I recently had the tremendous pleasure of screening an episode of Oprah Winfrey's Belief documentary series at Full Circle Venice.
From the minute I put the word out that I would be doing it, everyone I spoke to or heard from expressed interest in seeing it, and there was an immediate feeling of community starting to happen before anyone had even watched the series. What that said to me was how much people want to connect with one another, and if we have something meaningful to share together, we're eager and ready to do it. The Belief series offered that tenfold. Watching people from all over the world of different faiths and religions on their spiritual journeys, and hearing about their transformational experiences was profoundly moving. As I watched Belief, I felt so connected to each person's quest to find something greater than themselves no matter what their beliefs were, and realized what was moving my heart so deeply was watching how deeply moved theirs were, and ultimately, that is what connects us all, our hearts, and the profound love we are capable of feeling.
I was fascinated by the different religions in the series, some of which I knew nothing about, like Jainism. As much as it was hard to watch the painful initiations and rituals some of the people chose to put themselves through because of their deep love for what they believed, I still found myself moved by what moved them, and had an overwhelming feeling of compassion at how beautiful we are when we are in love, no matter what our devotion is, or reasons for love are. Love is love, and irregardless of what name you give it, or what it looks like, it still comes down to one thing; love, and that is the universal truth that connects each and everyone of us.
I found the Belief series so uplifting and inspirational, as did many of the people who attended my screening. We got into a very interesting conversation afterwards, and as diverse as the religions and faiths were that we had watched together, and learned so much about, so were the responses about it. The room was filled with people from different religions, and some with no religion at all, and yet we were able to connect in spite of our differences with kindness and respect, and not make our dissimilarities a reason to distance ourselves or argue about.
The word belief conjures up many things for people, and Oprah's "Beliefin3words" campaign shows how diverse and different we are in what belief means to us. To condense what we believe into three words makes us very selective and mindful of what we want to say, and cuts right to the "heart" of the matter. I picked two, and could have easily done a dozen more. They are: Love. Is. Real. & We. Are. Eachother. You can check them out on Beliefin3words and create one yourself.
Thank you, Oprah for your amazing vision to bring us into the global living room of Belief, and showing that irregardless of our faiths and religions, we are more alike than we are different. The three words that says it all are: Love. Love. Love.
Please enjoy my video from the event