This is brilliant. Common Sense. Eugene Gendlin, of the Focusing Institute, would call this the Larger System. I practice a kind of listening inside for how I experience myself connected to what I will now call Common Sense. For me it is a physical sense. There are ways that I hear the news and am moved to act. Usually I can’t do all the actions I would like (I would probably burn out!). But I could take something, one piece – as Br. David suggests – and bring that one piece to my loving caring attention, and listen to what comes inside to see if there is some more Common Sense that I am either to bring or to sense. If I listen like that, maybe I will even sense the smallest bit of change in a direction that brings more life. I will try this! I do know that when I listen to the news, and I feel the tears run down the inside of my body, that I am hearing and feeling compassion, and that it makes complete Common Sense to feel that. I hope that somewhere a soul might find the world to be a slightly softer place because I’ve softened it with my tears. That is something I just have to trust.

Well hello neighbour, and hello Mary Anne! Your thought to light a candle in your house that is for your house and others is beautiful. When you get to other lands, my thought is that when you look on their candles, you will feel a new variation on your beautiful Common Sense (maybe a sense of peace and compassion and hope) and then you will add another light. By the by, I grew up with Americans, in Tripoli Libya. Every summer I came “home” to Canada. I did not like how ignorant (innocently so) they were about where I lived, and that they had very false ideas about the Arabs (who I respect and in whose country I felt very safe, living side by side). When we finally moved to Canada, I expected to feel patriotism and at home. Canada does not pride itself on patriotism. I felt that I missed that. Today I realize what blessing that is–to not feel patriotic. I belong to the world. I belong to humanity. The world is my home. I believe we are very lucky here, that we downplay nationalism. When all my neighbours are at peace and happy, I am happy. I try to bring peace, joy and happiness through the doorway of my life. May it spread through our Common Sense. Blessing you, Mary Anne

Hello! I really like your name and your photo!!! We have some things in common, in addition to Common Sense! I do not own a T.V. However, I do tune in to CBC and I do read reports from credible sources. Truth is a multi-faceted and important and almost elusive goal in the media, but we must keep working at it, since it brings us closer to reality and our very important Common Sense. When I go inward, in my quiet time, I know I connect to Common Sense. For that reason, I think it will be very interesting for me to try Br David’s 5th suggestion above.

Sometimes I find it very difficult to listen to the news, and sometimes I can’t. If someone is yelling or having a tantrum, then I leave that stuff to the professional reporters in Canada to translate for me (They actually considered ignoring that stuff, as did the British parliament vote on whether to ignore certain forms of speech (that borders on hate) coming from U.S. political contender–in both cases, they decided that the action would impair the service that they give to the public, i.e. that of reporting). Sometimes the news makes my heart grieve and I feel painful (like when men in Pakistan were attacked in a hospital during their process of identifying bodies). I spend time in the U.S. (months at a time). When there, I get hardly any news of the world, and actually listen to a Canadian station so that I get it. I believe it is important that we take care of our hearts so that we can grow in awareness and ability to listen. We who lives outside of the U.S., who are impacted even more than you by your leaders, we need you ordinary Americans to listen to Common Sense. It behooves all of us to do the best we can with that, and to seek the help we can. I will follow Br. David’s suggestions in this post so that I can do that better. I will pray for your miracle, Anita. Blessing you, Mary Anne