Sending Love and Healing Thoughts to Those Losing Loved Ones and Those Who Have Journeyed On... Big Hugs...

 The topics of dying and death are generally taboo for polite conversation or even among friends who share many aspects of community life together...until a loss or tragedy strikes close to home.  Specifically there was a case in Orlando where instead of a hug, a three year old was killed by two women who lived in his house with his mother for drinking out of a plastic jug. Of course the real reason is the two, aged 58 and in their 30s, were highly abusive and likely mentally off balanced.

The mother was being arrested for not reporting previous incidents of abuse, even though she tried to rescue her child. Likely she was abused emotionally or dependent on these others, but without knowing more, perhaps an arrest was merited to keep her supervised.

My feeling is it's overkill and needs to move more people to find ways to hold people accountable for the care they give children in terms of educating them online about basics Do's and Don'ts with clear consequences and many ready to intervene kindly at first if possible but more directly if not.

The other tragic case in Branford CT involved three boys close to age 10 playing near water that one 10-year-old brother (one of the three) and got sucked into a 4 foot wide drain pipe. The rescue people said many areas, particularly along a coast line are full of such pipes to help with the ebb and flow of the tides.

When a large body of water moves into a small area and goes back out again, especially if raining, the areas can flood or get strong hidden currents. This tragedy hit close to home with having lost our teen son on June 16, 2009 at the base of a large dangerous waterfall in CT. What we all need to work on is Planning for Safe, Appropriate Acitivities for Youth and Teens to do with clear concern about avoiding dangerous places.

Then the 'reality of human mortality' seems to take front and center stage. I had a weekend of seeing the play Far Away in Sharon CT (at the Sharon Playhouse.)

Creepy but critical topics were explored in a few parts of this strange and futuristic (but all too real in many ways) current and historical look at human turning against human, animals and even other elements of nature having their way with one another, fair or not fair, known or unknown. Plus there was a time to talk among the audience and the director and producer...bringing such a creepy violent-image laden play (through surprising dialogue quips to clue us into What We Were Witnessing and Seeing in the Mirror, literally and figuratively (the back wall of the set was a full length mirror wall to wall.)

The image of being between a rock and a hard place is one that's come to mind for me in dreams and even in sickness (the feeling of not wanting to throw up because of the pain not only in the tummy but in the throat that was stung with stomach acid and swollen glands that can feel like a rock...sorry for that miserable picture But If You or Others ever have that kind of experience you have my sympathy in advance.)

Even the scene of someone witnessing violence done to adults and children was being explained away as 'necessary and mostly just given the circumstances--allegedly to protect people who were fleeing harm and couldn't be found out. When do we ask such questions of 'what is going on, what's happened --yes even in the past whether a few years ago, a decade or more ago, even on much larger level historically in the world and beyond all that? Oh, that'd be never and I basically commended those braving sharing the play for 'disclosing taboo topics and feelings, worries and presentations.'  

About ten years ago or more, I had written a poem called Not Far Away and read it to a small audience at a benefit for a church (or just a Poetry Night..what can be said in a poem and received in a way an essay or news piece does not lend itself to.) That poem was asking questions (when I didn't use the internet not did many my age or older) about How We Could Care About One Another? How could we cross oceans and interact in meaningful ways if everyone was so far away?

The answer was to claim everyone as close and envision connecting easily crossing the oceans like running across a field. Meeting a stranger and taking time to make them a friend by sharing a meal and personal experiences. That is a sentiment that is more popular in some cultures than others and in a book I got called "Just Because" by C.C. Payne about family being there for one another. I picked that up at the International African Arts Festival in Brooklyn NY last weekend and heard others share insights at churches and in the Brooklyn neighborhoods about how people used to know and look out for one another. More people want to revive that or recreate an oasis of friendship to balance out stressful on-the-run lives. In Lakeville CT there's a coffee shop that's the hub  of the working folks called just that, On-The-Run. Sounds like having a jogging partner (and in churches, prayer partners (generally someone of the same gender and meeting in a public place or on the phone.., small groups and get-togethers for people of each decade from youth to elderly and some mixed age gatherings can reinforce that feeling of meaingful belonging.) Learning how to grow up community is not just an ideal, it seems a necessity so more about that can be explored here  on livfully.org. Feel free to chime in. I invited some folks from the Far Away audience to do that even after I 'broke the ice' and let the play director and audience who might not have known about the creepy past in our area and the book that emerged, "A Death in Canaan" (CT, which actually did refer to Falls Village but whose name it technically Canaan and what is called Canaan by locals is North Canaan...)

The outcome of that horrible loss of a mother being killed allegedly by her teen son but in fact by one or more other people that have yet to be identified (but as many believers of G-d and the quantum field theory assert, there Are No Secrets really...so likely the best karmic debt would be for the perpetrator(s) to seek forgiveness and never commit any other crimes lest what they did be done to them or some say (and sadly too many times in cultures it plays out) to those close to them in their family and friend circle.

That's a pressing matter for many to think about and not only in a tragic way. Some theorists like Edgar Cayce and Rudolf Steiner say we are all on our journeys with a checklist of sorts not just for fun but to balance accounts from many lifetimes. Looking back over history it's not only the events that claimed lives but the cultures that either required strict penalties (which still happen around the world or even with 'honor killings' where too many women are punished for their romanitic interests or actions primarily by men but sometimes with females in their families condoning or carrying a measure out. Same in Africa where only recently are worldwide efforts being made to protect young women from mutilation in the name of preserving chastity.

These are heavy depressing topics but keeping the crimes and shame in the dark does not allow for healing and information to shed light and help protect the younger people, or even those doing the harm to help them break the cycle of karma or what may be at work in the universe to perpetuate the harm back to them in this lifetime or another one.

The work of Byron Katy is important to consider in part, which asks "Who would you be without your story?" The energy modalities can bring healing and yet insights seem critical to that as well. Alice Miller makes that clear in her work. The idea could be to build bridges of understanding and a flow chart of accountability for what one is saying, proposing, reflecting about in the past or hoping to achieve in the future. If we can find people to share our paths with and hold one another in respect and 'professional regard' then we likely could evolve with love and clarity about options for healing and helping ourselves and others. 

Time to post and to reflect as we can perhaps out in nature on a walk or when it's time to rest and dream of a brighter day and the love from above informing us all. The book Staying Connected suggests it could be thirty years before the souls we know in our family and friends circle can inform and inspire us..so ponder that one too...Don't put a period where there may only may be a comma as the UCC message suggested about 'defining G-d and what is intended from the Big Book...