State of Tenzo's heart

I spent two hours sitting in a diner, reading two newspapers front to back yesterday.

I thought this would be relaxing. And it was, to some extent. I was able to read enough "good" news and enough "bad" news to see that it was all just news. I had stopped reading the news over the weekend, relaxed a little. Had a dinner party on Sunday night. Then I saw all the articles about Arizona.

What if that were my child caught in a rain of a madman's bullet?

I always think like that when I read the news. I put myself right in there. It can be very relaxing. Kind of. To me, it's also inspirational.

How many people are putting themselves in each others shoes out there?

It almost seems as if everyone is only apt to discuss solutions when there are problems. Then there are those who would live their lives the same throughout with an open and clear heart. Tragedy produces drama, and drama draws attention, and attention draws outlandish behaviors from people. It is indeed a vicious cycle, bent on recreating itself perpetually.

Getting back to the question-

What if it were my child?

In alot of ways, it was. I have begun to honestly see all beings in this light, in my heart. I wonder how I ever really lived with the absence of this true perspective.

We all share the danger. We are all in the line of fire as long as hatred is behind the trigger. When fear also enters, we must stand even firmer.

Love knows no greater beauty than when it stands in the face of the purest evil. When the two come into contact, we have the different elements of life, combining together.

When we learn how to take care of the hatred in this country, how to love it, talk with it, and recognize it within all of ourselves and lives, then it will cease to cause harm like this.

Until then, it remains the servant of something with less of a moral goal and more of a mortal one.

Greed. Every year it takes more lives.

When we care about ourselves, we care about each other. And when we care about each other, we care about ourselves. Take whatever standpoint you want politically, this is a fundamental truth of our existence.

And what I also began to see, while sitting there in the diner, eating a piece of baklava, was that people were beginning to say something very important.

We must be careful about what we say. We must realize that our words and actions have immeasurably infinite influence.

My son asked me a very huge question the other day.

"Daddy, does what we say echo out through the universe, can they hear us talk in space?"

I answered "Yes".

Perhaps we are getting somewhere, finally, I think. Look at these children, growing into this world, this climate, these problems.

And they are beautiful. And they carry hope and promise in each step.

My condolences to the parents, friends, family and sympathizers of all those who lost their lives and were traumatized by the horrible events which occurred over the past weekend.

I will care for you by living to my utmost potential, by continuing to grow.

Because I, and my family, have the privilege and blessing of living.

To a better day-

Love,

Tenzo