When People are Hard to Love

“Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Some people are hard to love.  Maybe it’s a teenager who you love deeply, but it’s hard to like her when she’s spewing drama. I remember telling my daughter, “I love you, but I hate the way you’re acting right now,” and “Please lower your volume. I can’t hear you when you’re yelling.”
It’s even harder to love the haters, the racists, the ones who intentionally do harm. But Matthew 5:44 says to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you. Now, I know I’m not persecuted. Not really. But it’s still hard to love the haters. I can pray for them, but love them? How do I do that?
Can I say, I love you as part of humanity, because you are created by God. Can I ask, Could we try to listen to each other with respect?
I have no way of knowing if that would work. And to be honest, I’m not too keen on putting myself in situations where hate is strong. I’d much rather avoid conflict altogether, though sometimes I’ve pushed past the fear.
My heart goes out to the family of Heather Heyer who was killed when she stood against hate in Charlottesville, Virginia. They had no way of knowing  her life would be cut short by an act of violence. It’s hard to know when and how to make a stand – when to push past the fear and when to love people from a distance.

In Trust the Timing, I considered it a victory when I finally learned I could just walk away from toxic relationships that would have killed me slowly if I had stayed in them.
But I don’t want to walk away from my country. I love my country in spite of it’s flaws and with all our different kinds of people. But I have to admit, I find myself fearing the actions and beliefs of some of those people.

    The Southern Poverty Law Center recommends in this article  that if hate groups plan to demonstrate on a campus (or in a city) to ignore them and ask administrators to denounce them. We need to realize that facing hate head on might give haters the distraction they crave to keep from looking at some turmoil stewing inside themselves. I believe that deep down, haters are using anger to cover up hurt and fear. That’s no excuse. That doesn’t mean we accept the behavior. But perhaps this could bring us closer to the love the Bible talks about in Matthew.

“Grief unprocessed becomes bitterness, resentment, and unharnessed fury.  Grief processed becomes an unstoppable force of compassion, empathy, and love.     __Allison Fallon

I have no plans to go into places where hate is strong.

But sometimes hate crops up unexpectedly.

      I want to be ready with love if hate crosses my path.

I want to avoid posting negative comments on social media.

I want to hold up positive stories of people doing good work.

I want to say less about what I’m against,
and more about what I stand for.

I want to remember that peace begins with me.

      I want to recognize any seeds of hate that might hide away in the deep corners of my mind – the lingering resentments from old hurts.

I want to forgive myself and others, to bring the hurts to the light, open them up and see if I can love the hate away and heal the fear and sadness underneath. I can’t do this by myself. But with God’s help, maybe I can let love grow so big that it takes up all the space and seeps into the dark places.

What if that could happen in our country? In our world?

      We can start by finding the gardens of love within ourselves and letting that love grow. Water the love. Nurture it. Give it light.

        I wish you peace and strong growing love.

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The above is from my August Newsletter. Here’s one more article of interest:

Concrete actions in the face of white supremacists and others whose message is counter to Christ’s embracing love.

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On a side note, please hop over to Linda’s blog and vote for this year’s SOC Badge. My entry is the “Sparkly Stream.”

Click here:  https://lindaghill.com/2017/08/17/vote-here-for-the-4th-annual-socs-badge-contest-winner/

 

Peace, Love, and Songs from the 70s

Guess who’s having a party!

Me! It’s a 70’s Book Signing Party! I wish you could all come, but here’s a taste of nostalgia.

I’m planning to sing karaoke to this. My friend Terry and I used to listen to Carole King’s Tapestry album all the time in the 70s.

The party is this evening and it’s to celebrate my book, Trust the Timing, A Memoir of Finding Love Again. But in a way, it’s like the birthday party I just didn’t feel like having when I turned 60 a year and a half ago. I guess I just wasn’t in a party mood then. I don’t know why.  But now, it’s time!

I’ll be pretty busy today getting everything ready, so I won’t have much time to follow up on the Stream of Consciousness until tomorrow. After the party, I’m hoping to go to the beach and look for meteors. Shooting stars sounds more romantic though. If it’s not too cloudy. But when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me…..

 

But I will get back to the stream eventually. Before I take off, I have to share a song by The Guess Who, since today’s prompt is the word, “guess.”  For some reason I got in my head that the Guess Who became The Who, but that’s wrong. They were two different bands. I wasn’t a huge fan of either one, just a moderate fan. But I love this song.

 

Now, I’m off to find some peace, love, and understanding. And I wish the same for you.

We can all use some more of that right about now.

