Life Unfolding Beautifully

Seven years ago today, I was driving along Route 110 in Virginia, late for a meeting in DC. As I was chatting on the phone with my boss back at the office, I looked to my right and saw a fireball erupting on the far side of the Pentagon. They don’t look anything like what you see in the movies or on TV. Instantly I knew that life would never be the same again.

Here we are.

It has been seven years since everything in the US stopped for several days.

It has been seven years since people across the globe said, “We are all Americans today.”

Here are some things that I am noticing about my country after seven years…

– I am noticing that elements of our government use torture. They always did. Now, the word is out.

– I am noticing that some elected officials only pay lip service to the Constitution. They always did. Now, the word is out.

– I am noticing that at least one political party will use any chance it can get to appropriate national symbols for political gain. They always did. Now, the word is out.

The word is out about the shadow country. The one that was kept in the dark because, as the amazing Jack Nicholson once said, “You can’t handle the truth.”

Now that we see the shadow, what do we do next?

Do we fight? Many of us have been fighting. Did it bring relief?

Do we drop out? Many of us have dropped out. Did it bring relief?

As the old saying goes, “What you resist, persists.” Fighting and ignoring are just a way to resist what is. There is a shadow country, whether we fight it or ignore it. There always has been. Now, the word is out.

Or is there another way? Many of us have found comfort and vision and renewed commitment to life in the vibrant unseen world that surrounds everything.

Is it possible that, by seeing the shadow country — the hidden United States (in other words, “us”) — we have an opportunity to choose once again? To choose more love, more peace, more harmony?

We can make this powerful choice in the place where we have the most influence — ourselves. Not islands alone in the stream, but interdependent beings living with and among one another.

It is no stretch to say to this group that how we live our lives has a greater influence on people than any word we may speak or write. For if we speak of one thing, but live another, then our words mean nothing in the end.

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Starhawk once wrote that it was a mistake not to give the dead a voice in politics. Being dead, they don’t quite have the same perspective on things that we, the living, have in our short view of the present and the future.

If you are having a memorial today for those who died on September 11th, whether it is public or private, you might want to ask the dead their opinion. They will probably tell you that their lives were never in vain and that they want no revenge for anything. For, from their non-physical vantage point, they see the perfection that exists already in each of our lives. And, patiently, they wait for us to realize it on our own.

When we do, the shadow disappears, for we are now living in the light.

With much love and affection for you all,
Frank Butterfield