There is a lot going on in the world right now. Much of which, I do not understand.
Yesterday, there was a horrific suicide bombing in Manchester, England. Twenty two people were killed, and 59 injured. Many of those have life threatening injuries.
This was extraordinary. An act of terror, they say.
To me, all violence and hatred and disaster, is terror. Sheer terror. By definition, it is extreme fear.
Yesterday a young black man, with a promising future was three days away from graduating. Richard Collins III was stabbed to death at a bus stop while visiting friends at the University of Maryland. He was killed by a young man who was a member of a Facebook group that spewed hatred toward minorities. White supremacists.
There were roughly 32,000 gun deaths in the U.S. last year.
In Eastern Africa, right now, there are 16 million people are on the brink of starvation. They are in complete and desperate need of food, water and medical treatment.
I don’t have answers for a bit of it. In fact, it makes me question everything I think and believe.
It challenges my spirit.
I recently saw an interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, in which he was asked if he believed in a Higher Power. His answer gave me more reasons to question the all of this.
There is not much I know for sure. But I can choose to believe in things. With all of this madness, and absurdity happening in our world, with all this hatred, and devastation, I guess I have to have hope.
I have to hold on to the belief, and the choice in goodness. I have to trust that our sole purpose, and our soul purpose, is to create love and kindness in the world. Everything else is secondary.
In the every day, even the smallest measures of goodness matter.
The world may see large, and out of our control. There are things we can do, like giving our time, or our money, to support grand causes. But more so, I think, is what we do right in front of us. Noticing how much we are all alike. Accepting our differences. We can keep doing the next right thing. We can pay close attention to how we act in every moment of the day.
When all else around us seems to be coming unhinged, I have to believe that acting with love, is the best possible way.
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To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless. — Gilbert K. Chesterton
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A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. — Mahatma Gandhi
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