For more Streams of Consciousness, visit Linda G. Hill’s blog:

https://lindaghill.com/2017/08/11/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-aug-1217/

Here are the SOCS rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

 

One-Liner on Peace

“Peace is always an option.”

(From Kim, my yoga teacher)

 

 

 

It starts with a breath

Flowing into dark corners

Reviving embers

 

One-liner Wednesday is brought to you by Linda G. Hill. Discover inspiring and/or funny one-liners at: https://lindaghill.com/2017/06/14/one-liner-wednesday-back-to-the-future/

Breathing Meditation in Rictameter

I leaned about rictameter from Linda Wolff at Urban Poetry: https://urbanpoetry2017.com/2017/03/20/poetry-venture-into-the-wild/ 

This type of poetry uses 9 lines and a syllable count of: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 with the first line repeating itself in the last line.  Here’s what came to me:

 

Inhale

Love that won’t quit.

Gaze into  ancient  eyes.

Let wisdom and peace fill you well

Flowing to every cell and every thought

Until you love yourself so much

Joy dances in the wind

of your exhale.

Inhale.

…

I took the photo which reminds me of God’s hand holding bright light. There’s also a wing peeking out below the thumb, so who knows what that big hand is holding.

Marching Through the Years: Drill Team, Animal Rights, and Grandmothers For Peace

Today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt is the word, “march.”  It’s a funny word, though a nice month on most days. The word, march, conjures up high stepping soldiers in nutcracker like uniforms. We have marches for women, for men, for animals, for science…but we don’t usually march in those marches, unless you’re in the band, or a drill team, which I was in high school, and come to think of it, we actually did march and kick and dance a little, though I always had trouble learning the steps at first.

I missed the women’s march, both local and in Washington, because I was in Indiana visiting my grandchildren – and it was well worth it getting to read picture books over and over with my grands who I rarely get to see. But I did “march” in the local MLK parade this year with the Grandmothers for Peace. We chanted (all five of us carrying our banner)”All we are saying, is give peace a chance.”

Way back in the summer of 1990, I did “march” in Washington for he March for the Animals. It was five months after I’d had a miscarriage and I jumped at the chance for a project – a distraction- as the March for the animals was held on the same weekend my baby was supposed to have been born. Nothing like a good “march” to get you moving out of your sadness. But don’t get mad instead of sad. Don’t go mad as a march hare, unless you want to and it’s productive.

Next time I’m in a “march,” I really want to dance, or skip. Free style dancing, not anything where I’ll have to learn steps. I don’t have time for that. I think I’ll do that next MLK day with the Grandmothers for Peace. And I’ll take a tambourine and some bubbles. We got lots of waves, the five of us with our banner. Everybody likes grandmothers.

Waiting for the MLK march to begin

The Saturday Stream of Consciousness is brought to us by Linda G.Hill at

https://lindaghill.com/2017/03/24/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-mar-2517/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!

 

Extending Compassion To All Living Things

I found this one-liner at Healing Soul Streams,  where blessings flow in abundance.

Let us extend our compassion to all living things, including ourselves.

…

One-Liner Wednesday is extended to us by Linda G. Hill at

https://lindaghill.com/2017/03/22/one-liner-wednesday-any-takers/

The One-Liner Wednesday rules (which I sometimes follow) are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

Awesome Stories 302

Brad has a way of collecting the most awesome stories. No rubbish here! But I’m jotting about it for Just Jot It January. 🙂 One more impressive reason to give up beef, a powerful video on peace, increased awareness of food waste and how to stop it, and creativity are all topics dear to my heart. Thanks, Brad!

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Thanks to Wendy at Wendy’s Waffle for today’s prompt: rubbish.  You can read more jots at Linda’s place: https://lindaghill.com/2017/01/19/jusjojan-daily-prompt-jan-19th17/

writing to freedom

This week Awesome Stories brings you less beef, mothers for peace, food waste, and creativity for kids.

Bailing on Beef

I’ve been all over the map on eating meat, from meat lover growing up to vegetarian for 12 years in my 30s, and then in my 40s returning to meat in small quantities. It might be time to completely ditch the beef. From an environmental perspective, growing and eating beef is a disaster, especially modern day methods of feeding them grains instead of natural grasses. Compared to other meats, beef is far worse on land use, water use and emissions from the methane gas they emit. And compared to eating the grains directly instead of feeding them to cattle, the numbers are really bad. Beef uses 160 times more land and produces 11 times more greenhouse gas. Scientists estimate that giving up beef would have a greater environmental impact than giving…

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