With everything that has been happening with the bush fires, it really got me thinking about loss. People there not only lost their homes and livelihoods, but family, memories, pasts and futures. Loss is such an inevitable part of our lives. We fight and resist it. We deny and repel it. The Buddhists believe all of life is suffering, and certainly there seems to be a lot of that in the world. But it is amazing how the human spirit will pick up and move on, even if we don't want to, finding great strength in places that were not evident before, drawing the collective energies of grief to plant the seeds of hope. Once we have cried our tears, cried out in anger, cried the voice of despair we have only hope left. It is the hope of new beginnings, of finding some beauty and joy in the ashes, that causes us to wearily and warily stand and take the first tentative step toward a new future and new memories. My heart goes out to all those people in the South and the North and my fervent wish for you is HOPE.
