So Charlottesville happened and I moved through feelings of shock, anger, grief, fear, and lots of sorrow. My eight year old Aysia is having a happy childhood. How do I explain what happened to her?
I’ll do my best to make sure she doesn’t hear of it, but if she does, I’ll give her a big hug, drop down into my heart, and answer her questions gently, asking Love to guide and even choose my words.
I asked for guidance about the incident in Charlottesville and received the following:
Hatred, which is a mask to hide fear, has been part of the shadow of United States since its inception. Native American genocide, slavery, the Japanese internment camps, all have been acts of hatred, born in fear, born from a belief that we are all separate.
The event in Charlottesville is part of this time of cleansing when hatred, which likes to lurk beneath the shadows, is being flushed out and illuminated.
Don’t be discouraged by chaos.
Underneath the wind – whipped surface our future is being prepared for a healing on a massive scale.
It’s like a pimple full of toxins coming to a head. There is a pop in the energy, and it all comes spilling out. Energy is moving towards healing, towards resolution.
The toxins that give rise to the pimple were in there all along, but the body of consciousness known as the USA can no longer contain this level of hatred in an unconscious way, below the surface.
So, it comes up, pops out, and gets ugly.
Know that it is the increase of light that is making the darkeness visible.
Trump tweets his shadow like he has Tourette syndrome.
Racism cannot hide anymore. It is being flushed out.
Here’s a way to respond from the high road:
1. Comfort yourself. Feel your feelings. Take care of your heart, first and foremost.
2. If what I am about to suggest sounds repulsive to you, don’t do it. Your own compassion is needed for you, for your feelings, first.
But, if you are in place to do this:
Raise up your palms and send love to those who hate.
Wish them peace and comfort.
Acknowledge the fear they are denying and running from that the hatred hides so well.
They fear their country and their way of life is slipping away. And it is.
Underneath the energy of white supremacy is a huge inferiority complex.
They are in a dying process, and this is how they express their sense of loss and grief. The world is becoming a melting pot more rapidly than anyone can control. Their rallies really are funerals.
They want to provoke fear and aggression in you, to get a reaction.
Don’t react. Love them back.
Oh, by all means say no to their behavior if you are guided in that direction. Speak up. March. But don’t polarize.
Instead, let compassion for their fear be your predominant response.
Doing this may or may not impact them, but it will lift your spirits and open your heart. When you choose love, your own fear disappears. So pray for them and receive all the juicy benefits.
St. Frances prayed, “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.”
What courage it takes to practice and demonstrate that prayer.
So how might we do that now?
Wouldn’t it be interesting to attend their Unite the Right rallies as peaceful people, not to protest or appose them, but just to gently hold space, perhaps raising the palms of our hands and sending them witnessing presence, love?
Maybe we can even be playful about it.
I can imagine singing, “Someone’s hating my Lord, Kumbayah.”
The trick is not to react to reactivity. Instead, respond with creativity. Resist not evil. Bring levity to gravity.
And you can practice this without going to the rallies.
Raise up your palms now, tonight, anytime, and send out your love.
Burt Bacharach was right: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”
Please do your small but vital part.
“We can do no great things – only small things with great love.”
-Mother Teresa
