Circles

This is one of those days when I feel quite emotional. When you are one of those people who just simply cannot imagine being deliberately cruel, cannot imagine deliberately picking up a weapon (much less using one), and has a hard time dealing with notions of profit, greed, or success at the expense of others, virtually every current event in the news right now is so bewildering in the extreme, you just cannot process it. I'm tear-y and feel very unsettled, even though I know I am inwardly strong. Strange to admit this to a circle of readers around the world, most of whom I have never met.

There is one thing I am celebrating right now. I have the most extraordinary group of friends; women of courage, spirit, wisdom, inner strength, insight, sensitivity, generosity, creativity and humor. All of us are quietly facing challenges, family and health difficulties, housing uncertainties, and questions about our post-60 life. For the most part, we don't blame, lash out, fight, or try to bring people down; we just get on with as much aplomb and integrity as we can. This is my dream, although it would be a near logistical impossibility: I would like to get my ten or fifteen closest friends together. We would sit in a circle and hold hands. No talking, no sharing, no singing. Just holding hands to feel the rush of love energy, life energy and respect flowing around the room. For me right now, the beautiful power of this far-flung circle of friends is one of the few things that is real, one of the few things not bewildering. 

A lot of the circles we are seeing (radar maps of hurricanes, graphics of world hot-spots) are scary. Perhaps if all of us just spend a minute today thinking of our own circle of dear ones, and take some deep and healing breaths, circles will feel a little more lovely and unifying. Just for today.