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The bombing tragedy at the Boston Marathon on Monday, compounded by the recent shootings in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and the Sandy Hook School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, has caused many people to ask some very big questions, such as:  “What in the world is going on?”  “What can we do to help?”  and “What is the spiritual message in all of this?”

As we all attempt to make some sense of these violent acts, let’s walk through these questions together, one at a time.

“What in the world is going on?”  

Humanity is in the process of an enormous transformation, beyond what we have ever experienced.  We are being called upon to create a new physical reality based on the spiritual truth of unconditional love. The opposite of love is fear.  The violence we are seeing is not being forced upon us by a vengeful God. We have been given the gift of choice – we can choose to focus on love or we can choose to focus on fear.  Our thoughts create our reality, so whatever we are thinking and doing that is not in alignment with unconditional love is now coming to our attention in a gargantuan way.  Violence is is a symptom of a social disease much the same as cancer is a symptom of a major malfunction of the physical cells.  Of course, it is only human to have strong feelings of deep grief and anger when we experience and witness these atrocities.  We need to feel these feelings to move through the pain.  But ultimately, as much as we would like to blame external circumstances and perpetrators of crime as the sole reason for violence, this does not get to the root of the healing. Because humanity is interconnected through Spirit, the true healing lies in each one of us taking responsibility for the fact that every one of us plays a part in forming the condition of our society.

What can we do to help? 

First and foremost, we need to look within our own lives. As Malcolm Gladwell states in his famous book, The Tipping Point, “the smallest things make the biggest difference.”  Resolving our personal conflicts in peaceful ways, being compassionate and non-judgmental, exercising random acts of kindness to friends and strangers, helping others in time of need, and honoring the divinity within all people by respecting our differences, are but a few of the ways we can personally make an enormous impact on the healing of the entire world.  We don’t have control over what others think, say, and do, but we do have control over how we conduct our own personal lives.  Just as one person can start an epidemic of disease, so also can one person start a movement of spiritual healing.

On a larger level, we can forgive ourselves and each other.  Yes, I said forgive.  Forgiveness does not mean we condone another person’s behavior, or that we agree with someone, or that we have given up. Far from it! When we forgive we stop judging, and we exercise the grace of surrendering our attachment to the pain and suffering of this world to a Higher Power. We can do this every day in every way by consciously choosing kind words and actions that are aligned with what we want to see, saying prayers, and meditating.  In other words, get in touch with practicing anything that allows you to connect with your Soul.  We don’t have all the answers, but we always have the opportunity to choose love over fear – and forgiveness is the highest form of human love.  When we forgive, we transition ourselves from being a victim to that of being in a position of strength and compassion.  From this higher perspective, we are in a position to genuinely be a support system to those who are the victims of violence. It is through forgiveness that we can bridge our present reality of fear to a new world of unconditional love.

What is the spiritual message in all of this?  

Because we are human and we live in a world of separation, we need to see what separation (fear) looks like in its extreme form in order to comprehend the crucial need to come together as ONE. Have you noticed the extraordinary capacity people have to help one another during tragic events?  Some of the ways in which we see this are:  medical professionals tend to show up out of nowhere, police and fire officials immediately respond, spectators jump in to help anyone they can, even at the risk of their own lives, strangers volunteer to rebuild lives and properties, and people reach deep into their pockets to make financial contributions.  During these trying times, we have learned that we need each other.  We have also learned that prayer is much more than a religious experience – it is a human experience to connect with a Higher Power.   Never before have so many people of different faiths, age, race, and nationalities come together to unite in prayers for the healing of humanity.  When we are in desperate need, we tend to put aside our differences and get down to what really matters.

We ARE getting it!  The common denominator for all of humanity is LOVE.

Love and Light,

Sandra