What do your eyes see? What do your ears hear? What does your heart know?
When I am in a balanced spiritual place, I know the answers to those like the back of my hand. When I am not, I sometimes struggle with all of the above and it feels overwhelming.
Maybe it is just upstate South Carolina but judging from my Facebook wall and the news, fear, and negativity is everywhere. Five minutes of any news station and I feel sick to my stomach.
We have more hostility and animosity than in a very long time with no signs of it improving. What is going to happen to us after this election? It disturbs me in ways that words can’t even explain. We are falling further and further down into a rabbit hole — looking for ways to label others and even ourselves. We seem to be going the extra mile to find things to argue about. To what end? Who wins and loses in the process?
I get it. Politics and religion are important aspects of society. But I believe we can get so caught up in both that we forget one of the most important parts of humankind — our hearts.
Our eyes see the Democrats as those baby killing, anti-gun, gay loving liberals. Our eyes see the Republicans as those old racist, homophobic, gun-totin’, white people. Religiously, there is just as much dissension with fanaticism on all fronts — even Christianity. It is beyond sad to witness the decimation that is coming from all of this.
Our eyes and ears are lying to us, but our hearts never lie. Our hearts see people as an extension of ourselves and drive us to do extraordinary things for others without asking what political affiliation we have, what denomination we belong to or what country we come from.
You know which party I want to be in? Neither! You know which religion I want to practice? God’s love for everyone no matter what they may or may not believe — to be able to look in the mirror and see that we are an extension of the Almighty and to do anything but love is to go against the Force that brought us life in the first place.
I want to live in a world where we recognize the bigger picture which is that all of the theatrics playing out in front of us is just a passing thing. This life is temporary and quick, and while we can argue about politics and religion for the duration of our time here, it is a waste of precious moments we will never see again. A thick wedge is between us all and it continues to grow deeper. Will it wind up destroying what is good and right with the world?
The toxicity from this cannot be good for anyone. It’s like standing next to a skunk as he is spraying. You can’t help but get some of that smell all over you and then pass it right on to whoever comes into your path.
Twenty-four-hour news cycles are destroying us, and we are letting them. We listen to the pundits and walk away spouting whatever jargon they were spouting whether we know it to be true or not. We adopt their view and often do not take the time to fact check. We see pictures of blown up cities and people and have empathy for all of five minutes — maybe ten — and then we are back to hurling insults at the other side not realizing that we are them and they are us. Throw our egos into the mix, and we have an even bigger raging fire that is overtaking anything it can. If we aren’t careful everything around us is on fire or worse yet burned to the ground.
I’m not saying the news isn’t a good thing or that fires are always a bad thing. The news is great for knowing what is going on and fires are perfect for staying warm and cooking, but each also can have adverse effects.
Martin Luther King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only light can do that.” Sometimes, darkness is stronger than the light. It whispers in our ears to be fearful, to judge, to see others as our enemies and to put faith into people and not the One that gives us breath. It tells us to label ourselves and that we are separate. That is a lie. We are all one!
WE have forgotten kindness and compassion and love. We have substituted being right in place of it.
What are we doing to shift that? Are we choosing to stoke the fires of division or are we leaping into love and trusting that love has the potential to solve everything?
My motto is that to love and be light is to live. If you are not loving and spreading light, you are missing out on some of the greatest gifts of life. Not only that but you are setting an example for our future generations to repeat the same old cycle until the end of time. We owe more than that to our children.
We are better than what we see playing out in front us. We are better than what the politicians, pundits or anyone else tell us. We are better than all the negativity in the world put together if we seek that and choose it.
We are the light and can shine or not. It’s up to us. Let us be the light and make this world a more lighted and loving place!
Much Love and Light to you!
Kim
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