Saying It Does Not Make It True

My eyes are doing the eye roll.  You know, when you read something and it makes your head spin around a few times too many.  I try hard to practice what I preach and I probably fail sometimes just like others.

Reading on the social media feed, I saw someone share things about listening to others and respecting them.  I saw how they posted stuff that said actions speak louder than words.  By that point, I was thinking - wow, someone else that sees this part of life.  And then, it happened....

Yep, I began to read more of what they posted online in their social media account.  Do I really need to say what I saw?  Yep, it was more of the stuff that you would see just about anywhere on social media.  It was the stuff they were rallying against.  They were doing exactly what they were so against.

Everyone tells others what to do...

It seems like in these days, everyone tells others what they should do and how they should think, but it is meant for those that don't see things in life the way they do.  It is meant more as a whipping belt than as something that is truly good for not only everyone else, but for them!

I don't care what side of the political isle you are on or if you are religious or not, we as humans love to beat one another up every day.  The rhetoric that is being spewed on the internet is so toxic, that poisonous words are looking for safer waters.

It is hard to read anything online these days and it is just not politics.  Someone can post a pretty picture online or a nice video, and some will love it and others will degrade it.  The comments will get so divisive and hurtful, that it makes my head spin.

Do we not have an ounce of love...

I wonder if humans just hate everyone and anyone these days.  Do we not have one ounce of love in our life, or are we just out for our thoughts, beliefs and life as we see it?  It sure doesn't feel like anyone out there that claims they have love, knows how to practice it or put it in action.

In my own family, I see my holier-than-thou brother and his friends that say they preach love, but their actions are anything but this.  What you see them say and share on their social media feeds shows anything but love.  Yet, they use the "love they preach" as a bully stick to beat you into submission of what they perceive to be truth.

Love is absent in social media...

I'm so saddened by what I see playing out in social media and the news these days.  There is nothing wholesome about it.  There is nothing human about it.  It is pure poison and toxicity.  Love is absent.

It isn't the enemies that we cannot see which are the most evil in our world.  It is how we treat one another and how much hatred we harbor for one another that allows evil to thrive and grow.

It is in how we have lost the love in our own heart, that we allow the ego to rule our thoughts, words, and actions as if they are somehow virtuous.  Even though we proclaim our actions are right and justified, we fail to see that love is being abolished every minute we take a breath.

If we want the world to change and if we want others to change, this change needs to start within us.  We need to connect with love, rather than hate if we want others to love us.  We need to connect with understanding, if we want others to understand us.

All the screaming and toxic words being hurled in social media or in the world will never convince anyone that their motives and actions are born out of love.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Dare To Disagree

Many of us want to show how enlightened we are.  We spout off new age rhetoric or feel good phrases.  We show the world just how much we know.  We often claim we are much more than we truly are.

Yet, do we really do as we think we do or are we disillusioned by the cloud of rhetoric we spew online and that which we give to those nearby.  Are we really practicing what we preach and portray or is it a facade that is a persona we give to the world.

Being vulnerable is not easy.  Just ask Brene Brown how vulnerability shows up and just how much it can take you down.  As a result, we hide our vulnerability with our puffed up words and actions.  We portray one thing to the world, while holding our true selves as a secret and hidden entity in our life.

If you want to test this thought, try reading social media postings from the people whom you disagree.  See if you can hold your tongue or your fingers from typing for 2 minutes, not wanting to obliterate the other person's thinking because you are right and they are wrong. See if you can have the same love and compassion for your fellow man that you portray every day to the people that vehemently disagree with you.

See if you can hear their anger and poison filled words and yet be okay knowing that this is their issue, not yours.  I know that is not easy to do.  I struggle with it as well just like most of us do.  The media and various issue groups use this to their advantage as they pit one person against another.  This is how they win.  This is how they hook people into following their news and political revolutions.

I think you do need to be careful that you don't immerse yourself in the rhetoric that seems hateful and full of poison because it can truly drive you insane.  There is far too much of this posted every day on social media and it is not good for society or humans as a whole.  We don't have to pick fights and take sides.  We can rise above this.

Sometimes the best thing that can be done is to just say nothing.  Allow the people to rant and rave all they want but if they don't have an audience, they will soon burn out.  They will be like a candle flame that consumes itself.

The media loves the people who are outside the lines because it emotionally engages those that follow the stories so they will be hooked for days and weeks to come.  It isn't all the media's fault though because the people who consume this stuff are just as much a part of the problem as the media or the ones spewing the rhetoric.

We owe ourselves a lot more in this world and a better experience of what it means to be a conscious individual.  We cannot say we love one another while calling each other all kinds of names and showing our hatred for those who dare to disagree.

We cannot say that we enlightened only if we have others in our lives that agree with us and what we think.  It is a shallow part of the pool and dangerous indeed when we only huddle with those that share the same water.

At the same time, being human requires us to learn how to be conscious and aware.  It requires that we learn what civility and respect is all about in life.  It means that even though we may disagree with others, we need to see the big picture and will this disagreement define our entire existence, or is there more common ground that we share with those that are unlike us.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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