When the Bells Stop…

Silent Witnesses for Newtown, Connecticut

It’s in our most insane moments that our heart yearns to “go back to
a place of peace and sanity.”  Not so much to deny or avoid our pain
but more so to dive into a place in us that heals it.  A place that
holds a certain wisdom that our usual day-to-day grind and list-making
mind doesn’t allow.

Whenever we experience trauma as a nation, through all the anxiety and
tears and pain, at one point we are drawn to honoring the
inconceivable with a moment of silence.  The heart knows what it
needs.

Tomorrow morning our nation will be bearing silent witness to
26 bell tones for each of the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School.
I am looking forward to this shared moment of peace and compassion
and sanity.  There’s a certain softening of the heart that happens
when people experience that kind of sacred silence together.

So much of our everyday pain and suffering is caused by a sense of
mindlessness because we’ve been caught up in the highspeed
rollercoaster pace of “life.”  I put life in quotes because I’m not
quite sure that a life of endless demands and strict deadlines is
really living at all.  It squeezes us out of the tender, peaceful, and
playful moments we could be having with one another.  We don’t look
each other in the eyes as much or hug our loved ones as much at this speed.

The sad thing is that we do it to ourselves.  At any moment we could
choose differently.  I know for me, more often than not, when I
haven’t taken some time for that kind of reflection I’m more apt to
react with anger or jump to conclusions and judge others harshly.  And
when I have, I’ve usually experienced a little miracle between my
heart and someone else’s.

I hope tomorrow’s contemplative stance in remembrance of the lives
lost in Newtown doesn’t stop when the bells do.  Let’s continue to
honor those we’ve lost (and those still by our sides) by showing up
for each other with peace and clarity.  Let’s all pause more.  Breathe
more.  Reflect more.  Pray more.  Meditate more.  Whatever form of
“going back to that place of peace and sanity” we prefer I hope we do
it more.

A moment of stillness when we wake up.  Before we start the meeting.
Before we send off that email.  Before we decide to tell someone what
we think they should be doing.  Before we respond to criticism.
Before we go to sleep.  Just a brief moment.

It’s in those moments that we gather the energy and clarity to see
each other for who we really are: brothers and sisters sharing a
journey.  A journey that might not always be easy but one that still holds
infinite opportunities to love more passionately, to give more
selflessly, and to forgive more easily.

~ by R.J. de Rossi on December 20, 2012.