Elegy for Olathe: A Meditation for Our Times
Every morning I awake
fresh tragedy
and so much hate -
“Get out of my country”
my beating heart hurts.
Ironic thanks that
my sweet Mother, Doris,
a proud Kansas girl
of Oskaloosa
in Jefferson County
who loved Olathe,
is sixteen years
in her grave, for
this would have
killed her.
I breathe in…
and gulp down
the sour, acid
poison of hate,
despair and grief
with a lump in my throat,
remembering Mother’s love,
my beating heart calms
and transforms.
I breathe out…
Elixir of Life
All life is my family
All humans and animals
are my relatives
All creatures were once
my Mother
Breathing in their pain,
Breathing out Love
Being the open space
For freedom
No matter what,
We All Matter
Love is the Answer
to every question
every hurt and
every hate
“Thank you and
I love you”
are the only
Invocation,
the only keys
we will ever need
Reach beyond what you know -
Or think you know
Despite appearances…
we live in illusion.
There is no cage
no chain
no box
no hate
no me
and no you
We are One
And truly Free
~ February 25th, 2017
The above poured out of me in response to this latest entry in the dark carnival our world appears to have become. Remember, no matter what it looks like, we co-created this illusion. We can as easily step out of it.
The beloved Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron teaches Tonglen meditation — the art of taking on the world’s poisons and transmuting them to goodness. It was to this practice I turned when reading the news this morning:
OLATHE, Kan. — In the middle of a crowded bar, Adam Purinton yelled at two Indian men to “get out of my country,” witnesses said, then opened fire in an attack that killed one of the men and wounded the other, as well as a third man who tried to help. Hours later, the 51-year-old former air traffic controller reportedly told a bartender in another town that he needed a place to hide because he had just killed two Middle Eastern men. In India, the father of one of the wounded men called Wednesday’s attack in the Kansas City suburbs a hate crime, but authorities on Friday declined to discuss a motive as they investigated. …The president has been especially vocal about the threat posed by Islamic terrorist groups. Both of the Indian men were Hindu.
