“I used to look in the mirror and feel shame, I look in the mirror now and I absolutely love myself” –Drew Barrymore
Antagonism… despair, desperation, hostility, doubt. These are just a few of the feelings we humans live with, each day of our lives. We pack our minds with the negative side of our perpetual view of the world choosing to subsist each day while protesting the horrible side of humans. However true it may be.
The wars and killing of our own kind; the hunger; the despair; the ghastly way we care for our own planet. We look and look and look some more until filled with anger we then say… “Humans are SHIT” We voice it stridently for all to hear and without realizing it, we are also giving into the side of the world we so much criticized.
I am known for being an optimist… I live as one every day. Yet, I too have lived on the side of true pain. I have held him while his seizures have taken over his body with an explosion like trembles as he foams from the mouth due to his epilepsy…Rick my brother. I’ve seen the face of madness and have been horrified by his eyes as he is chocking my mother….. Gus, my schizophrenic brother. I have shaved the few strands of hair left on my 17-year-old niece Heather while she fought cancer. The lifeless comatose body left us as I held his hand while I said goodbye… Eddy, my brother… he was 32. This has been my war, my despair.
If we look deeper within our own friends, family, and neighbors we see what we often miss because we are looking too far away and want to “fix” the world. I often think of the words of Mother Teresa… “Jesus said to love one another. He didn’t say love the whole world.“ Interesting how when we try to do so much with our voice we never have time to do a little with our hands. Hubert Humphrey also said, “The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.”
Have you ever seen a neighbor taking grocery bags out of their car to head to the elevator or stairs and you just kept walking? Have you ever been asked a favor by someone and even though you said “sure” you forgot about it? It just wasn’t that important…it’s more important to be on FACEBOOK. Have you ever offered to help a friend or family member with the kids so they can take a break from the craziness? When you say to someone… “If you need to talk, just call me..” and they do…. you then roll your eyes because you just don’t have the time right now. Have you ever really watched and listened to those right next to you. Right next to you?
I wanted to send this out because I am one to think that by very small (and to some) very insignificant ways we can somehow make a difference. If only we begin by “TRULY” looking in the mirror.