I am stunned by the condition of the world. The bombing of innocent Gaza neighborhoods and the shooting of a plane with vacationers is one more thing this week that leaves me disgusted and fearful about the way the world is tipping.
Is it because we no longer make eye contact with strangers as we use to? (Instead, we are looking at our phones and laptops.) When did we start seeing immigrants as enemies and how can it be that so many want to send so many children back to a very difficult and in some cases tortuous life?
Somehow we've traveled from a belief of abundance to a belief of scarcity. I use the word 'belief' because isn't it true that there is actually enough?
Ubuntu. I am because we are.
My 2 cents: if you haven't already, better figure out what you can do to combat bad energy and people doing bad things. We know what things are bad. Consider yourself a part of the new Underground Railroad. We need one another more than ever.
If you have any ideas about how the world can be more peaceful, I'd love to hear them.
Love
kj
I am so with you, but sadly I have no idea how to change things and I've thought about it a lot.
ReplyDeleteDid you make the mandala kj? It's very nice!
Hi rubye, I got the mandala from google.
ReplyDeleteI think we have to stand for peace in whatever way we choose. For me the first step is to love my family; then to be kind; and then to be generous. I hope that counts; I hope so
Love
kj
That's all very good, kj. I also think we need to learn to be at peace with ourselves before we can be world peacemakers. So many of us are caught in the contemporary craziness, we wouldn't know a minute if peace if it came up and bit us.
DeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
I think about this a lot. I wonder what made us so divorced from real life (as I type here on my computer!) and whether the next generation - who now make the decisions - don't have a sense of reality. or what I consider reality. I wonder if it is time to take more action rather than simply stating my feelings on FB or in comments. I really do think about this a lot. I have no answers.
ReplyDeletemim, it seems "we" and the generation after us are too pre-occupied (or weary) to take action, to march, to become active. but i do know there are many many caring thoughtful people doing the work that must be done. I wonder scientifically if negative energy has more strength than positive energy. i hope not. heck, i'm going to read about this, scientifically. the world is a flecking mess, starting with our american congress.
Deletebut don't give up, mim. never ever give up.
love
kj
Sadly, I don't believe the world has changed much. We are a violent lot, prone to dragging our personal issues onto a world stage.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, deb; there's always been war and violence but it seems that mean spiritedness is at an all time high. We circle around a small group and forget about every one else. I don't think my parents felt that way
DeleteLove
kj
My parents grew up around WWII. My dad fought in the war, mum went to sleep at night terrified that German soldiers would parachute into their village and kill them in their beds.
DeleteI find it strange that Mahatma Gandhi and Hitler both lived at the same time, polar opposites. I have no answers but I do try to make this a better world, one small piece at a time.
I don’t know if it’s true that things are worse now than they've been. After all, in the last 100 years we have had 2 world wars, numerous other wars and conflicts, along with scores of other wars in countries I don’t even know about. Plus we have gotten better at reducing casualties - think Hiroshima as compared to killing a wedding party with a drone strike or the hundreds of names of soldiers that were scrolled across our televisions nightly during the Vietnam war compared to the occasional name today. Not that even one innocent death is acceptable.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of combating bad energy. Personally, I subscribe to the Mother Teresa’s "Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." Am I going to solve world hunger? No. (and I used to get very depressed about this) Can I help feed and support people struggling in my own community. Absolutely.
How to be more peaceful? I have come to believe that most of our conflicts are about labels. Labels take away individuality and reduce people to a generic stereotype which makes it easier to hate them. Just the labels liberal/conservative or democrat/republican or muslim/christian/jew stirs incredibly strong emotions in people without ever knowing anything about these people. So for my part I have chosen to eliminate labels. And I chose to stay away from people who make label based judgments. And I stay away from the constant stream of negativity which social media regurgitates incessantly.
I also believe in “let peace begin with me” and try to make every interaction I have come from a place of kindness. (I am not always successful in this) Still, I know that war will continue and children will suffer and I will retreat to the world of natural beauty to keep myself centered and grounded in love rather than hate.
but 8, think libya and chemical weapons, and uganda and machetes, and rwanda and starvation. no more "big" wars, it seems, but so many explosive areas that make daily life and living unsafe.
Deletei so agree with you about labels. we-they and dualities always create distance and with that comes distain and then the loss of compassion. i do as you do: i protect myself from negative energy and I do what i can around me. i do feel that i do my share. sometimes i think i should sacrifice my comforts and contribute $$$ to areas i so care about. but i know i am kind.
awfully good to know you, ms 8thday
love
kj
Yesterday we here in the Netherlands had an offical day of mourning. The two aircrafts from the Dutch military and the Australian military brought home 40 coffins with bodies and bodyparts of people died in Eastern Ukrain. On CNN you could see also what happened during the ceremony of taking the coffins out of the carriers to the waiting cars and afterwards the route from Eindhoven to Hilversum where a team of 75 specialists are going to indentify the dead. Today and tomorrow the rest of the coffins is coming to our country. We are in deep shock here. But how proud I was to be a Dutch woman to see how dignified this happened. All those silent people along the highway standing there..... when the 40 cars came by.
