Dear Reader:

The last few days have been troubling ones since the news broke last week about the murder of Dr Robert Lesslie, his wife Barbara. their two young grandchildren and an appliance employee working on the air conditioning.

As more of the story was revealed I realized that not only did I know this couple but more associations sprang up. I attended Erskine College with Robert and Barbara, Barbara was from Lauren’s, my mother’s hometown and where we moved at the start of my high school years-Barbara, her older sister Donna and I all attended Laurens High School. Both sisters were sweet, smart and just as beautiful inside as out.

Later we all ended up at Erskine College where everybody knew everybody.Robert’s family was from Due West, SC -home to Erskine College where Robert’s father taught chemistry.

My son Walsh attended Appalachian State and was a fraternity brother with Robbie ( the couple’s oldest son.) Robbie often came down to the Lowcountry during his college days and Walsh remembers going to Rock Hill on occasion.

My grandmother Wilson ( Seawright) graduated from the Erskine Women’s College in 1902. The Seawrights, along with the Lesslies were some of the first families that formed Due West. So generationally our families have intertwined.

My thoughts over this seemingly senseless loss of life have darkened over the big Why Questions of Life. Why should something so terrible happen to such good people?

Then I came upon a random document I had saved on ” Old Faithful” my desktop computer.

The message addressed the relationship with our thoughts and how important it is not to confuse our identity with our thoughts.

” We are spiritually asleep when we take our thoughts for reality. The concept is so simple yet so hard to integrate because our thoughts sometimes seem so powerful as they are connected to our emotions.

In reality we are separate from our thoughts, emotions and physical body… even the accumulation of our experiences. We are ” pure awareness.” If we were just thoughts, emotions, and experiences we would disappear when they did. This means we are not the labels we put on ourselves. nor those that others do.

Thoughts are only tools to help us plant our seeds of self-awareness, our compass to help navigate our way through life and then they pass on.

If everyone could rise above their immediate thoughts and use them as tools instead of reality…then we would discover the divine spark inside each of us… connecting us to the universe. That is reality.

So until tomorrow… Help us Father keep our divine spirit alive and well within us so we can seek your refuge when most needed!

” Today is my favorite day” – Winnie the Pooh