Remembering 9/11

Photo: Andrew Kelly, Reuters

Most of us can recall where we were or what we were doing on this fateful day.

I was in Lebanon, fresh off the Camino, visiting my family after my grandmother’s unexpected passing. I had just come back from a girls’ shopping spree in Beirut and was stepping into the house when my phone rang. My best friend was crying into the phone, trying to explain these attacks in New York, and how I needed to get back to Canada right away because they were closing airports and talking of bombing southern Lebanon.

I went numb and, as I sat watching the news reports, only felt the horror of that moment.

But that day galvanized me, and placed me firmly on the path of action:

I would walk to Jerusalem for peace, and dedicate my every step to peace. Peace within me. Peace in Jerusalem, and beyond.

I reflect on this day often, on how easy it would have been to fall deeper into fear and shut myself off from the world. I saw that same struggle on the faces of so many people.

But I also saw so much grace and dignity, so much love and compassion, so many people refusing to bow to fear and to carry on, choosing to light the way rather than close off into the darkness. If there was to be a gift from this day, that would be it for me.

May all be blessed on this – and every – day.

~Mony

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#monydojeiji #walkingfopeace #consciousness #september11 #peace #love #pilgrimageforpeace #pilgrimage #pilgrim #light #lovewins #lightworkers

Reflections on 9/11

This day, 9/11, remains in my memory as the catalyst for the greatest journey of my life.

While on the Camino in July of that year, I received the inspiration to walk the Way of the Soul to Jerusalem. I was decided, confident that this was my path, seeing only possibilities and paying no heed to the nagging fears that insisted on surfacing…until I got off the Camino.

Conversations with family and friends only focused on the craziness of the idea, of a woman walking alone along the side of the road through countries unknown to a region that people were trying to escape from. My fears began to win over my heart. I began to put aside my calling, and to listen to reason, to fear.

9/11 shook me out of that stupor, and placed me on the path of action, of following my heart even when I didn’t have all the details worked out, of trusting in the invisible forces that had guided me on the Camino, and that were guiding me still.

I reflect on this day often, how easy it would have been to fall deeper into fear and shut myself off from the world. I saw that same struggle on the faces of so many people. Despite the horrors of the day, I also saw so much grace and dignity, so much love and compassion, so many people refusing to bow to fear and to carry on, choosing to light the way rather than close off in darkness.

If there can be a gift from this day, it was to witness that choice and to feel its power reverberating into the heart of all creation.

Namaste <3

Reflections on 9/11

 

This day forever changed the world in which we live. For me, it inspired a walk, a journey as much inner as it was outer, to Jerusalem. On that day, I was filled with trepidation and fear. They walked alongside me, often taunting the futility of doing such a walk, or ridiculing the idea of working on the inner planes to create peace. But alongside me also walked Love, revealing itself in the many acts of kindness and solidarity, in the many moments of the magical and miraculous. And in the silence, Love also whispered: Believe. Trust. In yourself and others. Make every step your prayer for peace, every breath your inspiration for new thought. You never walk alone.

I came across an article today called Gandhi’s Prayer (for Syria), which began: “Gandhi was once given a seemingly impossible scenario: what would he do if a plane were flying over his ashram to bomb him? He rose to the challenge with an equally challenging answer: he would pray for the pilot.” The author goes on to articulate how Gandhi’s call to prayer was consistent with his vision of non-violent strategy. The full article is here: http://mettacenter.org/blog/gandhis-prayer/.

No matter how we pray, no matter how we choose to walk the inner planes towards peace, love, compassion (yes, even for those we judge as being vile and unworthy of it), it is by doing so that we write the story of the world in which we choose to live.

September 11

This Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of an event that forever changed our world.  It most certainly changed mine. 

On that day, I was in Lebanon visiting with my family after the death of my grandmother.  I had just finished the Camino in northern Spain a month earlier, walking the 800 kilometres with an intention to find direction in my life, knowing only that I wanted to do something for peace.  I had quit my corporate job, thrown on a backpack, and just started traveling.  From Egypt to Turkey to Greece to Italy to France…they all hinted at what my life could look like, but it was the Camino that finally defined it.  Through a series of incredible coincidences, I decided I would walk for peace along the Way of the Soul, a path more mystical than physical, to Jerusalem. 

I felt inspired, ready to start right away.  On the Camino, everything seems possible; but away from it, ever so slowly, it all just seemed like one big crazy idea.  I mean, come on, a woman walking alone along the side of the road to Jerusalem?  As much as my heart was calling me to do it, my fears were equally as loud in stopping me.

So I listened to my fears…until those attacks.

They galvanized me into action; and not because I suddenly had no fears.  They were still there, but at that moment, contributing something constructive to peace seemed to me more important than my fears.  The fates brought into my path all that I needed to begin walking, including a Spanish man named Alberto, who would join me on this Walk and also forever change my life .

There are so many events going on to commemorate 9/11.  One that I especially like is the Walk for Humankind.  I considered organizing one here in Ottawa, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that yes, I want to walk on that day, but that I want the moments of that walk to be inner-focused.  I don’t want to carry banners or shout the message of peace to the world, but rather reconnect with that feeling of peace within me, truly feel it, embrace it, and then once again bring it into my seemingly-mundane, everyday world. 

That was perhaps the grandest teaching of my walk to Jerusalem, and one whose nuances and implications I still experiment with.  Ultimately, my walk for peace had nothing to do with Jerusalem, and everything to do with what I carried with me and offered to that divided land.  That’s why all journeys are sacred, for they all inevitably lead to the same destination: the inner. 

I invite you to go on that inner walk that day.