This is really quite magnificent. I am a retired hospice social worker, now a volunteer and am well acquainted with grief…a good reminder that we are grieving different things and can therefore not grieve together. Richard Rohr says that if our grief is not transformed it will be transmitted. That, I believe, is what we are witnessing all around us. I for one am doing all I know how to do in order to grow, protect and maintain the equanimity I have - no easy task under our present circumstances. Thank you so so much for this post - good timing! 🙏🏽♥️
Thank you. It’s really helpful to name our feelings. That way we can better understand that we are not our feelings, but are a container for them. We can let them go, but first we say hello to them. Hello anger, I see you there. I understand you. I understand why you are here with me now. I have compassion for you. It is a difficult moment that we are facing together.
I'm reading this post on January 13, 2026 and your message feels as important today following the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good as it did when you wrote it months ago. I have not only been deeply saddened by her death, but also by the lies being told about her and the people who are choosing to believe those lies and say, without any apparent hesitation horrible things about her that simply aren't true. It's so incredibly heartbreaking and so wrong and so unfathomable that anyone could be so cruel, disrespectful and outright hateful.
It helped to be reminded that underneath all that malicious behavior are people who are hurting, too. As tempting as it is for me to withdraw in disgust from relationships with any of them, I know that's not the answer.
I pray daily for the willingness to not hate back and to search for the Light and continue the work of Loving my neighbor, no matter what, no matter how hard. I think of a relative who is a fireman and sadly says very hateful things on social media yet the fact is I know when he arrives at the scene of a fire, he doesn't pause to think of the political views of the people trapped inside, he rushes in, without hesitation to save them... because that's who he truly is underneath all his hurt and anger. ❤️🙏❤️🙏❤️
I find your essay and meditation to be 100% on target! We certainly need to be reminded that anger is so often a covert way of dealing with loss and grief. Sadly our patriarchal culture does not allow much grief; grief expresses vulnerability and hurt, which is anathema to “manliness.” So even funerals are morphed into “celebrations of life.” We need to join together for both expressions of the specialness the person has had for us. And now, when we divide into political sides and religious sides, we would do well to mourn together the losses we feel over the shattering of the reverence we have felt as the myths that have held us together (such as “we are a Christian nation”) break apart. Thank you for your healing presence.
I'm sending your meditation to everyone I know. Thank you for so eloquently putting into words what so many of us are feeling!
This is really quite magnificent. I am a retired hospice social worker, now a volunteer and am well acquainted with grief…a good reminder that we are grieving different things and can therefore not grieve together. Richard Rohr says that if our grief is not transformed it will be transmitted. That, I believe, is what we are witnessing all around us. I for one am doing all I know how to do in order to grow, protect and maintain the equanimity I have - no easy task under our present circumstances. Thank you so so much for this post - good timing! 🙏🏽♥️
Excellent meditation. Thank you, Cameron, for your insightfulness and these words today. Grateful for your steadfast love.
Thank you. It’s really helpful to name our feelings. That way we can better understand that we are not our feelings, but are a container for them. We can let them go, but first we say hello to them. Hello anger, I see you there. I understand you. I understand why you are here with me now. I have compassion for you. It is a difficult moment that we are facing together.
I always say “God Help Us”. However,as a race, we need to start helping ourselves.
HE has given us the tools, heart and knowledge, we just have to use them for the good of ALL!!!
I'm reading this post on January 13, 2026 and your message feels as important today following the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good as it did when you wrote it months ago. I have not only been deeply saddened by her death, but also by the lies being told about her and the people who are choosing to believe those lies and say, without any apparent hesitation horrible things about her that simply aren't true. It's so incredibly heartbreaking and so wrong and so unfathomable that anyone could be so cruel, disrespectful and outright hateful.
It helped to be reminded that underneath all that malicious behavior are people who are hurting, too. As tempting as it is for me to withdraw in disgust from relationships with any of them, I know that's not the answer.
I pray daily for the willingness to not hate back and to search for the Light and continue the work of Loving my neighbor, no matter what, no matter how hard. I think of a relative who is a fireman and sadly says very hateful things on social media yet the fact is I know when he arrives at the scene of a fire, he doesn't pause to think of the political views of the people trapped inside, he rushes in, without hesitation to save them... because that's who he truly is underneath all his hurt and anger. ❤️🙏❤️🙏❤️
I find your essay and meditation to be 100% on target! We certainly need to be reminded that anger is so often a covert way of dealing with loss and grief. Sadly our patriarchal culture does not allow much grief; grief expresses vulnerability and hurt, which is anathema to “manliness.” So even funerals are morphed into “celebrations of life.” We need to join together for both expressions of the specialness the person has had for us. And now, when we divide into political sides and religious sides, we would do well to mourn together the losses we feel over the shattering of the reverence we have felt as the myths that have held us together (such as “we are a Christian nation”) break apart. Thank you for your healing presence.
I went to Radnor High School with a Meg Wheatley in the 1980s. Did she?