A Pause for Grief
This week, we grieve and reflect with our local community. Our company is based in Nashville, where six people (3 children and three adults) were recently gunned down at Covenant School. Let us not forget their names:
Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9
William Kinney, 9
Hallie Scruggs, 9
Mike Hill, 61
Katherine Koonce, 60
Cynthia Peak, 61
It breaks our hearts that this is the reality we are facing in our country — particularly in states such as Tennessee with relatively no gun restrictions. Violence is both so obvious and also pervasively soaking our culture.
In this space, we want to consistently spread voices, practices, and actions that contribute to peace and well-being among all of us, especially among innocent children.
I have a Buddhist teacher who once told me that fear in the body expresses itself similarly to excitement or elation, but the main difference is that fear abandons the breath. I hold my hand to my chest to catch my breath and guide it to move slower, more mindfully. I allow it to calm me with deep, full, audible sighs. This I can control — a ground I create and attend to amidst the one cracking all around my heart. I cannot control many things, but I can move my breath in a way that tells my body: we are going to feel all of this, we are going to make it through, we are going to love.
If your meditation looks like a scream, an action taken out of responsive care, or simply looking someone in the eye who is grieving and being with them — you are doing it right. You are presently in the moment. There are times the moments are broken and heavy. We are resisting this violence together, we are holding the grief together, we are finding our ground together.
"I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside. I ride the train, walk among
the buildings, men in Monday suits. The flight of doves, the
city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old
women hawking roses, & children all of them, break my heart.
There’s a dream I have in which I love the world. I run from
end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders,
only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart."
—Cameron Awkward-Rich (from Meditations in an Emergency)
We have seen the charts and statistics.
America's gun violence is senseless, inexcusable, and growing.
Everytown has a plan to end gun violence.
Give to Everytown and learn how we can help save lives.
