7,400,000,000 to One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgYAHHkPFs
"Imagine" by John Lennon
In light of the mass murders in a gay club in Orlando I am compelled to write a post I have been thinking of for a long time, even before I began to blog.
I have been called Pollyanna, an idealist, unrealistic, for as long as I can remember. It seems simple to me that if we all act from the good in our hearts, from love, the world will be a better place. I know it is a complicated world - politics, economics, religious hatred, differing ideas and experiences, poverty, disease, hunger, corporate-slavery, illness and mental health problems. But I don't think it needs to be as complicated as we make it.
I feel in my deepest self that if we all take personal responsibility for our lesser selves and actions, we can change the world. If we take responsibility for recognizing that actions that do not come from love, equality and tolerance are expressions of fear and hurt from our wounded selves then we begin to heal. Then we will have a very different world. We must start from the knowledge that we are each of value, loveable and necessary for our communities. Everyone of us has gifts and contributions that can make the whole better, that can bring meaning to ourselves. To me these are unconditional, universal truths.
Actions that look like hate, meanness, bullying, intolerance of others, greed, cruelty, putting down of others, competing and putting others underneath us, war, genocide, terrorism, religious wars come from self-hate and fear. If we take responsibility for being in acceptance of others, of differences, we will not act in negative and harmful ways towards others. If we own our own fear when we are triggered and dive deep into ourselves to remembers we are of value, we are lovable, that we matter, then we will act with love and compassion not hate and fear.
If we forgive those who harm us and do not retaliate we can change the world. It doesn't mean we will be perfect, I certainly am not. However, when we take responsibility for harm that comes from us we can work to come from a more loving and accepting place. I believe it is more simple than we make it to have harmony in the world, much more simple.
We have such duality, our hearts and our minds. Our fear and our love, our generosity and our greed, our greatness and our smallness, our minds and our hearts, our wisdom and our ignorance - and on. Our biggest duality, in my opinion is our human body/mind/psyche and our spirit. This seems to be where we get stuck. To be clear, by spirit I am not talking in a religious sense but in a human spiritual sense. Every single one of us on this earth has a soul, a spirit. I do know there is a higher power, call it the Universe, , God, Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, Ganesh, Shiva, whatever you like. I call it simply the Universe, or the Greater Spirit. Each of us is a part and an expression of the Greater Spirit.
The duality we experience in ourselves creates a battle between our spirit and our brain, our inner insecure feelings and our deeper wisdom and knowing. It does take effort to begin to remember we are of value, we are loveable. It takes works to be responsible for what we put into the world. It takes work to accept difference and remember we are all of the same spirit even as we are also different in beliefs, cultures, language, religion. This duality of being one with the differences can be confusing and difficult to negotiate in ourselves.
Fear is a symptom to notice and realize is coming from ourselves. Fear is not a symptom something is wrong with someone else.....unless we are under threat or another is acting his fear out on us in negative ways. In the first instance we'd better get out of there. In the second we need compassion for the other as well as to love and manage our own responses. Retaliation will help no one. I hate to say it but Donald Trump is a great example of not attending to his own fears. His "followers" are the same. The violence and hateful rhetoric is exactly where we don't want to go. When there is such hatred it is a reflection of the inner life of the person, their self-hatred.
The violence we witnessed in Orlando last week is hard to forgive, hard to understand. Our world is so out of balance. How do we make sense of the loss of 50 amazing young people in the prime of their lives? What do we think of the shooter? It is so difficult, it seems almost impossible to feel, to reconcile. Occurrences like this come from a world deeply out of sync and balance. We can only start today, right now, bringing love to ourselves first and then spreading it outwards. Every time we blow it we need to forgive ourselves and go back to love. That will change the world. Imagine if we all did this. Imagine Palestine and Israel working together. Imagine Iran and the U.S. working together. Imagine the world opening its heart and doors to Syrian and other refugees - people who just want a decent, safe life like we have here in N. America. Imagine the uber rich giving their wealth to stem poverty, disease and hunger, to help grow sustainable lives for 100's of millions in Africa. Imagine opening our own wallets and making do with less. Imagine consuming less. All for love.
I truly believe with all my heart that if we remember always that we are of value, we are loveable, that we matter, we can give that same truth to all others with whom we share the planet. We can have compassion instead of hate for those who are not remembering their worth and may be causing harm. We can have deep value for others because we have a deep sense of our own value.
Call me Pollyanna if you like. I KNOW it is possible.