our hearts, as the
fragile thread of our faith is dealt with so violently. Is anyone strong
enough to stay conscious through such teaching as you are receiving?
Probably very few. And even they would only have a whisper of equanimity and
peace amidst the screaming trumpets of their rage, grief, horror and
desolation.

I can't assuage your pain with any words, nor should I. For your pain is
Rachel's legacy to you. Not that she or I would inflict such pain by choice,
but there it is. And it must burn its purifying way to completion. For
something in you dies when you bear the unbearable, and it is only in that
dark night of the soul that you are prepared to see as God sees, and to love
as God loves.

Now is the time to let your grief find expression. No false strength.
Now is the time to sit quietly and speak to Rachel, and thank her for being
with you these few years, and encourage her to go on with whatever her work
is, knowing that you will grow in compassion and wisdom from this experience.
In my heart, I know that you and she will meet again and again, and
recognize the many ways in which you have known each other. And when you
meet you will know, in a flash, what now it is not given to you to know: Why
this had to be the way it was.

Our rational minds can never understand what has happened, but our hearts
– if we can keep them open to God – will find their own intuitive way.
Rachel came through you to do her work on earth, which includes her manner of
death. Now her soul is free, and the love that you can share with her is
invulnerable to the winds of changing time and space. In that deep love,
include me.

In love,

Ram Dass

I am also including this moving tribute from the The Voice...Hallelujah.

Toby