Just read the news last night. It was an old copy of the Sunday Times. I was horrified. The contrast between the tranquil beauty the I`m surrounded by and the terrifying events in London is glaring. Faces stared out from the pages of those missing. And I was asking what to do?
There was an Iraqi woman who`d been working for a charity for 20 years, a beautiful girl whose mother had insisted she go to work although she`d got a dentist`s appointment, a man whose children are wondering where he is. All missing. Maybe still in the debris of the tube explosions, maybe with the bus. And maybe have taken the chance to disappear away from friends, family, work and start a new life. I`m told some do. Who knows?
And after the shouts for vengence, the wringing of hands, the finger pointing, what can we do? What can i do?
I remember a conversation with my dad many years ago. My dad had been a parish priest. One day I said to him,"Dad, what is sin? I`m not sure I believe in it." After a pause he said," It`s intention."
I replied,"What do you mean? Intention isn`t the point surely. You can intent good things and bad things happen as a result. And I`ve seen people intent bad things and good things arise from their actions."
"Even so," my dad insisted," It`s about intention. It`s what you have set out to do."
"How do you know what your intentions are? There can be a mixture of intentions - some of them conscious and some unconscious."
"Do you read the Bible?" asked my dad. I told him,"No - though I`m reading the Bhagavad-gita."
"That`ll do," he said. "Keep testing yourself and your intentions. Keep checking with your reading, thinking, your motivation. Be true to your intentions."
Can bombing and killing people create peace and good will? What did those who laid the explosions intent really? And what do we intent in our responses?
We need to be conscious of our intentions right now. In whatever we do or say or however we are, all of it will create an intention for the future. May our intentions be peaceful and loving. For the sake of our children and grandchildren.
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