SL01-15 - Imaginal Hope

In the past week, the news cycles have reported the stories about 2 survivors of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting dying by suicide and the father of a Sandy Hook mass shooting victim dying by suicide.  Three lives irreversibly traumatized by gun violence.  Three lives whose inner Light was so diminished by an act of evil.  Three lives who bore the weight of unfathomable grief. Once again we find ourselves as a family, as a community, as a country talking more about suicide and mental health.  Beginning to acknowledge as a country the growing epidemic of suicide.  I have no answers as to the best way to solve and halt and stop gun violence.  Nor do I have a solution for reducing suicide.  Nor a solution for helping people so traumatized by violence to grieve over the violent loss of a loved one.  I can only imagine the sorrow and burdens those directly impacted by gun violence, by thoughts of suicide and by suicide itself carry with them for the rest of their life. I thought an imaginal prayer exercise envisioning hopefulness is what is called for in times like these.  It's not an empty "thoughts and prayers" often derided by so many today because our political leaders who could make change who refuse to make change and only offer their "thoughts and prayers."  This imaginal prayer exercise of hopefulness is being offered to radiate Light out into the cosmos to all those who may be in their darkest moments, to radiate Hope in a world that is bombarded with messages and images seeking to destroy all hope, and to radiate healing and consolation on all victims of gun violence and their families.  That the pain stop and healing can begin.  Most importantly, it is being offered to send God's Light, Hope and Healing upon all those struggling with thoughts of suicide and those contemplating suicide.