And Scarlet's words got me looking within, as they were intended. Part of who I am is this super-sensitive feeling person who absorbs the feelings and auras around me. Put in the right group of people, and this is a good thing. Like last night, listening to this woman, who lost the most unfathomable thing a person could, her own child, yet still be completely inspiring and love promoting, it was sad of course but it also gave my soul a serious lift.
But put me in front of the news, with it's 24-hour cycle of tragedy, evil, despair...and I absorb all that too. It presents such a conflict in me. I can't ignore the ugly side of life, that doesn't make it less real. But learning what to do with those feelings, does make them less powerful.
Take what Scarlet said about "following the angry thought". The Sandy Hook shooter, she surmised, was once just a child with an angry thought. But for whatever reasons, he was incapable of not following it. So he followed it throughout his life, this thought, whether it be loneliness, betrayal, a feeling of being a victim. If you feel like a victim for long enough, it turns to rage. And he keep following that thought until it became so big and strong that he was not in control any more. And then what happened, well, happened.
Well all have a choice to follow those angry thoughts. We can follow them, or we can choose love. We can choose to turn the angry thought to one of love. We, alone, as our own person, have that choice. Of course there are always circumstances which make that choice more or less easy. But hearing this woman explain how she did, and then again how she heard stories from Rwanda genocide victims doing the same....well, it's more possible than you think. It takes an amazing amount of strength, but it can be done.
Another thing Scarlet talked about was forgiveness. And what it looks like. Now, since Sandy Hook, I have thought, probably too much about, how one could even go on after losing a child in that horrible, senseless way. As I'm sure many of you did, I just became so ANGRY that this could happen in our World, to the most innocent of all. I still can't help crying, as I write this, thinking, My God, if that had been one of my babies? How could I not succumb to the rage of a heart broken so violently, for no reason? And this is what Scarlet said.
Forgiveness looks like cutting off the tube that attaches you to the transgression. The person, or circumstance, that wronged you, until your forgive, will always be attached to you, siphoning YOUR power, until you forgive, and cut the cord. Forgiving doesn't mean condoning, it just means taking back YOUR power, for survival. Because if you can't forgive, you will never, ever, live a life with joy.
So, as I look about the World around me, and become so immersed in the terrible things that happen...I can choose to forgive, and choose love. I can stop following the angry thoughts. That doesn't mean I'm condoning the brutal, evil things that happen. It means I choose to attack them with love.
Now, another story I just recently was reminded of is from another blogger Mom, Glennon Doyle Melton. It regards her sons fifth grade teacher, a math teacher, who found an actual mathematical formula for love. Here's the link: http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/30/share-schools/
Can you believe that? Can you even believe how utterly graceful, compassionate, and easy it is to foster love in this World?
So while I had prepared myself to have my soul torn down and my heart ripped out by hearing Scarlet Lewis' story, nothing could be further from the truth. Guys, we all have the power to choose love. We all have the opportunity to be "Love Ninjas". We can simply UN-follow the angry thoughts. We can seek out those who are suffering and change the course of their life.
Are you with me?
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