I have been made somewhat more aware lately of my own feelings about our human condition - first by my husband watching the miniseries of "Hatfields & McCoys", and most recently by the senseless (is there any other?) shooting in the Seattle area local coffee shop.  In both events, people lost their lives, families lost someone close to them.  We as humans can so easily be caught and swept up in passions, anger, revenge - and yet, these are not our whole, they are like shadows we can dispel if we work to do so.

Bad events are like the stone in the water - evident, but can be swept away by a larger tide of goodness that we hear so little about.  Yes, bad things happen, but good things happen as well - would it not serve humanity better to focus on these - to highlight the wonderful generosity and beneficence of the human spirit?  

Do we allow ourselves to be swept away by negativity or do we simply let those thoughts flow over us without being caught up in them, knowing we are part of a larger, greater good.  Do we embrace this goodness every day?  Do we consider our connection with our world, and by doing so, take a gentler path with our own life and the lives of others?  We can and should, for the light of compassion and love can remove shadows of darkness.  We must live the greater life, and do the greater good.

The only way in which one can make endurable man's inhumanity to man, and man's destruction of his own environment, is to exemplify in your own lives man's humanity to man and man's reverence for the place in which he lives. - Alan Paton
 

Namaste.