ReplyDeleteThe violence of downing the aircraft with almost 300 innocent people is strongly condemned by the world. How this will end? I fear the worst, Karen. But it was - despite the terrible happening on thursday - a very special and hopegiving day yesterday. Sorry for the long reaction, but I know that you and your readers will understand what I said.
my dear friend, even before you left this comment i have been thinking about how much integrity and caring and dignity your country has shown in its grief. there is no doubt that the best of us surfaces in tragedies, and for that i remain hopeful. we keep on keeping on !
Deletelove
kj
A very thoughtful post! Where are the concerts for peace we used to see? Where are the marches for reconciliation? History gets re-hashed over and over again in these conflicts and we take the usual sides. Let's at least keep bringing up the subject, the need for conciliation, the decisive stand of mothers who've lost children to violence and petty conflicts. Let's unite to save the innocents!
ReplyDeletethanks, rosaria. do you know of holly near? she is a singer and activist i have followed since college and i saw her in a small concert a few months ago, after 20 or so years have passed. her message had changed. she spoke of doing smaller things, closer to home. i was saddened by it. that said, i do believe and hope that there is a point where enough is enough and many many people stand up and say so. i don't know what it will take to get to that point; we seemed so insulated from one another.
Deleteboth mother theresa and pete seeger have said we start close to home. i believe that is good advice because that is where making a difference can be felt and witnessed.
love
kj
I think the idea that all religions have the same goal is about as fictional as the idea that America is a peaceful country. Be that as it may, if the Israelis are truthful about missiles being intentionally hidden in the midst of civilians, what are they to do? Surely, you don't think they should simply tolerate having hundreds of missiles fired their way, yet anything else they could do would involve killing innocent people.
ReplyDeletesnow, no i don' t think israel should or can tolerate vulnerability. i understand that. but there is a larger point, i think, and it is not limited to organized or any religion. harming one another is not an answer. we never seem to evolve beyond that and i wonder why. we evolve in every other way.
Deletei have taken some time to learn more about the gaza strip. the people who live there have no ability to grow their communities economically because of the restrictions placed upon them by israel. this leaves them in a no win situation; vulnerable in a different way. surely there is some compromised solution. and that is my point: instead, we fight and in the doing we use children and families as unwilling shields. the whole thing sucks.
love
kj
I was born in 1949, two years after Israel and its neighbors went to war, which means that I've yet to live a year but what there wasn't either open war or uneasy truce. I find that it gets harder to care about situations that I perceive as hopeless. Sometimes, it seems like the whole Middle East took an insanity pill. I guess my thoughts are that, however bad Israel might treat the Palestinians (who did, after all, have their lands stolen from them by the UN), it's nothing compared the how the Palestinians would treat the Israelis if they got the chance, this based upon my observation that Moslems hate Jews, that human rights means nothing to Moslem regimes, and upon the refusal by the Palestinians to even acknowledge that Israel has a right to exist.
DeleteSo many beautiful, thoughtful responses. If I may, I'd like to say exactly what 8thday said. My sentiments exactly. And Weineke, I saw the news how beautifully your country honored those coming home. I'd be proud as well♥
ReplyDeletelo, xoxoxo. our lives have little and big challenges and also little and big joys. i believe in abundance, and the for well being of an individual or a family or a city or a country, i think that makes all the difference. there is enough, but only if we share and care. that's my prayer.
Deletenice to see you here, ms lo
love
kj
Thank you for your kind words.
DeleteRemember 12.21.12? The Mayan Calendar ended and according to Hopi writings, two people who had communication and trade the end of the calendar was a new beginning, but the drawings showed a split on that day, man had to choose his future, the high road of immortality or the low road of violence leading to more violence. if the first 19 months are any indication i think we can assume which road the collective conscience chose.
ReplyDeleteWalk your own road, follow no one. Freedom is the right path.
Dear kj,
ReplyDeleteMy heart is feeling sore as well. I do not know what the answer can be to what is happening in the world.
I do believe that politics is some of it, and power. And I personally do not know what can be done.
I do think possibly we bloggers can try to put positive messages, and thoughts somehow to those in our circles.
I feel that we do need to avoid pointing fingers, at any group, and I love the illustration at the top of your post. A Roman Catholic nun, once said in conversation to a group of people I was sitting with as we had lunch, "The world is big enough for everyone." I always thought that was perfect.
So, I think maybe just living, and not being afraid, and not letting the bad people win.
Brenda
You know, history is filled with examples of human inhumanity. It predates cell phones by forever. But now as always, we need to remember we are a community. The whole world, I mean.
ReplyDeleteYet, I must confess to having the desire to slap the shit out of people who nearly walk into me because they're so busy texting that they don't know where they are or what else they're doing.
Delete"better figure out what you can do to combat bad energy and people doing bad things."
ReplyDeleteIsn't that exactly what the Israelis and the Palestinians think they're doing? Peace simply doesn't work sometimes, but I'll grant that it could work a hell of a lot more than it does. I don't know how many hundreds of times over the years I've heard one president or another say we're a peaceful nation, yet we've been at war every year but one since WWII. As for the Israelis and Palestinians, they've been fighting since 1947. What we really need is a world court with teeth to settle disputes, not that I look for it to happen. Nope, I think we are what we are, which is a warlike species.