A few days ago I posted the following under a different thread, but I think it really belongs here:
Posted by @jeanne-mayell:
There is also something we can do individually, to raise the vibration of our collective. Make peace within yourselves. Forgive your adversaries and all of the people in your lives. Make of yourselves a light.
Then send light to our country, to the Biden campaign, and the good Congressional candidates.
@jeanne-mayell, thank you for sharing those words of wisdom. I've been reading daily meditations based on the writings of Henri Nouwen. Recently I've been struggling to find peace within myself and understanding and compassion for the T supporters. My answer came in the following message:
The power of the darkness around us is strong, and our world finds it easier to manipulate self-rejecting people than self-accepting people. The great spiritual call of the Beloved Children of God is to pull their brokenness away from the shadow of the curse and put it under the light of the Blessing. Physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the blessing is experienced in ways radically different from physical, mental, or emotional pain lived under the curse.
Nouwen, Henri J.M., You are the Beloved: Daily Meditations for Spiritual Living,compiled and edited by Gabrielle Earnshaw, Convergent Books, (2017), p. 8.
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
-Maya Angelou
This thread is filled with hope and filled with ❤️ .
@frank I love what you are saying. You, @lovendures and @lowtide, your posts help support this issue of how we can make a more beautiful world, because you are helping us all to think more complexly about this issue.
A few years ago, someone on this forum tried to write about healing the divide. At the time, my anger and pain over what was happening was so intense that I did not want to consider the opponents' viewpoints. But much has changed. For one thing, the Trump news kept on going and the poison I felt towards him and his enablers circulated inside me. We make a copy for our selves when we hate because those feelings are inside of us.
The words holism and holistic health come from the root word holy. I don't feel holy when I let myself marginalize others' humanity even if it is in the name of something good.
I have always understood that the viewpoints of people on the other side are not really their viewpoints. They are the canned viewpoints fed to them, viewpoints that fit something deeper within each one's personal story. But I just know too many good people, people who are kind and generous, but who choose the GOP viewpoint. It's time to start seeing the person beneath the viewpoints, the true human's point of view.
My friend who voted for Trump because of her anti-abortion stance, has a lifetime of hardship that created her viewpoint. Never mind the difficult childhood she had, where her mother was institutionalized after she was born. But she got accidentally pregnant at 19 in a relationship that would not support the pregnancy. She had to raise her daughter alone. She later married and had another daughter and now there are grandchildren and a beautiful extended family. Clearly she just sees her own life choices regarding her pregnancy, not much else.
I don't agree with her view that women should be prevented from making their own choice, but I have compassion for her view. She doesn't want to force women, but she can't see beyond the preciousness of her children and grandchildren's lives.
My hope is that by sharing our stories of the humanity of those we disagree with, we might begin to increase the light.
@deetoo Interesting that Nouwen lived and wrote with such compassion, yet was depressed. I don't know why he was depressed, but I've read that he was, and I remember as being very serious and yet oh so kind.
My hope is that by sharing our stories of the humanity of those we disagree with, we might begin to increase the light.
Beautifully said my friend.
We have spent enough effort dehumanizing ourselves and others
We need to spend time re-humanizing ourselves and others.
Adding to my last post:
For me understanding and compassion does not mean compliance or capitulation. There is a place and space for my anger, and I will not go quietly into that good night. Not while we are witnessing the injustices and cruelty being perpetrated around us on a daily basis. But I can express and act on that anger without dehumanizing another. And if I sometimes struggle with that, I will try drawing on the strength and remarkable life of the light-filled, peaceful warrior, John Lewis. If he could do it, so can I.
Adding to my last post:
For me love and compassion does not mean compliance or capitulation. There is a place and space for my anger, and I will not go quietly into that good night. Not while we are witnessing the injustices and cruelty being perpetrated around us on a daily basis. But I can express and act on that anger without dehumanizing another. And if I sometimes have problems doing that, I will try drawing on the strength and remarkable life of the light-filled, peaceful warrior, John Lewis. If he could do it, so can I.
Yes Deetoo!
Everything you just wrote my friend.
(This girl is still on fire).
Looking Ahead
By Joseph J. Mazzella • August 26, 2020
When I was a young boy our whole family lived in my Nana’s old house right beside a set of railroad tracks. I can remember the whole house would shake when the trains rolled by. These trains hauling coal cars were few and far between, however, so I often spent my Summer afternoons walking down the tracks. I can remember the first time I tried to balance myself and walk on a single rail. The steel rails were very narrow and quite slippery so I didn’t have much success. First I tried holding my arms out and watching my feet as I walked. This only led to me wobbling and falling off after a few steps. I decided to walk backwards once but quickly slipped off and skinned my ankle on the rail. It was only when I started looking ahead, down the length of the tracks that I was able to walk the rails. Keeping my eyes forward I put one foot in front of the other and was soon walking with ease.
Looking back on this time I now realize that it also gave me a wonderful lesson about living. You can’t go through life watching and fretting about every step you take or choice you make. This only leads to second guessing yourself and you soon go off the rails. Looking behind you is even worse. With your eyes on the past you can’t see the way ahead. You can only stand still and stay stuck in your regrets. It is only when you look ahead that you can really move forward. It his only when you look ahead that you can see the life you want to lead, the love you want to share, and the light you want to shine. Then each step you take and choice you make is filled with love and you will walk on with a light heart.
We all need to keep our eyes forward. We all need to look ahead with love. We all need to see with our hearts the life we want to live. We all need to take each other’s hands and walk the path of love together, knowing that God is by our side with each step we take.
I don't think Eisentstein imagined that story. I think he crossed paths with a shaman or a psychic who shared that image with him. Or perhaps he heard directly from spirit, like you did. I've come across enough similar stories of light workers volunteering to come to this world to recognize a pattern.
Eisenstein's concluding story in The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible is also a standalone essay on his website: