When terrible, heartbreaking events touch those who seem to be innocent, defenseless victims, something happens in us.  We hear about these atrocities and they are unbearable to our soft human sensibilities.  How can we react?  How can we deal with these stories that surface time and time again in different parts of the world, in our own backyards, in different generations, in our own newspapers?

We burst in rage.  We retreat in despair.  We harden in defense of our own sanity. 

We are, whether we allow it to rise to consciousness or not, all connected, all part of the same energy field.  Like an ocean where harsh weather in one region eventually impacts the currents on distant shores, we feel each other’s joys and pains, usually without any awareness of the streams from which they flow.

I leave the social, cultural, and political analyses of these problems, and suggestions for their solutions, to those who know of those things.

And in this moment, I write a reminder to myself.  I write this openly so that if you seek a similar reminder, this might stir your own note to yourself.  You can even post it here to add to the vibration of healing.

Ho’oponopono

I am reminding myself, as I have cultivated within myself a practice of Ho’oponopono to the best of my understanding and ability, that this that occurs in the world, in my world, in my awareness, is happening in me.  I take 100% responsibility for these action that cause such enormous pain.  I understand that if they are happening in my world, that on a certain level, I created this pain. 

And with this stance of responsibility, I offer, what I have learned from Dr. Joe Vitale and Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len.  I offer a prayer of cleaning of this atrocity in me.  I offer, “I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.”

What will this do?  It will not bring back the precious lives of the beautiful souls that were taken.  No it will not do that.  It will not pull the sorrow from the families and loved ones of the victims.  No.  It will not reverse their loss.  So what’s the point?

The prayer of cleaning, as I understand it, acts as an eraser of this disruptive energy as it lives in me.  If I react in rage (easy) I add to the energy of rage that created the incident.  I continue the chain reaction and I become a link on that chain.  If I take the time to clean this in me (not as easy) I break the chain.  I remove my link.  It dissolves, disintegrates.  And with that, I allow more light into my world.  I allow more harmony to express in my field of awareness which includes everything and everyone in my world. 

And so, in the wake of these mournful events, I make the effort to hold this occurrence in the prayer of love and healing for all those directly involved, and in the stance of 100% responsibility, and in the action of cleaning my space of that for which I would judge the other.