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I deeply want to write a blog, or even one line or image so powerful it would transform the world, or at least shake it up so much it would see itself more clearly.
Or shake me up so completely I would see myself more clearly. Is that too much to yearn for? It doesn’t even have to be me who writes it; I’d be a happy reader.
I’m speaking of the political world. The trees outside the window shake themselves every moment there’s a wind — or every moment the sun gives light to leaves to drink, or the night gives rest.
I want to break through. I want to feel my fears for this country, for the children being forcibly taken from their parents, or their education stolen by corporations — can’t these fears for the leaves and trees and the roof over my head transform into storms of mass insight, compassion, and outrage? Can’t the whole nation become a storm of compassion so powerful it rages through the streets, wiping clean the grasp of ignorance, greed, and corruption in Congress and the White House?
We’d be left standing like the apple tree, loving the way the sun and soil and rain give us life. If only we — or I — could be such a storm of insight and love, even once.
This yearning emerged when I wished the Buddhist wish for all beings to be free from suffering. I looked out my window and wished I could share what I saw. I wished that all of us who feel ignored or powerless or afraid or in pain or who don’t know what to do with their lives or how to find meaning or love, that they’d see a view they love out their window, or into themselves or into another being. And they’d prefer this looking into the world to attacking or consuming it.
They’d look into themselves and see the millions or billions of others residing there. They’d see others in pain or in need and could not resist helping them. A wish might be only a wish. But if repeated deeply enough, it has the power to be transformed into insightful action.
This is the wish I hope you share.
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