Embodiment of Hope

I was looking back over my journals from last year at this time.

That's when I remembered that we are nearing the anniversary of that tragic day in U.S. history.

What follows is a journal from that day last year, twenty years after that event.

Today is the close of a week that has struck me. I have been working on myself. The one controllable in my life. My actions and my reactions. My contemplation. I’m working on love and forgiveness and compassion. I’m being given many opportunities to practice. We all seem to have much resistance in life. Often, there seems so little hope in the big picture of humanity's trajectory. Yesterday, a colleague called me "Gandhi." He was referring to my practice of trying to bring peace to myself and to my classes at school. It was clearly a joke, as I am certainly no Gandhi, but I love to think of this man of peace, strength, and love. This man was and is a radiant exemplar. Like Jesus, a teacher, and a practitioner. He was a selfless servant to the greater good of humanity. A beacon of hope in a world that can often seem hopeless. Gandhi and Jesus were both men who stood as beacons of peace and hope. How inspiring to us all. This is exactly what I wish to be. A man of peace and a beacon of hope, simply living in the shadow of these two embodiments of peace and hope.

So today on this day, this tragic anniversary, I choose to live gratefully. I choose to live in peace. I choose to live with hope. Imagine if we all could strive to be the embodiment of hope and love and peace and forgiveness and compassion. Imagine if we could all practice and live as these men did. With intention, determination, presence, awareness, and attention. Looking not at those in our circle of influence beyond the shallow to the deep. Looking at the individuals we see each day. Knowing that we may not be able to change the world, but we can certainly change someone's world today. With the gift of hope. Today, may I look for moments to embody that hope today and change someone's world. If only for one person. If only for a moment.