"I wouldn't make a very good God. I would command people to Love. But, that's exactly what he did. They just didn't listen."
My step son and I just had a really great conversation. In teaching him things I learn a lot. He saw a movie I was watching, where children in Beirut were living in tents and were very poor and wounded. I asked him what he thought about this. He said “sad”. However at 5 there was a limited understanding there. He wasn’t sure that was real life. He thought it was “a different world from our world”.
I explained that while we live in a place that has lots of food and toys and love, there are places in the world where things are different. We talked about God and our favorite superheroes and what it means to be like them. That how we give of ourselves can help make things better. I gave some (age appropriate) examples and asked him how he would feel in these situations. We talked about how this ties in with when we donated our toys and our food to people more needy than us.
We then talked about feelings. How some people look different, sound different, think different then we do and how it feels when those people aren’t understood; this lead to greater talks about the world as a whole. He asked me “but there are happy parts in the world right?” I said of course there are. We live in a happy part. We make the happy parts. That perhaps the world doesn’t start out always happy but we can put it into the world with kindness, giving, and love.
This got me thinking greatly about my life. How there are opportunities every single day to put “a happy place” into the world and how often I don’t. When I complain, get angry, lack understanding, or grace- I stop creating a place of happiness in the world that exists around me. It’s easy to say “well, I give to the needy and I recycle so I create a better world! Look at me!” Those are good and necessary things, but when we fail to understand the people in our immediate circle- we stop putting happiness into the area that we are.
I personally can’t do this without my faith. However the idea of being more understanding, gracious, and kind is something universal to me. Unless you’re a cynical misanthropic genocidal super villain, I don’t think this idea will fit into that particular niche. But if you fit into that category and are actually reading this blog- damn- what google search went wrong that lead you here? I digress.
It’s these simple things that always get me. The grandiose I can somehow get immediately but the simple ideas of being a decent person often elude me at first. Yes, I can be nice to people I dislike when I see them in Walmart and resist the urge to flip off the guy who cut me off in traffic. Sure. But what I’m talking about is the even deeper than that. My “world” begins with me. I have to put the “happy place” into my own life. Meaning I can’t hold that bitterness against the person who’s actions wounded me. I have to let go of my righteous need to be right and superior to the people I want to look down at from my fine high horse.
“A happy place” it’s the thing we make for ourselves, the people we immediately encounter, and then the beyond. I know I get preachy in these posts I don’t mean to be because the first person I’m talking to here is me. There is outrage, there is out right rage and hate and it spews from all the mouthpieces that we can get to, from the keyboard to office talk. There are things we must be outraged over; there are times when we must stand up; trust me, I’m a bleeding heart liberal don’t get it mixed up. But I feel as equally passionate that for the world to ever be a better place we have to start in the small. We have to start putting the good into it. Beginning with us and going out like ripples. We have to stop perusing the agenda to be an asshole at any opportunity. "Be the change you want to see."
I explained that while we live in a place that has lots of food and toys and love, there are places in the world where things are different. We talked about God and our favorite superheroes and what it means to be like them. That how we give of ourselves can help make things better. I gave some (age appropriate) examples and asked him how he would feel in these situations. We talked about how this ties in with when we donated our toys and our food to people more needy than us.
We then talked about feelings. How some people look different, sound different, think different then we do and how it feels when those people aren’t understood; this lead to greater talks about the world as a whole. He asked me “but there are happy parts in the world right?” I said of course there are. We live in a happy part. We make the happy parts. That perhaps the world doesn’t start out always happy but we can put it into the world with kindness, giving, and love.
This got me thinking greatly about my life. How there are opportunities every single day to put “a happy place” into the world and how often I don’t. When I complain, get angry, lack understanding, or grace- I stop creating a place of happiness in the world that exists around me. It’s easy to say “well, I give to the needy and I recycle so I create a better world! Look at me!” Those are good and necessary things, but when we fail to understand the people in our immediate circle- we stop putting happiness into the area that we are.
I personally can’t do this without my faith. However the idea of being more understanding, gracious, and kind is something universal to me. Unless you’re a cynical misanthropic genocidal super villain, I don’t think this idea will fit into that particular niche. But if you fit into that category and are actually reading this blog- damn- what google search went wrong that lead you here? I digress.
It’s these simple things that always get me. The grandiose I can somehow get immediately but the simple ideas of being a decent person often elude me at first. Yes, I can be nice to people I dislike when I see them in Walmart and resist the urge to flip off the guy who cut me off in traffic. Sure. But what I’m talking about is the even deeper than that. My “world” begins with me. I have to put the “happy place” into my own life. Meaning I can’t hold that bitterness against the person who’s actions wounded me. I have to let go of my righteous need to be right and superior to the people I want to look down at from my fine high horse.
“A happy place” it’s the thing we make for ourselves, the people we immediately encounter, and then the beyond. I know I get preachy in these posts I don’t mean to be because the first person I’m talking to here is me. There is outrage, there is out right rage and hate and it spews from all the mouthpieces that we can get to, from the keyboard to office talk. There are things we must be outraged over; there are times when we must stand up; trust me, I’m a bleeding heart liberal don’t get it mixed up. But I feel as equally passionate that for the world to ever be a better place we have to start in the small. We have to start putting the good into it. Beginning with us and going out like ripples. We have to stop perusing the agenda to be an asshole at any opportunity. "Be the change you want to see."