All know that the drop merges into the ocean but few know that the ocean merges into the drop – Kabir

The news unfolds
The Obama’s heads bowed
The nation called to share this moment of silence
For the gunned down and slaughtered

A telling scenario of a complex country
Reminds me that
Sorrow also hides in lonely places that no one shouts about

The ocean merges into the drop
How much of US can we hold?

And I’m trying to hold the moment
Where time is space, I’m stretching space

On this frigid day black birds huddled in the white snow around my neighbor’s tree
Like mourners at the alter
In the stillness of winter
We’re an extended family for this moment selected for us
Held in thought, held in prayer

Beyond the silence designated for this time, this moment, I wonder, can we hold it; can we hold the space to care about others? How long can we maintain this moment for love, for fellowship as the clamor moves in

And the sound comes in with a song from Nelly in my head

I was thinking ‘bout her, thinking ‘bout me
Thinking ‘bout us, what we gone be
Open my eyes yeah, it was only Just A Dream
So I traveled back, down that road
Wish she’d come back, no one knows
I realize it was only Just A Dream

Hold the space while semi-automatic guns are sold to the insane and the angry
Hold the space while we debate about that

As a gunned down child’s ghost conjures corpses in Africa
Someone’s husband vanished and someone’s father murdered
Hold the space in this moment for a wife, mother, and grandmother no more
Hold the space while leaders run for cover

If you ever loved somebody put your hands up
If you ever loved somebody put your hands up

In this moment of silence I don’t know you but now I know your name
A moment of silence for 19 victims; six dead and 13 wounded
John Roll, Gabe Zimmerman, Christina Green, Dorothy Murray, Dorwan Stoddard, Phyllis Schenck

And now they’re gone and you wishing you could give them everything

In this moment my heart breaks the silence for someone’s son so crazy that hate stole his life
For someone’s daughter born amid terrorism and dead by a terrorist, my heart breaks the silence

If you ever loved somebody put your hands up
If you ever loved somebody put your hands up
Now they’re gone and you wishing you could give them everything

Tea Party targets mark the spots
Gabrielle Giffords caught in the crosshairs
America the beautiful
In this moment of silence

“Don’t retreat, reload!” can’t be heard in this moment of silence

We hold the space

“…the anger and the hatred in this country are out of control”… Tucson Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

In this moment

Haters drop into this silence
They enter this space and we stretch the space
Stretch the space so much the haters disappear into space
So small they can’t be heard, impossible to notice

And in this moment remembering another time and the cautions of another leader
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hold the space

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation- MLK

We hold the space

In this moment
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. MLK

We hold the space

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear-MLK

This moment, stretch this moment, hold this moment of love

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power- MLK

The ocean merges into the drop
In over our heads drowning
Hold the space
Find our breath
Take a breath
In this moment of silence

“And I think it’s time that we do some soul-searching,” the sheriff said.

In this moment of love

From Hilary’s new blog bitchinyoga.wordpress.com