All Love Matters
I often think about Mother Teresa's famous quote "it is popular to talk about the poor, but not so popular to talk to the poor". I want to use that quote as a gateway into heart and mind. For those unaware Mother Teresa worked in Calcutta India in the most extreme poverty conditions in the world.
I would dare say that few, if any, of the people reading this blog have ever lived in extreme poverty. I say that with relative authority due to the fact that it is rare for anyone to escape such deplorable conditions. You have seen the infomercials on TV with kids that are starved and parents that are so skinny that you would rather turn the channel than focus on the gravity of the situation. For most that view on the screen will be as close as you get to those conditions. We may not be able to grasp what those people face but we are awesome at fleeting emotions. You know, that moment of sadness as you witness the pain and suffering, yet in mere seconds you snap back to your world so as to concentrate on where you are going to eat and what you are going to wear. Amazing the difference in what we consider stress verses someone living in extreme poverty. It is true that there are people praying for the things we take for granted. The food we throw away would be a meal fit for a king in some parts of the world.
That was my sedge way into my message but wasn't the meat of the matter. Let's assume for a moment we all live in some sort of extreme poverty. Let's also assume that we struggle to identify that poverty because we are too consumed with talking about the blessings of others. Follow me for a few minutes down this old musty staircase into the basement of our being. The poverty I speak of isn't one of hunger for food, but hunger for love and life.
It takes little effort to talk about the problems poor face, simply because you may not be poor. The view is much different when you are talking about someone instead of talking too someone.
It takes little effort to talk about people that are facing death due to age, illness, or injury, simply because that may not be you. The view is much different when you are talking about someone rather than that someone being you.
It takes little effort to share your opinion about life as a minority, simply because you aren't one. The view would be much different if you lived the life instead of simply saw the life.
It takes little effort to talk about someone facing the struggles of addiction, simply because it may not be you facing that struggle. The view would be completely different if the demon of addiction resided in your head instead of the one of whom you speak.
It is easy for you to talk about the unemployed, if it isn't you.
It is easy for you to talk about the depressed, especially if it isn't you.
It is easy to talk about someone being bullied or abused, especially if it isn't you being abused.
This list can go on and on, however I hope you get the point.
Once upon a time there was a gentleman that feared for his life every minute of every day. Why? Because he was a Jew living in a Nazi held concentration camp. His entire family was captured and killed yet for some reason he was spared. Death surrounded him so much that he became callous to the corpses he stepped over on a daily basis. He witnessed and fell victim too the brutality the guards displayed constantly on the prisoners. Then one day as fate would have it the guards chose this man to be a Kapo, which was a Jew handpicked to guard the other Jew's. In essence he became one of them, the Nazi guards, even though he was still a Jew. Beings that we all adapt to our surroundings, this man quickly begin to display the same horrific treatment to his brethren that the Nazi's did. He treated his former friends with terrible disdain, totally disrespected the very people he once suffered along side.
He in fact did survive the concentration camp and wrote his memoir's in excruciating detail. He understood first hand how quickly forget where we came from. To his dying day he regretted the pain he inflicted on his fellow Jew's. He became a champion of human rights and worked tirelessly the rest of his life to improve not only the extreme conditions in the world but the way we see them.
Consider in your own life how quickly your attitude about something changes. There is an old saying I use frequently that says "what we say isn't always what the other person hears". To take that one step further "what we think we see isn't always reality". We create illusions in our mind that gives us permission to say and act in certain and sometimes hateful ways. We have little to no empathy beyond the moment for those truly in need. How quickly we forget and fade back to our over stressed life that includes comforts few in the world get to experience.
Back to the words of Mother Teresa, let's get back to where we started. It is popular to talk about the poor but not so popular to talk too the poor. These words resonate in so many ways. This isn't about the poor, it is about our view of the world around us and the people in it. We spin narratives in our own mind that shift attention away from the very sins we commit. It is a fact that none of us are perfect, it is also a fact that none of us have a clue what battles others face. We graciously demonstrate negative opinions with little to no regard for the implications this could have on someone's life. What we say and what we do matters, but why we do it matters so much more. We were born to love yet conditioned to hate. The wonderful thing about our humanity is that God gave us the ability to adapt. As the words say in Amazing Grace "I was blind, but now I see". Let yourself be awaken to the world around you. There is so much beauty to be discovered when you look at the heart instead of the house. We are all walking wounded, carrying the battle scars of life wisdom. It is time we use those wounds to rise up in love instead of push down in hate.
