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Today I feel hopeful that we human beings might eventually evolve. Deep things are stirring in the human collective. A couple of good, honest, and penetrating conversations with two different friends in one day allow my heart’s imagination breathing space. And when Louise says: “We are not alone talking about this, I am sure others on this globe are having these conversations,” I know she is right. Could we evolve into a species that cares and shares, and is not imprisoned in the tight grip of endless greed and exclusion? Where the soul’s desire for plain simple goodness and generosity includes the Other and Stranger, the ones not from our tribe. Where compassion is not just a fashionable word but a daily hands-on practice.

When I am by myself, or sometimes talking with friends, I can be very judgmental. I am easily exasperated by people who can’t think beyond their own skin, who can’t contemplate making sacrifices for the well being of the greater good and community. But when I stand across another human being and look into their eyes, I can’t help but also see their heart, and I feel their soul’s longing for goodness. Goodness is a basic need for all of us. Empathy grows from it naturally. We don’t have to train ourselves to be empathetic, or fake it. When I see this desire in the other human being across from me – however deeply buried it might be I always see it – ­I sense our common need for acceptance & belonging. I feel moved by this vulnerable yearning, by our fragility. I experience it as light-filled beauty. May this guiding light be allowed to be present in all of our hearts, may it flourish and guide each of us.

With this prayer, I am reminded today of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s sacrifice. He was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident. For a year and a half, Bonhoeffer was imprisoned awaiting trial. Sympathetic guards helped smuggle his letters out of prison. One of those guards, even offered to help him escape from the prison and "disappear" with him, and plans were made for that end but Bonhoeffer declined it, fearing Nazi retribution against his family, especially his brother Klaus and brother-in-law Hans von Dohnányi, who were also imprisoned. He was executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp by hanging at dawn on 9 April 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

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