Recently I connected with a lovely lady I will call Beth, who is co-chair, heading a project to save the beautiful land around Deer Park from being developed. Deer Park is a monastery at the top of a mountain near San Diego which was founded by Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist Master, Mindfulness Teacher and Peace Activist. Our family travels to Deer Park for meditation and retreats, like the thousands who come every year from around the world.
Last weekend Walter and I went there, and I was reminded of the mission I have joined to help Beth and others preserve the land of refuge for so many people. Through a recent email from Beth, she shared with me that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who was shot in Arizona, is her personal friend. I could feel her sadness in her email. When awful things happen, it's only natural to wonder why? Our minds search for answers, and when answers don't come that satisfy us, often we turn to anger and want to blame any and every person. No doubt, you have heard the blame slung around by the Republicans and Democrats sounding off and pointing the fingers over the shooting.
I thank you for this blog and I appreciate Randy's video reflection. What a sad state of events that have occurred in Arizona. I don't know that I could find any good out of the tragedy though, because it was preventable in my opinion. Of course, as human beings things will happen to us that are out of our control, but the police stopped Loughner that day before he killed those people and shot Rep Gifford. If they had heeded the leading of the DIvine Being who caused them to stop Loughner, perhaps we would have a different outcome rather than the one we have. I'm not a Buddist, but I do have my own times of meditation and prayer for which I have been praying for the victims' families and for Rep Gifford's full recovery. I am also by profession a nurse and grief affects everyone differently and hopefully the people who were there that day and witnessed the event will be able with time make sense out of it. Right now, I am unable to.
Thursday, January 13th 2011 at 3:03PM
Jen Fad
