Grief is a Fertile Ground

Every tear that falls nourishes the ground of peace.

It seems impossible to me to be alive in this moment on Earth without feeling grief for the thousand horrors against life that take place each day. This week has been especially difficult, as the brutal terrorist attack unfolded in Israel and as we witness the indescribable violence being carried out in response against Palestinians.. As a person of Jewish descent, I feel deeply connected to this event.

When I read about this conflict or watch videos of what is happening, my heart breaks for I see only brothers killing brothers. I cannot find a single bone in my body which desires to choose a "side" or to condemn one kind of violence and justify another. This, even though I have family members in Israel who lost friends and loved ones in the October 7th attack. Even though my DNA remembers the holocaust, and the thousands of years of oppression against the Jewish people, I could not bear to align myself with anyone who justifies violence in the name of peace, security, or any other gain.

I shed tears each time I listen to the news, for all the people living in fear between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — no matter what nation, language, religion, or creed. The Jews and Arabs, are considered to be descendants of the sons of Abraham. This makes them brothers, locked in a conflict of siblings that has gone on for far too long and been the cause of so much bloodshed.

So what do we do, in the face of such grief? Martín Prechtel says that "Grief is praise, because it is the natural way love honors what it misses."

So let us praise the life that we all cherish, the gift of breath that we all share as humans on this beautiful earth. Let us praise this life through our grief, and by shedding our tears we will nourish the fertile ground of peace. For peace is an active aliveness, a presence that makes itself known in the song of praise wept and cried out through grief. Peace sprouts up where our tears fall, for our grief causes us to desire to protect life and all that is holy and sacred. This deep desire blossoms into a lasting peace, a world where life is honored and respected.

I pray that the leaders of the United States, Israel, and Palestine, and the whole international community of nations, can find the strength and courage to grieve for the suffering that is being inflicted, and out of this grief that they will call for de-escalation and a path forward to peace. Not a "peace we can defend," for peace needs no defending, but a peace built from praise for all of life, for the divine sanctity of life which is given to all beings as birthright upon this Earth.

May it be so.