When Darkness Falls



 "I want to be good. I try to be good. It don't come out good."  An anonymous third grade boy in my class journal.  I know just how he feels. This past week couldn't get any worse and then it did. Everything bad that could happen happened and I found myself seduced by the dark side, negativity at it's worse.  This morning I went to a regular meeting that I facilitate with my friend Bob. The topic of discussion was the bombing at the Boston Marathon. One of the suggested questions was, 'what does it mean to pray for your enemy?'  An older woman was the first to speak up,"Who is your enemy?" 

  Silence filled the room and  I mentally bristled, but thankfully kept my mouth shut for a change.  Then in the silence the flood gates opened and I understood what she was saying with such simple eloquence. I create enemies by the thoughts I hold about them. I create enemies when I harbor ill will and give myself permission to hate. I'll even go one farther,  I create enemies when I give myself permission to be unpleasant or dislike someone because of something they did that annoyed me.  I create enemies when I close my eyes to them, when I choose not to see them as a child of God just like me flaws and all.  

 There is darkness in the world, it has always been so and will always be so. When darkness falls it is an invitation for us to choose love, to have faith in the healing power of forgiveness, to have confidence in compassion.  I have a commitment  to live a life of peace. Last week I fell woefully short. The good news is that I get another chance to get it right. I get another chance to stop making enemies and start making peace.  It's either fear of love, baby.
                                                                    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Gift of the Ordinary

Image
    The greatest joys are in the small ordinary moments of our lives. It’s watching someone we love sleep, a cup of tea on a cold day, a thick mat when you step out of the shower. I’m finding that it takes courage to live in the fullness of these moments these days. Not because they don’t exist, but because we are bombarded with messages that tell us who we are and what we have is not enough. We are told in a hundred different ways that we don’t measure up, that the world is not safe, and something bad is just around the corner. It’s fear at its most insidious best. And I get it.  I get that we’re afraid, and I understand why. I’m not living under a rock. When I did my 90 Day No Negativity Challenge I learned one thing for sure, it’s either fear or love, baby. Fear is a soul sucking joy stealer that brings out the worst in people. We destroy our bodies and relationships, get into debt up to our eyeballs, and we test our poor children to death.  We finger poi...
Read more

Are You A Tootler?

Image
    Have I mentioned that I love my job? What other job lets you to literally touch the future? Where else do you get to read some  great books that you miss as a grown up? And let’s not forget recess, yeah, let’s hear it for recess. When was the last time you hit the playground? Eight year olds are fun to hang out with. My kids work hard and know how to have fun and they like my music! How cool is that? There are trade offs though.      You know the stocks the Puritans used? I’d bet you a dime and a smile that an eight year old came up with them.   Eight year olds have a very black and white sense of justice which translates into a whole lot of tattling.   They would sell their mother down the river and not blink an eye doing it.   I want to support their developing morality and be a model of that for them but mostly though I want the tattling to just stop ‘cause it is driving me bonkers! That’s the honest truth of it.     Now, ...
Read more

It's a Choice

Image
    Christmas is two days away.   The house is cleaned, decorated and the presents are wrapped. I’ve made brownies, six batches of Heath Bar Crisps, Potato chip cookies and I’m headed out the door to the farmer’s market to pick up the ingredients I need for   Christmas breakfast and Tim’s Ginger Cookies. You can never have too many cookies especially when you eat them with champagne for dinner.   I’m diggin’ myself and lovin’ my life. I am truly blessed.   I’ve always been blessed and deeply loved. It’s always been there even if I’ve haven’t been aware of it.  Keeping free of negativity helps me see the blessings that are in my life and there are more than I can count. Keeping free of negativity is a way of wiping mud from my eyes. It’s amazing how much goodness there is in the world when you can see clearly.      “Negativity is an addiction to the bleak shadow that lingers around every human form ... you can tra...
Read more