I got back to the US on May 27th, three days after the Uvalde Texas school shooting where 21 children and teachers died. Five days later, four more people were killed in the hospital shooting in Tulsa Oklahoma. At that point, we had had two 223 shootings in the US just in 2022. Since the 4th of July shootings, this number has crept up to 314. Just a couple days after I returned to Colorado, I met Julianne Nagy in the yoga studio at the climbing gym. I was seeking a quiet place and some peace, so was she. Our chat quickly became deeper and I shared my sadness around the recent shootings. Julianne brought a new perspective, encouraging me to look beyond my fear and anger. She recognizes the need for gun laws to change, and also, being a yoga instructor, reiki practitioner, and heart centered facilitator, comes from a more spiritual background. One of the things she said that stood out to me was: “The amount of suffering that is happening in this world is a direct reflection of our inner turmoil.” I am neither a politician nor a gun law expert. I do know that in 2016, the National Rifle Association spent more than $50 million dollars to back Donald Trump and several Republican Senate candidates. But this episode is not a political debate on gun law. It’s an honest reflection on how gun violence in the US is affecting me. I love the US very much and for many reasons. The land, the people, my family. I spent summers growing up with my grandparents in Montana and when I moved to California at age nineteen, I immediately felt welcomed. I have experienced how this country is based on innovation and self-motivation. It truly has been, for me, a land of possibilities. I mean, I own a school bus with a climbing wall attached to the side of it that my dance troupe performs on. And I have driven this bus through the most breathtaking landscapes, past desert towers, through canyonlands, mountains and vast plains. The US has so much to offer, and it just makes me sad to see innocent people die when it can seem so evitable, if only the right decisions were made.
I got back to the US on May 27th, three days after the Uvalde Texas school shooting where 21 children and teachers died. Five days later, four more people were killed in the hospital shooting in Tulsa Oklahoma. At that point, we had had 223 shootings in the US just in 2022. Since the 4th of July shootings, this number has crept up to 314.
Just a couple days after I returned to Colorado, I met Julianne Nagy in the yoga studio at the climbing gym. I was seeking a quiet place and some peace, so was she. Our chat quickly became deeper and I shared my sadness around the recent shootings. Julianne brought a new perspective, encouraging me to look beyond my fear and anger. She recognizes the need for gun laws to change, and also, being a yoga instructor, reiki practitioner, and heart centered facilitator, comes from a more spiritual background. One of the things she said that stood out to me was: “The amount of suffering that is happening in this world is a direct reflection of our inner turmoil.”
I am neither a politician nor a gun law expert. I do know that in 2016, the National Rifle Association spent more than $50 million dollars to back Donald Trump and several Republican Senate candidates. But this episode is not a political debate on gun law. It’s an honest reflection on how gun violence in the US is affecting me.
I love the US very much and for many reasons. The land, the people, my family. I spent summers growing up with my grandparents in Montana and when I moved to California at age nineteen, I immediately felt welcomed. I have experienced how this country is based on innovation and self-motivation. It truly has been, for me, a land of possibilities. I mean, I own a school bus with a climbing wall attached to the side of it that my dance troupe performs on. And I have driven this bus through the most breathtaking landscapes, past desert towers, through canyonlands, mountains and vast plains. The US has so much to offer, and it just makes me sad to see innocent people die when it can seem so evitable, if only the right decisions were made.