9/11 is a good day to remind ourselves to choose toward love – to turn our thoughts toward the world we want to live in, and to visualize that world with all of our hearts.
9/11 is a good day to ask God and the angels to help us create that world – and then, to focus our thoughts, deeds and intentions on love.
In this way, when we think about the precious lives that were lost, we can open our hearts instead of closing them off.
In this way, instead of seeking revenge or blaming or marginalizing any one group, we begin to build the kind of world that we, that I, want to live in: A world of love, peace, hope and the kind of security that is born out of trust and faith that, for the most part, the world is good.
From a spiritual perspective, we see that turning hate or blame or darkness toward another only increases it in our own life, and in the world.
What I mean is: We will not create a safer, more loving world with hate.
We don’t allow ourselves to be drawn into nonsense, to be baited into hating the ‘haters’ – for this only makes haters of us.
Worst of all, it does nothing to heal the world or turn it toward peace.
From a spiritual perspective, we understand that the only way to create a world of peace, is the cultivate peace in ourselves.
We choose toward love. And by love I am not talking about loving the people who do horrible things as if they were our best friends.
I am talking about loving All Of Creation with the same kind of love that God has for us – an infinite and unswerving and impersonal love.
The kind of love that swells within our own hearts when we witness the suffering of another. The pure impulse to reach out, to embrace, to help.
Real love, true love, opens our hearts without closing our minds.
When we resonate with this kind of love, we don’t just understand that we are not alone – we KNOW it. We see that we never have been alone, that the world is flooded with light, and that, the best way to make the scary stuff go away is by firmly, clearly, with the ferocity of the warrior, insisting on turning our attention to the light.
Today, I am visualizing those lost in 9/11 sitting with God. I see them there, along with the tens of thousands of other souls we have lost to other conflicts, other disasters – manmade and natural – and all of them surrounded by angels – sitting and beaming love toward the Earth.
I am holding their families in prayer – in my heart. I am not forgetting them – and still, I am choosing toward love.
Because I know that from that perspective, from their perspective, love is the only choice there is.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
You are reminding me, Amy, once again – how important it is for those of us who bring light to continue to step up our game.
On September 11, I wrote an essay for my ezine because I had many subscribers writing to me, afraid for me… especially those folks from overseas who heard “US” and didn’t differentiate between California and anywhere else. They just knew “Julie is American”.. so I wrote my story. It eventually went on to be re-published in several places and was selected for inclusion in “Chicken Soup for the Soul of America.”
When I saw the galleys and noted they had chosen this MLK quote to go with my words, I cried all over again. Here are his words and later today, I will re-post mine… as my words and yours are like different verses to the same hymn or spiritual song.
“Returning violence for violence multiples violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. ”
(This is Amy – adding a link to Julie’s beautiful and moving 9/11 post, mentioned in her comment above: http://juliejordanscott.typepad.com/julie_unplugged/2010/09/what-is-it-remembering.html )
Last night I sat on my roof and watched the 9/11 memorial lights pierce the darkening sky. Some neighbors asked If we’d lived here then.
Yes.
As I was brushing my toddler’s hair I watched a fireball explode out of the side of one of the towers. I watched the impossible – huge towers crumpling to the ground. Acrid smoke filled our apartment for days. And days later my toddler drew burning buildings in her second week at preschool. Those towers were her lightlight.
My job is to teach my children to understand the evil that went on but not to turn it into something than it should be. To live in the present not the past. To love and not hate.
Elissa –
Each year, when the beacons are illuminated at Ground Zero, I can see them from the end of my driveway, all the way up here. I can only imagine what you saw from the window of your home that day. For my part, my niece and nephew were at school three blocks from Ground Zero. My sister was supposed to fly out from Boston’s Logan Airport that morning. My best friend’s husband worked in a building facing one of the towers. For several hours, the word terror had personal meaning to all of us as we gathered each snippet of news: The children were with their parents, my sister’s flight never took off, my friend’s husband was evacuated safely.
But in our community, 40 minutes north of the city, two of my children’s schoolmates lost parents. Before a memorial service at her school, the children in my daughter’s 4th grade class, led by their teacher, drew pictures of two towers, encircled in fire, dragons and angels – an activity that was being improvised, in different ways, all across the New York area.
And still, like you, I insist on translating the world into love. There is evil. There are people who want to do other people harm. I choose to focus on the love in the rest of the people of the world.
Julie – Bless you for leaving that beautiful poem here. I keep reading it and reading it. Like the man who spoke those words, it keeps giving me hope.
PS My husband, an architect, participated in the open competition to design the World Trade Center Memorial at Ground Zero. He asked me to post a link to his entry. Here it is: http://www.wtcsitememorial.org/ent/ent_view.html?706399
Amy:
The date almost went by without me realizing it (I’ve been a day behind all last week because of Labor Day). Anyhow, late on Sat night I overheard my son talking to Xbox friends and I heard, “Yeah, so it’s 9/11. That date comes every 365 days. So what?”
Of course, he was only 4 when it happened so he doesn’t know the significance. I called him out to the living room….and sat with him for about 45 mins while we watched 102 Mins that Changed America on the History Channel. At one point during the special I started crying in remembrance of that horrific day and for the ones who still grieve over their loved ones.
Now he knows…..and I’m sure he’ll never say “So what?” again.
Michelle –
There is also, in me, a kind of ‘so what’ sometimes. Part of this, I think, comes from the feeling of: There is so much to do here, so many layers to this situation: What can one (small) me do?
Perhaps, if we can stay conscious and view these ceremonial reminders through a lens of: How can I use this experience to teach me to be more loving? What does this experience teach me, personally, about the way that I live my life? That’s what I ask myself on 9/11, and all the days that follow it.