In a typical day you can't walk out the door, pick up your phone, scan through the TV without hearing about something that is plaguing our world.
There's terrorism, guns, racism, political upheavals, random acts of violence, and more. It's enough to eat away at us as if we're a rotten apple in a sea of ants.
How does one proceed in a life when the outcome of each day is unknown and fear abounds?
I have contemplated it. I have sat in circles of friends discussing it. I have sat in solitude with it. In all the worries, anger and problem solving I realized something so pure and true.
There is only one thing that can solve all these problems. It sounds so simple that it will appear at first impossible but hear me out before shutting me out.
It's L-O-V-E.
Love has lost its innate purpose in our re-defining it and focusing its meaning on romantic love. But Love, pure and simple is a power so strong it can quite literally change the world.
I have been hearing the sentiment of love being the answer for so long that I admittedly just ignored it. I mean, really how can love really change anything, let alone the world. Then I got it -- by feeling it.
For the last few years I've been reading spiritual books and I kept getting the repeated mantras about love, love, and love -- then I got it. I really did. I had been lost in the idea of love being for people we're close to like friends and family, but its more. It's kind of like God, being the man with the long white beard in the clouds ruling over and judging us. We hold onto a socially created belief and can't quite see past it. My basic misguided interpretations lead me astray.
Ironic isn't it that it's said that God is Love and here I've inadvertently used both, God and Love, as examples of something I couldn't understand or even truly believe in.
So when did my "big moment" come of realizing that Love is in fact the answer?
I was driving in a parking lot of a shopping center when I came to a stop sign. I stopped, looked both ways and proceeded to go before I noticed a car coming from my left. I must have missed him before pulling out. I was in no way in accident territory. The driver had plenty of time to slow down. It was just the act of a bad driving move, one we have all made. As I moved forward apologetically I could feel the wrath of the person in the car. And it's then that the message came to me, as if from the parting clouds and a bright light, the answer was love.
We all have a choice in life, in every moment of every day of every year in our whole life, how to be. In every situation we can choose to see through the lens of love or though a muddied lens. The driver of the car that I pulled out in front of had a choice to see my act in anger or in pure love. It's an act of forgiveness so simple yet so powerful. It's as if saying, "It's OK you pulled in front of me. I forgive you. I love you. Have a beautiful day."
Imagine that act, that reaction, in ALL aspects of your day. Then take that equation and multiply by all the people in the world choosing this same simple act.
The energy of the world would be electric.
Let's not get lost here in my story up above about the driving incident. I meant to show just a simple example of how we have a choice of how to react in all situations in our lives.
This may be hard to hear and could possibly ruffle some feathers, but what if as a world, as a people, we let go of all anger and forgave? What if we laid our hands to our hearts, all of us, and said, "Terrorists, I forgive you and I love you? I see that you were born in the pureness of love. You are not what's on the outside but you are the pureness and innocence of what you were born from." Now this isn't going to change the direction of terrorist's actions but with each step, with each act of love, we shift the energy from hate to love and love has the ability to multiply exponentially if we allow it to.
I know this idea sounds difficult. I mean how can we forgive someone who does such atrocious things? But really, is getting angry or retaliatory really helping? Is answering hate with more hate going to be effective? Absolutely not. I'm certain about this and I think if most of us thought about it we would all agree.
The saying "God is Love" once alluded me. Heck, God alluded me. I was for a while a non-believer. It, He, God, Source came back to me though and I have since realized God was never that looming man in the clouds but simply Love. It's an energy, a power that we all hold within us. We have God within us at every minute in our hearts. God is Love.
We all have the power of God within us if we are willing to act through love. I'm not saying it's easy. It's actually very challenging. But if we all make the effort to act in Love, I promise you the trajectory of our world will change and all the above mentioned will be wiped out. There will be harmony. There will be peace. There will be hope and joy and sharing and light. There will be oneness. There will be LOVE.
When you have the choice, which you always do, Choose Love.