I try to keep a positive attitude, I really do.

Most days I can accomplish this simply by breathing, by looking into the sky, by sharing a conversation with a friend. I believe, way down in my bones, that the world is full of beauty and that the human inhabitants are aware of, and worthy of, that beauty.

But then there are other days. Those days where I am heartsick over the ugliness, the rotten broken pieces of humanity. Those days it’s hard to keep a smile on my face and a song in my heart. It’s hard to look to the future with anything but ache and sorrow for people I’ll never know—and people who will never know that I didn’t condone the hate that tore them apart.

I feel disappointment, anger, frustration and sometimes pure hopelessness. We are dropping bombs and making war on people for reasons that aren’t even reasons. But we are making sure that our public profiles would make Jesus happy—we are kneeling to pray our Thanksgivings while the triggers we’ve pulled have others kneeling to pray for mercy.

How did we become so brutal? Where does the hypocrisy come from that kindles a fire to warm those who have been chilled—so long as they’re the right skin-tone, the right religion, the right nationality, so long as their preferences meet the guidelines.

In fact, I’m putting it gently by saying I’m saddened, or angered, or frustrated… In reality I am sick to f*cking death of those who shove their beliefs down our throats and choke us with their small minded ideas of absolute power. I will not seek the key from those who believe that they are the gatekeepers to everything that is holy and sacred as they spit upon our holy and sacred Earth.

I have no more tolerance for the intolerance. I have no more patience for those who scream and yell about having God on their side, when they are bestowing a godless hell on undeserving lives. I will not listen to the prayers when they are shouted from a tower of greed, ignorance and bigotry. I refuse to hear the sermon of sinful ideas about the way and the truth and the light. I will not seek the light from a burning cross from cowards under white hoods and I will not cloak myself in robes drenched in blood.

I don’t want to pledge allegiance to any flag that we can only see through the rocket’s red glare or the bombs bursting in air. Especially if those bombs have just erased the pure and innocent lives of children for no other reason than to prove that truth is a political perspective.

Some days I truly grieve. I weep for humanity—the innocent as well as the wicked. I shed tears of condolence for families who have been ripped and battered by men who never cared to see their faces and who cover their ears to their desperate screams. Those men I also cry for; I cry out loud to the creator of universal love that they be saved from their wicked ways before they can decide more damage for others who have nowhere to run.

Most days I see beauty in every face and hear a song in every voice. Most days are full of sunshine and hope and goodness. These days I see hallowed ground under the green grass of home and I am touched, down to my soul, by the compassion and splendor that humans are capable of. These days are blessed but they are also shielded from harsh realities.

Today I am beyond consolable in my heartache. I smell the stench of putrid corpses in the pages of the books we are told to revere as divine. I hear the screams of the blameless, begging to be forgiven for breathing the air that belongs to someone else.

What kind of synthetic kingdom breeds bullies who condemn bullying to the bullied? I try, in a mighty and diligent way, to understand how a hateful few have amassed blind supporters who knowingly follow corruption into the dark places. After all, evil is not new. We’ve seen it all before, and yet, somehow, we still allow it in the pulpit and into our legislation. We still fill its coffers with our offerings, and we still sing hymns of peace as we march our children into its wars. The mockery is unbelievable and heart-wrenching.

Where is the ballot box to vote for something better? What pages or petitions can we sign our names to that will stop the hateful from spreading the hate? What drug should we prescribe that will wipe away the heartache and allow us our chance at a peaceful existence on our shared planet? Where do we find the holy lands that will hold us all in her protective bosom? Someone, please, show me the way.

Today is one of those days where I yearn and ache for something so simple that no one should need ever plead for, for something we are all eligible for by being granted the gift of life… I crave simply for people to love at full capacity.

We are not using our ability to love one another, to create blessed and beautiful spaces for each other, our villages are not raising our children to respect the tribes of man. We are bombing our safe havens into obscurity and we are creating wounds that will never heal.

The time has come to create the change that we all deserve. Today we are broken, but tomorrow will come bringing with it a new opportunity to love the hate to death. I still believe, even amidst the sorrows that have rained down on humanity, that we are stronger and wiser and more capable than we have ever imagined. We have the power to erase invisible lines that separate; we have the capacity to celebrate diversity and we have the ability to build a better tomorrow.

We all wish on the same stars. We all grow by the light of the same sun. Our hearts all beat to the same rhythm. And yes, if you believe in a divine power, every single one of us have been born of the same womb.

I truly want to believe, that if we all whisper our desires for peace, our wishes will be taken upon the wind and delivered upon our world. We can whisper it in our prayers, in our dreams and paint the words on our mindscapes until we can all hear it, and feel it, and see it—and we can all make changes within ourselves until we can live it.

It is time for a re-evaluation of what is important in our world. What do we stand for and what won’t we stand for? Are we participating? Are we living up to our potential as individuals, as a collective part of the world we share? How can our lives be used to create awareness and solve problems?

The “an eye for an eye” mentality is exactly the excuse used by the people we hate and fear so much. Do we not realize that if we continue to perpetrate that ideology, we are the same as the people we fear and hate?

I can’t tell anyone what to think, I can only encourage thought. I don’t have the answers, I only know that we aren’t going to have peace in this world until we lay aside our prejudices and open our minds. We must all join together as one human race and nurture the ties that bind us. The best way I know to create a world we can all feel safe in is to cultivate empathy and compassion.

We can, and must, close our ears to the pastors and the masters who continue to profit from horrific atrocities against humanity to further their political goals. We must stop buying into the hate they are selling.

I weep for our world. I weep for humanity. But through my tears I still believe, down deep in the very blueprint of my soul, that goodness and light and love can still overcome the ugly in this world—if we will only allow it.

Let us bury the dark days in a deep grave, and give birth to new and brighter days for us all. Whisper it with me, that word of wisdom—peace. Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.

Can you feel it?

A new day is on the horizon. I have to believe that.

 

Relephant Favorite:

Sakyong Mipham: Want to Help the World? Here’s how.

~

Author: Tauna Pierce

Editor: Travis May

Photo: Flickr/Don Christner