Dear Ones,

This is an early call as Memorial Day is almost upon us in the US. A friend sent me a virtual card. This is a card-generous friend, yet this card surprised me a bit since I wasn’t born in the US.

Yet both my grandfathers were affected by two wars and I could see, in the one grandfather that I knew for 13 years (my maternal one), the ravages that war can do. To the body, to the mind and the spirit. My grandfather’s life was destroyed and hatred, of just about anyone, was streaming in his blood. He had been a prisoner of war for four years and worked in a plant.

We know that wars accomplish nothing, but destruction and desolation, and yet some human beings cultivate and activate the war gene. Is this a symptom of an inner war, an inner desolation, in the first place?

The expression that came to mind, when it comes to the US, is that of “it’s like pot calling the kettle black.”

I like the French equivalent, possibly more telling. “It’s like the hospital making fun of the charity.”

This expression means that a person, while not being able to look at her own life, is looking at, and perhaps judging, another’s life. This may be due to a lack of inner awareness and the fact the person is looking in the wrong direction.

The card that my friend sent me was soothing and beautiful. It had everything to do with nature and beauty, and very little with war, or even democracy. Here is my response to her.

“It’s a beautiful card, dear Sister.

Not sure it has much to do with Memorial Day and the many wars the US has fought; the dawn’s early light, a field of poppies, a red cardinal and a blue bird whose name I don’t know; deer in the distance, absorbing the rising sun.

Seems to me that this is the realm of Nature’s wonders. Not exactly the way human beings have turned (or torn) the world up and down.

Time to return to Nature, to our primal roots.

I have been reflecting lately on how to heal the rift in US society and the words of St. Francis of Assisi came to mind,

“Lord, please make me an instrument of your Peace.”

Isn’t it paradoxical that the US is willing to protect democracy outside its borders, at a very high cost at times, and yet can’t find “inner peace” when it comes to everyday life, and everyday schoolchildren?

Have we been looking in the wrong place?

The outer world is not what needs fixing, so to speak. It is the inner that deserves our care, our attention and our love. The learning is ancient, prophesized by many, and yet we seem to have forgotten about it.

Love & much, much Light,

Gilles

Gilles Asselin is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Have we been looking in the wrong place?

Time: Jun 2, 2022 03:00 PM Eastern Time

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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85058523988

Meeting ID: 850 5852 3988