Now

I just finished watching President Obama officially announce the news.

I went on Facebook (like any good American would, of course) and a friend posted a portion of this Martin Luther King Jr. quote.  They were the exact words I was searching for.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, 

begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. 

Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.

Through violence you may murder the liar, 

but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. 

Through violence you may murder the hater, 

but you do not murder hate. 

In fact, violence merely increases hate. 

So it goes. 

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, 

adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. 

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: 

only light can do that. 

Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

May God grant us the courage to show compassion during this time, to remember that life is but a breath and it is a miracle for us all.  May we try even more now to examine ourselves so that we may learn to live out in love and not in hate.  May we find peace in our hearts so that we may radiate that peace to the world and show through our example the way to live.

Let us not allow anger and revenge to take over our being.  Let us remain humble and still, quiet and reverent, loving and open.