I Choose... Love

My adherence to the idea that living from a foundation of love has gotten me more than a few patronizing smiles. But I cling to the idea that the more love we put into the world, the less hate there is to multiply. It's so much easier to hear one another when we approach one another from a place of love instead of a place of hate.
People coming together at the Women's March in Salem, Oregon
January 21, 2017
I've always thought we could bring people together by sharing our lives with all their differences and similarities. Lately, I've been doubting that. Some people seem so determined to hate that there's no reaching them. In a way, I almost feel sorry for those people. They cheat themselves out of so many glorious experiences, so many unique and beautiful moments, so much happiness just so they can cling to stereotypes and hatred, just so they can rail against a perceived enemy.

 When someone says "but not this one person I/you know" when making sweeping hateful comments about whole groups of people, their disclaimer means nothing. If you hate everyone from a group of people, you hate the person you have a direct or indirect connection to as well. So I'm not excusing you anymore. When you show me your hate, I'm taking you at your word.

I can almost hear the but, but, but... in the silence of my office. I've heard it often enough in real life. And, I've smiled and accepted it far too many times.

A few places I've visited over the years
I have been lucky enough to travel and to meet people from myriad cultures and backgrounds. I've been able to talk to and, more importantly, to listen to people from a vast range of backgrounds. I've been able to share experiences with people from all over the world. My life is so much the better for it that it astounds me that not everyone wants to have those experiences and make those connections. 

 Yet, with all the experiences I have had, I feel like I don't know nearly enough about the world. The more I learn, the more I know there's so much I don't yet know. It's humbling to witness the immense and beautiful diversity of the world and see the similarities that sometimes surprise. To embrace the moment you discover something you thought unique to your life experience is shared by a kindred spirit in someone who has seemingly lead a life vastly different from yours is transformative.

As long we see enemy in every face that doesn't reflect ourselves back to us, how can we ever find those transformative moments?

 We share the same planet. We share the same air. We share the same existence regardless of the differences in our experiences. We are all in this together regardless of whether we like or dislike that fact.

As I wrote this, I was reminded again of The Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan...


We have choices to make about how we'll spend our time on this pale blue dot...

 As for me, I choose love... Love of self, love of my fellow Earthlings, love of the planet that sustains me, love... As hard as it may be at times, love is where I find my foundation, so I will try my damnedest  to live from a place of love even when, perhaps especially when, it feels so much easier to give in to hate...

T. L. Cooper is an author and poet whose work aims to empower and inspire through an exploration of the human condition. Her poems, short stories, articles, and essays have appeared online, in books, and in magazines. Her published books include a collection of short stories, Soaring Betrayal, her Silhouette Poetry Series, and a novel, All She Ever Wanted. She grew up on a farm in Tollesboro, Kentucky. She currently lives in Albany, Oregon with her husband and three cats.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Failure Isn't an Option, But...

The flip side of fear of success is fear of failure. Both end up in paralysis, have some of the same triggers, and share some of the same roots. It can be hard to discern which is which. I've struggled with both, and at times still do. Fear of failure for me was a need to be perfect. I equated perfection with love. I could only be loved if I was perfect. I could only be perfect if I was successful at everything. Failure wasn't an option. An "A" was never good enough in school. Everything I did could be better.  Early in my life I developed a fear of failure that at times has stifled my creativity, my progress, and even lead to complete inaction. In some ways my fear of failure contributed to my later fear of success. I started life confident that I could and would do whatever I wanted, but as I began to encounter those little digs that meant I could never be perfect and the harder I tried to be perfect, the more my imperfections haunted me. When I was assaul...
Read more

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Image
I recently read A Collection of Poems by Robert Frost . It's a beautiful book and one I'd been salivating over for a while, ever since I saw it in Costco several months ago. It is filled with poems that speak to my heart, my imagination, my core. I was thumbing through one day while reading - yeah, I was looking ahead - and came across Nothing Gold Can Stay , and the first thought that popped in my head was "Stay gold, Ponyboy." I stopped in my tracks as a shiver went up my spine and a smile slid across my face. I remembered in that moment the first time I read The Outsiders   by S. E. Hinton . The first time I read Nothing Gold Can Stay in the book, The Outsiders , the first time I heard the poem aloud in the movie , the first time I read the letter at the end of the book, the first time I heard the letter at the end of the movie... Robert Frost and The Outsiders are forever linked in my memory because of this poem. S. E. Hinton used Nothing Gold Can Stay to...
Read more

Benefits to Buying Books

Image
Last week I wrote about supporting authors without buying their books, so this week I want to talk about a few benefits of buying books. To be honest, there's this little voice in my head going "People need reasons to buy books... They're books. That's reason enough." Of course that's the writer and reader in me. The minimalist and anti-consumerist in me totally gets why many people don't want to buy books. Buying books is a commitment. It's adding another "thing" to your shelves, your home, your life. Let me be clear. I understand that people work hard for their money, and buying a book can feel like a luxury. I totally get it. I've been there. The rent, the mortgage, fuel, food should all be higher priorities than buying books. I remember days when I saved change for a month to buy a book. I'm not, in any way, proposing that people sacrifice necessities to buy books. There are advantages to buying a book. You own the book. ...
Read more