Hello and welcome to this precious Saturday, August 21, 2021. May you live this day, and all the days to come, with attention and intention.
If asked if it were better to respond to situations that arise with bitterness, anger, and resentment or with peace, love, and kindness, whether these situations are pleasant or quite difficult, I imagine that we would all confidently answer with the latter – it would be better to respond with peace, love, and kindness.
I feel like we all know this intuitively. Nevertheless, we tend to hang on to our justified anger and resentments.
While I believe there is more compassion than cruelty in the world, there are things happening in our own neighborhoods and around the world that are appalling. What is happening in Afghanistan right now, for instance, seems intolerable. Disbelief, sadness, and anger are expected reactions to these atrocities. If we respond, however, with intolerance, anger, or a sense of rage, are we not reacting from within the very same state of being that underlies the cruelty?
The reality is, we live in a messy world where tolerance and kindness are often overshadowed by intolerance and hate in the media and in our own conversations. This hate-driven intolerance, unfortunately, creates even more division and prevents us from unifying and healing. If anger and rage over the cruelties happening around the world add to the problem, our solution, it seems, is to love reality.
This isn’t to say that we must love racism, climate change, rape, and genocide. Loving reality suggests we accept and forgive so that we can transform the negative states of being that spontaneously arise in response to these heinous acts into something that will actually bring about a positive change.
This idea is not something new to us. Transforming hate into action driven by love is the basis for civil disobedience and peace marches. Agents of loving, transformative change understand that to retaliate with the same negative state of being only reinforces and amplifies the original negative behavior.
If we are to live in a world where tolerance and love become more visible than intolerance and hate, then we must look within ourselves. Because change starts with us.
You are Loved by me, Unconditionally!
Dan
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