Our community is hurting. How can it not be?

With so much violence and so many innocent victims…

In just the last month we’ve seen unimaginable violence in Dallas, Baton Rouge, Minnesota and Orlando.

And that’s just in America.
World wide, terrorism has claimed lives in Bangladesh, Iraq and Turkey.

Maybe it hasn’t hit someone from your immediate group of friends or family, but sooner or later it will. How can it not?

People protest that black lives matter, blue lives matter and gay lives matter, and we form more divisions, create more sadness, and see the cycle repeat itself.

Unfortunately, it seems the only color that stays constant is red.
Blood red.
And it’s staining the fabric of our world.

How can it not?

If you’re reading this, you’re most likely part of my “tribe”. And the idea of killing someone because of his or her religious beliefs, skin color, or sexual preference is as foreign to you as the idea of purchasing an AK47 assault rifle.

So how do we, you and I, hope to help our community, our nation, and our world, begin to heal when we don’t even know these people, or understand their hate?

More importantly, how do we stop this heartbreaking cycle before it hits closer to home.

Because the odds are, it will.

Maybe your son, cousin, or nephew goes out for a night of partying in a gay bar?
Or your daughter, sister or neice is at an airport leaving on a vacation?
Or your husband or wife is at their place of work?

And violence erupts.

Martin Luther King said,

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

But how do we feel love for people who seem so crazed with hate?

It seems impossible, yet in my own life I’ve seen “miracles”.

Certainly not as large a miracle as world peace would be.
But a miracle is a miracle so I’m doing the only thing I know how to do.

I’m practicing positivity.

How? By doing what I do when anything bad happens in my life.

I’m playing the “Find the Positive” game.

But there aren’t any positives to find.
So I decided to make one up.

I took a “wingman minute”, and thought of something positive that can come from this?

What does that look like?
It looks like me closing my eyes and picturing this last month being the fulcrum from which everyone, yes, everyone living on our planet, realizes the diversity of our world is what makes it so great?

And we start appreciating our differences.

And I practiced holding onto that thought for 60 seconds.

How about if you do that too?

And maybe by us practicing what that would look like, and feel like, we can start sending those vibrations out into the cosmos.

And by the universal laws of cause and effect, karma, and “you reap what you sow”, the universe will send us back world peace.

How about that? Now that’s an idea I can get behind.

Today’s practice:

For one minute close your eyes and Imagine seeing, feeling and believing the world is at peace.

With Much Appreciation,

Michael