I see others as human beings regardless of race or color or creed.
Having grown up with black kids in my all white neighborhood, dated a few black men and have friends of every race, religion, creed, etc….I can see each person as an individual and ask questions to understand points of view or how they are how they are.
We are all human.
We are all beings of light.
We are all connected and are urged to see people for their light and soul, and help them see their own light as well.
It is what I try to do every day even when it seems hard.
It is what I do when I work with clients. They want to be loved, heard and supported as we all do.
In grade school, there was one bus that came from the inner city and brought some black children to my Catholic school. I was in that privileged white neighborhood. But these other kids were coming off the bus just like other kids came off other buses. I just remember that they had funny hair because I had never seen ‘afro’ hair.
I don’t recall being taught to dislike these kids. We embraced them just like we did all the others, including the Vietnamese refugees that came years later and came to our school. Ok, maybe we were privileged, but we also provided opportunities to others outside of our community, the less fortunate maybe, and include others in our community.
I never learned racism. I learned about it, but I did not choose it.
I learned to choose inclusion. And maybe somewhere along the bumps in life, that gets diluted or forgotten in many of us.
If we think about how Jesus was, he was all inclusive. Yes, he got criticized and threatened for that, too. But he was vocal about what he stood for. And we need to be, too standing up for inclusion.
I ask and pray that We all try a bit harder to do the same.
This is not a time for anything but unity. Unity of our hearts and souls. As human beings of light.
Reminds me of “love one another as you would yourself” in the Bible…and maybe that is the larger issue? When we don’t truly love, understand or have compassion for ourselves, then it becomes easy to blame others or take it out on them.
Yet it is our anger, hatred, or whatever emotion that is triggered. It is our issue to resolve by first taking ownership of that issue…then take steps to work through our issue, our hatred, our trigger with love, compassion and understanding of your past experiences which may have instilled the thoughts, beliefs or emotions.
Maybe we need to start with working on our own hatred with love and understanding so we can be loving to others, too.
We are, after all, all human beings, with a heart and soul connected to others human beings through our heart and soul.
Let us mend the holes in our armor and heart, so we can love ourselves and others whole-heartedly.
hugs xo
joanna
Reach out if you just need a safe place to vent as you look for a way to reframe the situation you are going through.