These are turbulent times whether we see it or not.
Things are happening so fast it's hard to keep up.
It is hard to know what to read and how to separate truth from "alternate fact."
It is also easy to continue life as it is, without paying attention, reading or acting.
Even with attention, it is easy to settle into the bleakness, the fear, the doubt.
The "what can I really do about any of this?"But this is not a political post.
I am not here to vent out my woes/fears/concerns/doubts.
I am here to offer a suggestion.
A suggestion for how we all proceed forward. Together.
Whether we agree or disagree on the state of our Union/policies/world/etc. there is one thing I think we can all use a little more of: Compassion.
By a little, I mean a lot.
And by all of us, I quite literally mean Every. Single. Human. Being.
Merriam-Webster defines Compassion as:
: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it
Compassion brings us together as people sharing one Earth.
Compassion sees what happens around us and doesn't turn a blind eye, instead it reaches out a hand and asks, "How can I help?".
Compassion views the world through the lens of "US" and "not us versus them."
Because Compassion does not see the individual.
Compassion says you and I are one.
Compassion says your pain is my pain.
Your life is MY life. Your community, MY community. Your world, MY world.
Compassion does not stand aside to allow others to suffer alone.
Compassion stands up to injustice even in the face of fear and uncertainty.
Compassion gives us fire.
Not fire to hurl at others, but fire to push us forward to change.
Compassion comes from a place of deep love for humanity as a whole.
It can be easy at times like this to fight fire with fire. To throw anger and hatred back at hated and resentment, please fight instead with love and compassion.
Albert Einstein said:
“We can not solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.
We are entitled to our outrage and anger. When our values are crossed, when injustice is blatantly flaunted in front of us, of course we experience these emotions. We are after all human.
We do, however, have the choice of how to react.
If we want to solve the problems of our times, we cannot find solutions in the violence or hatred of those who hope to keep us down and say "See, I told you so."
We must use the fire, use the passion, use the outrage to instead fuel the fire of change.
To fuel the beast that has been awakened in the human community.
We may not have the same beliefs or values or philosophies.
But without a doubt, we are all human beings occupying one little blue marble.
We cannot all agree. We cannot even all get along perfectly.
We can choose however to be one race.
The human race.
We are in this life together, right here and right now.
Alone our voice is hard to hear.
But together, we ROAR.
Follow Sandy McClenahan on Twitter @ForHereAndNow or on her Website:www.purposefilledpresence.com