ON VIGILING ALONE
Article two
One great thing about vigiling alone is that anyone anywhere can do it for their own benefit and for the benefit of all humankind. This exercise in waiting and watching implies some suffering, born in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus asked the apostles to watch and pray with Him. Instead, they slept.
Most people in America are asleep to some extent, trying to be unaware of the awful cost of war; the death and dismemberment, the daily destruction, the displacement, everything that is war. As activists, the more aware we are, the more we suffer each day as we watch the news taking us deeper into war and economic disaster. Our communities are suffering. America's children are being killed--- for Middle East oil. We have lost all morality when we plot to get oil paid for with the blood of our children! With three wars going on, we are on the brink of disaster in this country as well as in the countries we've attacked- Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Into this morass our loving and peaceful thoughts seem pitiful and lost. We wonder if anything we say or do will have any effect in the current climate. But, as it turns out, good is very powerful. Our pure mental energy has the power to change matter and events in the world at large, our physicists now tell us. Our peaceful intentions and actions toward people and toward the planet counteract the poisons that spew from the military. Other sources say we all are co-creators and, in fact, we are all one. If we choose to, we can connect to one another, to the oneness of the universe, to spirit, to the earth, or to God as you understand God to be. Take a moment to breathe in and take in this thought.
So we pick up our spirits and make a sign and sit out on our lawn or on a street corner or we proceed to do our part, whatever it may be. Just put it on your calendar for the next several months so you're more apt to do it. Whether it is public or private is your choice. I'm on a busy street corner in Newport, KY so I make it my mission to talk to everyone, to anyone who will listen. But it is equally as valid to breathe and relax, to listen to your inner guide, wherever you are. We need peace within ourselves. Yes, we need to watch and listen and pray.
Various groups meditate at noon every day. Feel free to join in. The Course in Miracles recommends attunement as often as once every hour. In contrast, the Iraq Moratorium is asking only one weekend a month, the third weekend, to drop your ordinary chores and do something to help end the wars, all wars.
October 16/17/18th is an especially important time, as citizens across the U.S. will join national and local efforts to send a message to our Congress: STOP THE SLAUGHTER! END THE WARS! Join a local group for the power in numbers, or vigil alone. Either way, help expand the effort toward peace and good, for your own benefit and for the future of the world.
