The LOVE Revolution
As I sat at the table for dinner last night with my family, I realized I was rushing through my dinner to get back to my computer and it made me pause.
This is such a familiar feeling. I have flashbacks of sitting down to eat with my family as a teenager and realize I had the same feeling back then. Sit down, eat as fast as possible, avoid conversation, and run back to my room to finish my homework. Is life going to be just a continual rush to work? As I watch my 3-year-old, acting as if life is a bowl of cherries, playing and imagining and living so carefree, I yearn for that freedom and I wish I could bottle up that emotion to take with me into my adult life. How’d we get so serious? When did we forget how to use our imaginations? The simple joys of life seemed to have dissipated. We live our young lives free from worry, free from prejudice - just loving, happy, emotional beings - vibrating on such a pure level. Today for the first time I watched the video of George Floyd - I felt sick when I’d heard the details of the killing - so sick, I couldn’t bring myself to watch it and witness the truth of the situation on screen. As I watched the 10 minute YouTube video (10 minutes!!!), I started sobbing…thinking what in the world - how could this happen? Why didn’t the officer let George have a breath? WHY? So many why’s surround racial injustice; they could literally fill this page. I don’t pretend to be a saint and who am I to even speak on the subject? However what I’ve realized over the last week and a half in the outcry from this heinous act, is that people are ready to employ change, so who am I not to speak on the subject? What I know is that we are human and with that comes many flaws. What I don’t understand is how some humans have built up so much hate in their hearts. As children, we are such innocent beings with such joy and love in our hearts. Where do we lose that on our journey to adulthood? Now to see small business owners and so many others suffer due to violent riots, followed so shortly by COVID, I’m sincerely heartbroken. To imagine the pain that George’s family is in, I am truly heartbroken. How did we end up in this place? Why is it taking so long to get out? It is time to take a deep breath, stop rushing through our lives, and embrace one another - as one human to another, colors aside. It’s time to take a lesson from our children - our younger selves. It is so blatantly the time for a change. Fear is absolutely a lack of love. Let’s stop being afraid and let’s speak up - let's start loving!!
RIP George Perry Floyd (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020). Let your life and those of so many others not be in vein but for change in the world.