Today, as I was browsing my Facebook feed, I felt uplifted to see all the love that the people I’m connected to are sharing. I feel blessed to have so many amazing people in my life and to be alive at a time when it feels like more and more people are living from their heart.
And then I saw something so deeply horrific that I can’t get it out of my mind. A video of soldiers burying people that are still alive and moving. I don’t know what nationality the soldiers are and I don’t have an ideological point of view on the video other than deep sorrow.
Are you pro Palestine? Are you pro Israel? Pro Russia? Pro Ukraine? Pro USA? Pro Afghanistan? Pro Democrat? Pro Republican?
How many sides do we need to take before we realize there is only one rational side: pro peace. Pro sharing this planet without destroying it and each other.
If you’re reading this, you have the benefit of higher consciousness. You have the capacity to see the world through a different lens.
What is right and what is wrong? Thousands of years of human history have brought us to this point. Do we blame each other? Do we blame the previous generation? Our ancestors? How far back should we go?
That terrorist? He’s the product of 14 billion years of universal evolution and was crafted by the circumstances that brought him to this moment. He has a family. Do you believe that any child is born wanting to blow himself up? He’s blinded by righteousness which was built into him by his environment. He didn’t choose that environment.
Is there a side here? Are we not one people sharing one planet? Those people on the “other” side, they’re fighting for what they believe in. They barely have a choice. And you might feel that they barely give you a choice. But you have a choice to recognize that they too are human. There is no ideology that will ever make that not true. We all have a choice to bring more love and compassion into our judgement. We all have a choice to rise above the judgement of others and stand for something greater than who’s right or who’s wrong.
Love doesn’t mean letting them kill you. Love is in your heart. Love is what is behind your thoughts, your actions, and your words.
Does the earth recognize our national borders? Is our blood any different because of national or religious identity? Does anyone step back and ask: what are we _really_ fighting for? Ideology? Land? Resources? Is any of it, any of it, worth even a single human life? Would you personally be willing to kill a person for your ideology? Yet every day we take sides that continue the cycle of hatred and violence.
We all participate in this world. All of us. We make the world the way it is and, just like terrorists, we are a product of our circumstance. We’re all human beings living in a crazy world trying to do the best we can.
I am human. This world is hard for me too. I read the news and my heart hurts. I too am numb to it. And when I try to go deeper my eyes well up with tears for everyone involved. So much violence. Too much hatred. Us vs them. Me vs you.
It’s time we stopped hating each other and started forgiving each other. Started forgiving ourselves for the way we treat each other.
It’s time we all looked in the mirror and asked ourselves if we have what it takes to create a peaceful world.
I look at my Facebook feed and I see so much love and light. And I ask every person reading this – can you extend that love to the people you hate? Can you find it in your heart to rise above right and wrong and be an ambassador of peace? Can you stand for peace in every action and every word?