Will you pray with me please?

I was going to write about something else today but I can't stop thinking about the disturbing events that are happening currently back home in Israel and Palestine.

It can be very discouraging to think about the situation and it is certainly very scary. I'm afraid for the lives of my loved ones and I'm even more concerned about the emotional scars that the war is leaving them with. I'm especially thinking about my son who moved there last summer and hasn't lived there since he was 3. He didn't have to grow up with the trauma of sirens and rockets that most of us there grew up with.

War messes up with people and it has much broader effects than the specific time and location they take place in.

You might not have had to live in a war zone but maybe your parents or your grandparents did, maybe you have someone serving in the military right now, maybe you also come from a war-torn county. I'm sure that if you spend a few minutes thinking about it you will figure out exactly how your life has been affected by war.

The reason that wars keep happening is that people don't get a chance to heal from their war wounds. The trauma takes up so much space in their psyche that they cannot think rationally about their own long-term interests and end up perpetuating the violence.

That is why, I think that asides from trying to reach for the most rational policies, it is very important to give people a chance to do the actual work of healing. This work requires the deep listening skills that we practice in somatic movement and therapy work. This is the only kind of listening that allows for the safety necessary to connect to the kind of feelings that we store in the body as a result of trauma.

I've spent several hours in the last week trembling, shaking, crying, raging, and releasing pent-up emotions of terror, rage, and grief over what is happening, which is most certainly triggering all of my past trauma around violence and war. And I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg.

I know this is what is helping me stay connected to my humaneness and keep reaching for a fully embodied life. I know this is what is helping me stay hopeful about the situation and create some space for me to listen patiently and without judgment to some people in my life who are not able to think rationally and are caught up in some unhelpful perspectives.

I'm also able to draw some hope from a group of people in Israel that I'm connected to that are also doing the same kind of work. It was heartening for me to participate in a gathering this week that was called specifically for the purpose of doing this healing from war work.

We spent some time hearing from the leader about how important it is to stay connected to each other so that we can feel safe enough to un-numb and feel the terror, the rage, the grief, so we can stay present. We then had several opportunities to exchange some deep listening time with people in order to practice releasing and discharging these emotions.

While I was participating in this group I was wondering how different things would be if only we could listen to every Israeli and Palestinian unload their trauma in this way.

I know that I can't do this work with each individual on my own but it gives me hope that there is a path for ending the cycle of violence, it's the path of individuals healing their own trauma with the help of another close, compassionate human being.

As always, I'm here to read your thoughts, comments, and questions.

I'd love it if you can join me in my prayer for healing and peace to everyone who is currently living under the threat of war and violence and for your own healing from whatever effects wars have had on your life directly or indirectly.