Don't Believe Everything You Think

This week I was the target of misplaced gossip that was as untrue as it was unkind and completely understandable.  This is life after all.  People who don’t know me well assumed something about me and instead of coming to me they attacked me for it. How I dressed, how I looked, who my friends were, everything about me was fodder for innuendo and speculation, all of it negative of course.   

You may have read the story of the mother who stopped at a traffic light and got out and opened the back door of her car. It didn’t take long for the drivers behind her to assume the worst about her character and lay on their horns like they were getting paid for every note they added to the cacophony.  It wasn’t until later that they found out that the woman’s young daughter was in backseat choking. Each of those drivers made a choice to interpret what happened based on how it affected them when it in fact had nothing to do with them, most of the time it doesn’t.  We’re like that sometimes though, myself included.  We attribute malicious intent and attack where there are none.   We forget that a person’s actions can mean something other than what our fears would have us believe as gospel.

We always have a choice about how we evaluate and judge a person and their actions.  When the judgment is negative we create negativity. Can’t get much simpler than that now, can it?  Love is a choice. I think that the choice is what is important about it. It’s the choosing which gives love its power.  We need the power of love to carry us beyond ourselves and our collective fears. Only when we choose love will we be led to what we most need, peace and harmony for all beings especially those we think don’t deserve it. Now, that’s love.

 I’ve been rereading the  Bhagavad Gita and some bits and pieces of the New Testament. They both say similar things, love matters and it’s not love if you only love those who love you. Love is really only love when you can love those that you are afraid to love; you know the people you think don’t deserve it because you have judged them as unlovable. I was on the both ends of that this week, sad to say but I might as well be honest about it.  Once again I am reminded by the foolishness that is an inevitable part of being human that it really is fear or love.  Fear will never give us what we want.  Fear is an easy choice. Love? Love is not for the faint hearted.  Love takes guts. And remember, no guts, no glory. So, what’s it gonna be, fear or love? It’s your choice.


                              

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