Dealing with September 11, 2001

[David Athons]

BJ,
Thanks for sharing your questions and your wisdom.  The three words that
stand out strongly for me in your message are listen, love and light.  As a
spiritual novice I find myself  struggling the hardest to embody listening,
loving and light in response when the issues or the people are close to my
heart.

As we close on a week since tragedy the impact and potential impacts of
September 11 seem to expand within.   I am one of the previously silent
participants and have found little personal wisdom to add.  There has been
so much shared; wisdom along with feelings from the heart.  I am moved to
express my appreciation - to all of those who continue to express and
provide opportunities for learning and healing.  And, to others who support
in silence through individual consciousness and who share this consciousness
beyond.  My heart has been touched.
David


----- Original Message -----
From: BJ Peters <bjpeters at AMUG.ORG>
To: <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 12:49 PM
Subject: Dealing with September 11, 2001


> I want to deeply thank everyone on this list - those who have contributed
with
> messages and those who have contributed by being in and holding the sacred
> space of our collective grieving. Until now, I needed to be one of the
latter.
> Like many, I have been staying with my confusion while attempting to sort
> through my feelings and reactions and connect with my own inner wisdom
about
> how to respond. So many of your words have touched my being, made me weep
and
> think and feel our connection and love, even when I did not necessarily
agree.
>
> What is there for me today is an emerging awareness of the various levels
on
> which I sense we are all dealing. The two that keep showing up as part of
my
> own confusion are: 1) my personal choice options for response, and 2) the
> global or national options for solution. When I allow myself to
contemplate and
> discuss the latter, I am often at odds with the former.
>
> And I have many more questions than I have answers:
> - How can I support a solution that calls for more hate and violence when
my
> choice for life is love and non-violence?
> - How do I hold the terrorized and the terrorists, including individuals
and
> our government leaders who want to - and do - retaliate, with love in my
heart?
>
> - How can I respond to friends who say their choices for life are, like
mine,
> for love and non-violence and in the next breath utter a wish for seeing a
> bullet in the forehead of Osama bin Laden?
> - How can I respond to friends who believe it right to hate individuals
who
> commit despicable acts?
> - How do I hold onto the belief that good and evil are only the "spin" we
put
> on things in light of this massive deliberate destruction of human life?
>
> In my meditation on this the other day, the word "listen" came to me.
Perhaps
> my lesson is to learn to live in the questions without immediate (or ever)
> answers. And I'm thinking that my struggle is probably that of a spiritual
> novice who has not yet attained the ability to live beyond the snare of
> polarities. I thank you for letting me air my humanness in this safe
space.
>
> May we all be blessed with wisdom and acceptance in these troubled times.
>
> BJ Peters, Consultant
> bjpeters at amug.org
>
> "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot
drive
> out hate; only love can do that." --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
> *
> *
> ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> ------------------------------
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
> view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
> Visit:
>
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
>

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html