I feel a need to say a few words about the terrible violence that’s happening in

Minneapolis. If we step back, we can see that more

and more violence has been erupting all over the world as well.

Violence everywhere, like weakened cells exploding in the global body at random-

in our streets, in our homes, in our airports, in our grocery stores.

Like you, like everyone, I don’t know what to do with all this. It’s heartbreaking.

The truth is we need each of us to stay strong and kind

and useful and not to become what is done to us.

The truth is we live in a modern world in which so many of us

have lost our direct connection with life.

Why is it important to be directly connected to life?

Because when deeply connected, we feel a reverence for life.

And when we feel a reverence for life, we can’t do harm.

When cut off and adrift, we go numb.

And the need to be connected in a meaningful way-

with ourselves, each other, and life- doesn’t go away.

In many ways, violence is a desperate attempt to feel.

Every soul has faced this. Every family has faced this. Every age has faced this.

What to do when cut off and numb and feeling less than?

We can break the things around us or we can strengthen our connections.

Our job, today, every day- in our lives, in our cities, in all our struggles-

is be the last good gesture standing. For every authentic exchange is healing.

And we have to be the healthy souls at work in the global body.

~Mark Nepo

how will I know how?

inquiry for today~ find your way into a new world….

when it’s time to show up well….

Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause, united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future, and determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance.

~President John F. Kennedy