A Cleansing

A cleansing angel,
after a frightening morning.

I thought it made sense to post an angel, a winged creature (my word of the year being "fly"), after the morning we've had here.

It seems most likely that the man who was involved in today's violence died in a house fire that he set. They are searching for his body.

And now the wondering and the hypothesizing start, don't they? Why would someone do this? Where does this much fear or anger or sadness come from? What pushed him over the edge?

An important question to ponder today: What would it take to push the rest of us to extremes like this?

It is Gandhi who said we cannot choose the way of nonviolence until we have experienced our own capacity for violence; we all have it. To deny it, gives it power. To look at it, gives us the power to make choices that are healthy for us and for all our neighbors.

I pray for that man and for all the lives he has impacted.

As Linda reminded me:

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness;
May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering;
May all beings never be parted from freedom's true joy;
May all beings dwell in equanimity,
free from attachment and aversion.

Namaste and Peace.