welcome, welcome to day 54 of a season of peace, to the third day of loving presence re-treat, a day of savoring the quintessence, the essence of  essence… love, sweet love and to the day each week we honor the astonishing light of our being…

 on this first year anniversary of the historic and epic March for Our Lives and the nine days anniversary of both the monumental Climate Change Rally and the New Zealand massacre at a time when we are called collectively to both midwife the dark night of the soul, the metaphorical descent down the narrow gate of the birth canal, and the rebirth of heart consciousness, it feels the moment to celebrate our standing in love for love…

we belong to each other… there is only one of us here with each cell of the one body woven together in a design so perfect, a peace beyond our human understanding leading us to the critical question of how we serve the good of the whole for all our relatives…

thanks be for leaders like New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, at 38 the youngest female head of state, who said in response to the horrific tragedy in her country: “Many of those who will have been directly affected by this shooting may be migrants to New Zealand, they may even be refugees here. They have chosen to make New Zealand their home, and it is their home. They are us…  We are a nation of 200 ethnicities, 160 languages…We open our doors to others and say, ‘Welcome’… We wish for every member of our communities to also feel safe. Safety means being free from the fear of violence. But it also means being free from the fear of those sentiments of racism and hate that create a place where violence can flourish. And every single one of us has the power to change that.”

may peace be upon all of us, shanti shanti shantihi…