What have we become?

Do you know what today is? Today was ... Everyone is talking about IT!

What have we become?

Look Away

What have we become? How did this happen?
The discontent has been brewing for quite some time or maybe it began when Europe thought the solution to solving what was wrong in their country would be to send their condemned criminals and misfits to live far, far away in the wilds of the new world.

What is happening is as old as time. As government takes over more and more, we become less involved and less invested with one another. We become separated. We see only the differences in one another. And we are afraid.

When we live in fear, we cannot be loving. We lose our perspective that we are all a part of the whole, that we are connected.

When we distrust the man across the street who doesn’t drive, but rides the bus --- when we become suspicious of the apartment dwellers across the tracks, and those who reside in the small little town huddled in the woods who keep to themselves --- when we compare those who live in the southern part of the state to the northerners, the east coast to the west coast ---

We see only an endless list of differences.

In nature, differences abound, but when united they create a rash and intrepid life force! Every river contributes to the ocean’s mighty tides. What happens when one tree joins together with the myriad of others and share their space? An eight hundred-billion-acre canopy of shelter and a cornucopia of nourishment is born for the various herds, nests, dens and packs of animals and species.

And what happens when we cease to experience and understand nature’s endless and herculean demonstrations of strength in unity? We disgrace ourselves; we ignore her message and we look away. We find ourselves focusing only on the six inches of blue light of our phones, the seventy-two inches of our TV screen and the print on our Kindles which tell us what we should want and what we shouldn’t do, what we should love and what we must fear. And because we see nothing else, we believe that is our reality.

What happens? There is no imagination. No wonder. Nothing left to debate.

What remains? Only argument, accusations, denouncing, and denial. And we are left to believe our safety, our security and our faith are in the hands of only two blatant and embarrassing examples of our humanity, vying for control of what is the largest and most powerful economy on the globe.

When we lose our focus, only fear remains which takes of down the path of anger, distrust, and depression. None of those whom we have looked to have restored our confidence or our faith, nor have they have acted as leaders. None have built trust or hope. The world only saw two fighting dogs in a small ring behind the barn.

When we believe only two can make us strong, when we believe billions of dollars will unite us and create a safe and secure future, we have forgotten or never known that the only real and lasting power is in unity. Billions of energies coming together.

It is time to look away, to learn from the raindrops which formed the endless seas, to learn from the plush and bountiful forests which give, you and me, and all earthly creatures, the air that we breathe, the food for our families, and shelter from the storms.

We only need to look away from our screens – look away from the fake chaos paid and produced to steal our attention from the non-profitable but peaceful and caring reality that still exits -- if only we look away.

We need to be accountablefor only our small part in this world’s big picture. Be the raindrop, be the tree. Reach out. Become a part of the whole, like the raindrop is to the ocean, and like the tree is the forest. And then we can become as the universe is mighty.

What happens if you and I face our obligation to the whole? What remains when we walk across the proverbial street and shake the hand of a stranger?

All of us, not just two, but all of us, and the strangers whom we have not yet met, become a unit of strength mightier than all of the oceans and more nourishing than all of the forests.

United we become like the Almighty.