July 20, 2012
Dear Friends,
Although there are rarely definitive answers as to why
certain tragedies occur in this world—such as the shooting rampage that just
took place at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado—I believe that the underlying
cause for many of these events is ultimately the same thing: a feeling of
separation instead of oneness.
“Oneness” is about our intimately joined relationship with
each other. It is a relationship that arises from the fact that we are all
individual expressions of One Spirit—that
creative, loving, all-pervading Spirit that many call God.
There are times when we sense that holy connection more than
others, such as when we pray, meditate, spend time in nature, or hold a tiny
baby in our arms. And the natural result of that sense of connection is a
wonderful feeling of well-being.
But all too often we feel disconnected, instead. We forget
that we are one with God, and one with all
of God's children. We feel separate from others, and separate from everything
around us. And that sense of separation—of being all alone and on our own in
this world—can generate a fair amount of fear.
Sometimes that fear—and the anger that often issues from
that fear—can be so magnified by mental illness or negative mental
conditioning, we witness the kind of destructive behavior that just exploded in
Aurora.
Although everything that happens in life is an opportunity
for us to discover where our blocks to loving are, it may be quite a while
before many of us are willing to feel compassion for the lonely soul who
orchestrated that horrific event which ended the lives of a dozen people, and
changed forever the lives of dozens and dozens more.
For now, let us remember that when we judge others—when we
attack them, belittle them, and criticize them—we are not only mentally and
emotionally separating ourselves from them, we are also mentally and
emotionally divorcing ourselves from the One Spirit . . . from the All-That-Is
that is God.
May we remember who we truly are at the core of our being:
individual expressions of God, as inseparable from our Source as waves are from
the ocean. And may we maintain that conscious connection—and the sense of
well-being that comes from that connection—by seeing all of our brothers and
sisters as equal members of God's family.
Steven
