Monday, September 11, 20069/11 - Part IFive years ago today we lost our bearings as a society. We woke up on a lovely morning, thinking about back to school and getting ready to say goodbye to summer, and suddenly there was a cataclysmic shift in our history. A seismic upheaval so shocking and unthinkable that our country's consciousness and demeanor will be forever changed.Before 9/11 we thought we knew where we were going and, in our bumbling way, were heading there. In one searing moment we then found ourselves in a completely different landscape, a landscape that other people have sadly lived through but that is new to us. The landscape of fear, oppression, paranoia. The landscape of mistrust and uncertainty. It's a place so complex and evil that most of us drew our knees into our chests and just caved in emotionally. From our fetal position of abdication and fear, we became like children in our inability to make decisions, differentiate between right and wrong. In the five years since, we have lost our way and become dependent upon little minds. We have not healed. We remain small and scared, wanting it simply to all go away. In Buddhism there is the concept of "right action." You can tell what the right thing to do is when you're quiet enough to hear your soul speak, when you've eliminated enough of the noise to hear the directions being given. We all know what that feels like, to made a decision that is simply the correct one, and feel the flowing ease that results. When engaged in right action our lives are smoother, healthier. We don't feel the bumps in the road as much. We don't snap at strangers. When people ask us how we're doing, we say "terrific," and generally mean it. As a society, we are not there. As a society, we are having one hell of a bad day. Through our fear, woundedness and abdication of responsibility, we have collectively lost our sense of right action. As a society, we are still in a place where we can't hear the soul of the world whispering to us what our direction should be. Our internal compass has been smashed to bits. Some of us are wandering around, looking for the path. Others just watch American Idol, trying not to think during the commercial breaks. # posted by Katherine Doughtie Nolan @ 5:56 AM  
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