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Bare Trees in Fog

Collective Conscience

Writer: Marie LaureMarie Laure
Oct 24, 20232 min read

In times like these, when the whole world is focused on one particular event, we hear the voices of wise ones, if we listen. They speak to us of our collective conscience. Their words are reminders to us all to listen to the voice of our conscience before adding our voice to the universal call on either side of the event that captivates our attention. These messengers, prophets of the world, have said it so well, that I will share their words rather than contribute my own to the impossible situation unfolding before everyone’s eyes:


“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” Dr. Martin Luther King


”It takes no special talent to see what’s ugly, numbing, depressing, and death-dealing in our world. But staying aware of what’s good, true, and beautiful requires us to open our eyes, minds, and hearts, and keep them open." Parker Palmer


“The future depends on what we do in the present.” Mahatma Gandhi


"“...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Rabbi Abraham Heschel


"“Let there be justice for all.Let there be peace for all.Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. President Nelson Mandela


"We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." President Jimmy Carter


There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill.

It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.” Prime Minister Golda Meir (the one and only woman prime minister of Israel)


We condemn the killing of any civilian whether Palestinian or Israeli." Queen Rania (of Jordan)


"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." Sung in 1973 by my graduating class just like these students in 2023.







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© 2023 by Marie Laure

​Six Stages of Pilgrimage:

  • The Call:

  • The opening clarion of any spiritual journey. Often in the form of a feeling or some vague yearning, a fundamental human desire: finding meaning in an overscheduled world somehow requires leaving behind our daily obligations. Sameness is the enemy of spirituality.

  • The Separation:

  • Pilgrimage, by its very nature, undoes certainty. It rejects the safe and familiar. It asserts that one is freer when one frees oneself from daily obligations of family, work, and community, but also the obligations of science, reason, and technology.

  • The Journey:

  • The backbone of a sacred journey is the pain and sacrifice of the journey itself.  This personal sacrifice enhances the experience; it also elevates the sense of community one develops along the way.

  • The Contemplation:

  • Some pilgrimages go the direct route, right to the center of the holy of holies, directly to the heart of the matter. Others take a more indirect route, circling around the outside of the sacred place, transforming the physical journey into a spiritual path of contemplation like walking a labyrinth.

  • The Encounter:

  • After all the toil and trouble, after all the sunburn and swelling and blisters, after all the anticipation and expectation comes the approach, the sighting. The encounter is the climax of the journey, the moment when the traveler attempts to slide through a thin veil where humans live in concert with the Creator.

  • The Completion and Return:

  • At the culmination of the journey, the pilgrim returns home only to discover that meaning they sought lies in the familiar of one's own world. "Seeing the place for the first time . . ."

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