Every week I share my blog and without fail I utilize the power of love. As with the gentleman in the concentration camp, he witnessed first hand the power of hate and the even more powerful the element of love. Hate comes easy, love takes courage. Hate is a learned behavior, love comes naturally. Imagine how much better our lives would be and the world in which we live, if we simply started talking to the poor instead of about them. When we talk to them, we have to take responsibility in action, when we talk about them, we, without knowing elevate ourselves above them. God made us different so that we could be one. It is in this oneness that we will find the holy grail of life. It is in the love for humanity that we will find our passionate purpose. You want to change your life, change your view, you want to change someone else's life, talk to them, not about them. Love is action.
peace and love
Dale
I would dare say that few, if any, of the people reading this blog have ever lived in extreme poverty. I say that with relative authority due to the fact that it is rare for anyone to escape such deplorable conditions. You have seen the infomercials on TV with kids that are starved and parents that are so skinny that you would rather turn the channel than focus on the gravity of the situation. For most that view on the screen will be as close as you get to those conditions. We may not be able to grasp what those people face but we are awesome at fleeting emotions. You know, that moment of sadness as you witness the pain and suffering, yet in mere seconds you snap back to your world so as to concentrate on where you are going to eat and what you are going to wear. Amazing the difference in what we consider stress verses someone living in extreme poverty. It is true that there are people praying for the things we take for granted. The food we throw away would be a meal fit for a king in some parts of the world.
That was my sedge way into my message but wasn't the meat of the matter. Let's assume for a moment we all live in some sort of extreme poverty. Let's also assume that we struggle to identify that poverty because we are too consumed with talking about the blessings of others. Follow me for a few minutes down this old musty staircase into the basement of our being. The poverty I speak of isn't one of hunger for food, but hunger for love and life.
It takes little effort to talk about the problems poor face, simply because you may not be poor. The view is much different when you are talking about someone instead of talking too someone.
It takes little effort to talk about people that are facing death due to age, illness, or injury, simply because that may not be you. The view is much different when you are talking about someone rather than that someone being you.
It takes little effort to share your opinion about life as a minority, simply because you aren't one. The view would be much different if you lived the life instead of simply saw the life.
It takes little effort to talk about someone facing the struggles of addiction, simply because it may not be you facing that struggle. The view would be completely different if the demon of addiction resided in your head instead of the one of whom you speak.
It is easy for you to talk about the unemployed, if it isn't you.
It is easy for you to talk about the depressed, especially if it isn't you.
It is easy to talk about someone being bullied or abused, especially if it isn't you being abused.
This list can go on and on, however I hope you get the point.
Once upon a time there was a gentleman that feared for his life every minute of every day. Why? Because he was a Jew living in a Nazi held concentration camp. His entire family was captured and killed yet for some reason he was spared. Death surrounded him so much that he became callous to the corpses he stepped over on a daily basis. He witnessed and fell victim too the brutality the guards displayed constantly on the prisoners. Then one day as fate would have it the guards chose this man to be a Kapo, which was a Jew handpicked to guard the other Jew's. In essence he became one of them, the Nazi guards, even though he was still a Jew. Beings that we all adapt to our surroundings, this man quickly begin to display the same horrific treatment to his brethren that the Nazi's did. He treated his former friends with terrible disdain, totally disrespected the very people he once suffered along side.
He in fact did survive the concentration camp and wrote his memoir's in excruciating detail. He understood first hand how quickly forget where we came from. To his dying day he regretted the pain he inflicted on his fellow Jew's. He became a champion of human rights and worked tirelessly the rest of his life to improve not only the extreme conditions in the world but the way we see them.
Consider in your own life how quickly your attitude about something changes. There is an old saying I use frequently that says "what we say isn't always what the other person hears". To take that one step further "what we think we see isn't always reality". We create illusions in our mind that gives us permission to say and act in certain and sometimes hateful ways. We have little to no empathy beyond the moment for those truly in need. How quickly we forget and fade back to our over stressed life that includes comforts few in the world get to experience.
Back to the words of Mother Teresa, let's get back to where we started. It is popular to talk about the poor but not so popular to talk too the poor. These words resonate in so many ways. This isn't about the poor, it is about our view of the world around us and the people in it. We spin narratives in our own mind that shift attention away from the very sins we commit. It is a fact that none of us are perfect, it is also a fact that none of us have a clue what battles others face. We graciously demonstrate negative opinions with little to no regard for the implications this could have on someone's life. What we say and what we do matters, but why we do it matters so much more. We were born to love yet conditioned to hate. The wonderful thing about our humanity is that God gave us the ability to adapt. As the words say in Amazing Grace "I was blind, but now I see". Let yourself be awaken to the world around you. There is so much beauty to be discovered when you look at the heart instead of the house. We are all walking wounded, carrying the battle scars of life wisdom. It is time we use those wounds to rise up in love instead of push down in hate.
Every week I share my blog and without fail I utilize the power of love. As with the gentleman in the concentration camp, he witnessed first hand the power of hate and the even more powerful the element of love. Hate comes easy, love takes courage. Hate is a learned behavior, love comes naturally. Imagine how much better our lives would be and the world in which we live, if we simply started talking to the poor instead of about them. When we talk to them, we have to take responsibility in action, when we talk about them, we, without knowing elevate ourselves above them. God made us different so that we could be one. It is in this oneness that we will find the holy grail of life. It is in the love for humanity that we will find our passionate purpose. You want to change your life, change your view, you want to change someone else's life, talk to them, not about them. Love is action.
peace and love
Dale
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