Thoughts on 9-11

A Forest of People Grounded in Love

Where were you when you heard the news last year? I was just completing a coaching call when my client told me the WTC and Pentagon had been attacked. I couldn’t believe it. I raced downstairs and turned on the TV, called my husband then watched in horror as the second tower fell. The commentator’s somewhat matter of fact reporting of this only served to exacerbate my terror. How could this be possible? It must be a joke. All those people, their lives gone…..the tons of metal and steel…How could anyone hate us or anyone so much as to cause this destruction? I collapsed on the floor, screaming, crying and gasping for air. I have never experienced such a visceral, involuntary, immediate violent physical reaction. I hope to never do so again.

In the hours and days following I found my heart as wrenched as those hearts around me. I found myself speaking to strangers, smiling sadly at folks I’d meet on the street, while walking my dog. I was so courteous in traffic! I was amazed at the love, heightened sense of connection and belonging I felt. I was also aware of the potential for tremendous anger and retaliation, that this could bring us into war, nuclear –holocaust, germ warfare. The fear on the streets and in peoples’ eyes was palpable. The entire world was impacted by these events. People across the world struggled with how to assimilate this into their experience, how do you file this in the cabinet of your mind – where do you put such fears, hurt, grief, shock, anger, despair?

With all of these emotions running through my body and mind, there was still a quiet place in me that knew that the solution to this terror was and is to be rooted in love, rooted in the Truth – that we are all part of, emerge from and are connected to one Source, whether that Source be God, Christ, Allah, Budda, Mohammed. The truth is that we are all created out of love and connected to each other through the very act of our Creation. The walls and labels we put on ourselves are false, they are illusions we create to feel safe or superior – because we forget that we are all connected to and part of the one Source. The truth is that love creates love and fear perpetuates fear. This is real, this is the choice each of us makes every day we breathe on this planet. Do I want to be part of the fear or do I want to be part of Love? What is it that I want and chose to create in this world?

I had a vision of tender sprouts emerging from the charred soils of these places of destruction. Tender shoots that were seeking to be nourished, protected and cared for. These sprouts were precursors to mighty trees, whose roots dig firmly and deeply into the earth to be grounded, unshakeable in love. I sent out an email inviting people to join me in the forest of grounded people grounded in love for our selves, each other, for the earth. I requested that people listen to that still small voice for love that was awakened in our souls by the sheer horror of Sep 11th. To nurture that seedling, that tender sprout and to allow it to take root – in a place of vulnerability – our hearts. To allow that voice to grow into a whisper, then a gentle word, and eventually into a quiet roar – a roar that cannot be ignored for it evokes the yearning that lies deep within each of us. I was heartened by the response I received. So many people claimed their tree – a mighty oak, a redwod, a cherry, fir trees. The seedlings emerged, a forest was planted and roots of love began to dig into the texture of the world a heartfelt effort to begin to dissolve the fear.

Mine was merely a little voice in the dusky haze of grief. There were and have been many such voices this last year – voices calling for love and honor, voices calling for retaliation and war, voices of grief and disbelief – voices crying out to loved ones only never to hear their response; voices calling for justice for the attackers, voices for reason and thoughtfulness. Today, one year later, the initial shock, despair and grief – the horror – has lessened for most of us. It is not as intense those first few weeks and months. We humans are resilient beings, we survive and move on and take our lessons as they come. Yet what has happened to those still small voices that were awakened and so present to so many of us? What has happened to the roots you planted in the soil of a broken heart? Have you nourished your seedling? Have you given yourself the gift of walking through your grief – one day at a time? Or have you struggled with dulling your pain with alcohol or drugs or shopping or busyness or work or other coping mechanisms. Have you turned your back on the yearning of your soul in an attempt to find solace in the world? Or are your roots growing stronger, anchored in your values, in your belief in love and goodness and faith that we are a Godly people?

As we acknowledge this one year anniversary of this tragic event, I challenge you to look into your heart, to look into your soul and ponder the following questions.

• How are you different as a result of September 11th?
• What has changed in your life?
• What has changed in the choices you’ve made this past year or are getting ready to make?
• How have you answered the call of your soul, the yearning that lies there waiting to be heard and fulfilled?
• What is it you choose in this life?
• Love or fear?
• What is the impact you want your life to have on the world?

Every life has an impact - every life. We are so intimately connected, we cannot even being to fathom this. What kind of world do you want for yourself or your children in the future? A world of fear and hatred and retribution – or a world that embraces love as a choice, as a conscious decision, a way of being? The choice is yours and each of ours to make.

How grounded are you in love? What’s working in your day-to-day relationships – in your encounters with people in stores, traffic, at work – in your family? Please do not disappear on your self – because when you do that the unique gift that is you disappears also – we are robbed of your sanctity and the you that you’ve been created to be.

One year later it seems that we’re searching for business as usual …life is back to some semblance of "normal". But the root of our delusion is still there. Set about being an agent for love, an instrument for change in the world. Allow your mind to open to the possibilities that exist just beyond the frameworks you’ve constructed for yourselves. Don’t box in your life and the lives of those around you. Our human hearts are capable of unconditional love. Remove the conditions that blind your love and bind it to selfishness. Set your capacity to love free. Be the love in the world you want in your life.

Join me in the forest of Grounded People….we are tender saplings now. Our roots are making their way into deep soil…soil nourished by our souls and by our Source. Ground yourselves and reach for the heavens – stretch your arms and your hearts into a soul-full embrace and be love in the world. For indeed, that is all there is – the one true reality is love.

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