Dear Friends,
A few Saturday’s ago, I sat on my couch watching the riots and protests in Seattle. I don’t normally watch the news but something called me to do it. Well, actually my mother called me and wanted me to watch as she was fearful I would go downtown and get in the middle of things and she wanted me to pay attention, bless her heart! As I sat there observing, I found myself crying as I watched the looters and other protestors vandalizing stores. I watched the burning police cars and listened to the yelling going on from the angry participators. My tears were tears of sadness. However, at the same time, I watched peaceful protestors filling the streets in solidarity and love for all of mankind. My heart was full and I cried some more.
I then watched videos and read articles about the police response in different states to the protests occurring country wide. Many very disturbing videos surfaced with police gravely mishandling situations. However, I also observed police kneeling in front of the crowds, in humility and patience. I listened to one sheriff communicating emphatically with people stating the police were listening and wanting to know what their concerns were. I watched many videos of the police exclaiming they did not associate themselves with nor condone the horrendous acts that had taken place and continued to occur involving other police. They wanted the crowd to know they were there to serve and protect the community.
I know many of you may have had the same experience. I don’t think I ever cried so much for sadness one minute and joy the next. I cried when I watched a young black boy of about 12, maybe younger, giving free hugs to police with tears streaming down his face. I cried again when I watched a 20 something young black man also giving free hugs to the police as people in the crowd exclaimed he was a traitor.
This beautiful young man pointed out to them that the police were human beings just like everyone there. That they had families to go home to just like everyone else and that they were not there shooting them and hurting them at this particular protest. He yelled to the crowd that it was important to stay neutral and to see these men and woman as human beings just as the crowd want the police to see black people and other people of color as human beings deserving respect. What a wise young man! I watched as protestors, many of them black, protected a white policeman who was separated from his team.
I remember years ago, at a spiritual retreat, hearing a person in the audience talking about how important it is that there are spiritually minded people in all walks of life, including teachers, police and garbage collectors. It is not about all of us going out into the wilderness to hide out in nature (unless we are called to do so) but about also listening to the call to immerse ourselves in life in whatever we are doing and bringing these spiritual principles we are learning into these jobs and all aspects of living. Many people feel what they are doing is not important enough. But what I realized that day at the retreat, was that it is not about what we are doing but about what we bring to the experiences we are having.
Some protestors brought peace and harmony to their walking, others brought violence. Some police brought peace and harmony to the protestors others brought violence. In every field, every neighborhood, every family, there are people who walk a spiritual path of lightness and kindness and others who choose a heavier path of disharmony and discord.
As a nurse and healer, I like to take what I observe and connect it to the healing path of body, mind and spirit. The young man who talked about the importance of neutrality pointed out a very powerful spiritual principle. When we are neutral to anything in our lives, we become open to all possibilities and we step into a place of universal source energy. From that place, we allow the highest good to evolve from what is occurring around us. This principle is what that wise young man was teaching the crowd. This applies to anything that is happening in our lives such as illness, relationship issues etc.
When I watched the police kneeling in front of the protestors, I felt the humility and place of neutrality they were holding. I experienced the same feeling when the protestors knelt down as well. I pondered on how we could take that visual and feeling of kneeling and kneel towards ourselves first, our own inner demons, our own beauty. When we kneel before ourselves, we are holding a place of respect and love for ourselves. If we are dealing with an illness or heartache, perhaps we can feel ourselves kneeling before ourselves and hold whatever we are dealing with in the light of reverence and neutrality.
Whenever we fight against what is occurring, such as the police fighting against the protestors and vice versa, healing cannot happen. This aggression creates more aggression, it is an energetic principle. When we fight against anything going on in our lives, we are giving it attention, and that attention is disharmony. However, when we allow what is happening in our lives, and kneel before it so to speak, we create an openness to occur and evolve into something that is more in harmony with what we are desiring in our lives.
I’ve been playing with this visual of kneeling before the issues in my life, not as a victim but in a place of reverence to what is happening and the understanding that I do not have all the answers but I am willing to be open to ideas/paths/people/healing modalities that I might not have otherwise allowed.
If you are experiencing a relationship issue and feeling upset with a significant person in your life, you can picture/feel yourself kneeling before them, not from a place of making them greater, but from a space of humility and openness and love. You don’t have to actually kneel before them, but feel the energy of this act and hold yourself in that space. The other person will feel the energy behind this and the dynamic between you will change to something vibrationally higher and more peaceful much like the energy between the police and protestors.
If you have cancer, you can feel the energy of kneeling before it. Again, not as a victim, but in humility and openness in terms of what you might be learning or what gifts this illness might be bringing into your awareness. For instance, because of this illness you might have traveled down a new path and because of this you found someone who becomes very important in your life. When you energetically kneel in humility towards something going on in your body, your cells will expand with this openness and new life will emerge. And you might feel a tugging to try a new form of treatment or therapy that you were not open to prior that could have an amazing result for you.
This same principle holds with the namaste greeting, in which we are putting our hands together over our hearts or third eye and bow as a sign of respect flowing the feeling of divine love towards another or situation or respect for life. This ritual of holding our hands in namaste or kneeling down in a space of openness, humility and neutrality allows for healing within ourselves as well. My point of this sharing is to encourage each of us to feel the energy of kneeling or namaste within ourselves, bowing to ourselves, kneeling to ourselves and what might be happening within our own bodies and souls and lives.
A teacher years ago told me that many people want to go out and save the world when they and their families are suffering at home. If we take that energy of namaste and kneeling for ourselves first and then our families, we will find that when we eventually step out into the world, we will do it with much more grace, humility and with divinely inspired actions. And when we do this first for ourselves, we will have much more power to change our own world and then the world around us.
I kneel to all of you. I bow to all of you. And I wish for peace in your hearts, homes and communities.
Namaste,
Rosemary