I am a Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi and Mandela kind of man. Therefore, it is a given, I believe in peaceful resistance to oppression and non-violent actions of protest to achieve change in society. I believe in a love of self and of society that is great. I choose or I am compelled to stand up for the oppressed and the rights of all people. It is “agape” love of which I am speaking, a love that means more than being affectionate or sentimental.
It means to be a vessel of understanding and being or using love for the goodwill of all mankind. This is done in trust and faith of the act itself, without requiring a return. You love because it is the human thing to do within the context of being a supportive human being in a loving human village. My definition of a human village is expansive and inclusive being all things, a neighborhood, city, state, country and the planet earth. I stand and walk within the belief, we need to be united in purpose and love.
We are separated by fear and it has caused a division that is calling for a healing. In my mind and heart, I know there is a place where everything comes together as one. I believe that place is the place of the heart. We are deeply bruised, but we are not broken. Things fall apart to come back together, again.
We have been here before. We are in a place of great transition, where religious rights, women’s rights, civil rights, gays rights and now—finally just human, societal rights. This is the truth. Only because, we are at a point in our society where all people have become mobile and are ready to be served peace and prosperity at the modern dining table. Everyone wants to be fed agape love because it feeds the body and the soul. I, personally, do not want to go hungry and have to sing a requiem of a lost dream. I want the unity of our voices. I have a living dream. I need to sing in verses and choruses, calls and responses. I don’t want to be loved the wrong way, again.
With another year of celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr, I see the evolution of his legend and I see how people are using it to their individual advantages. I believe we have forgotten the universality of his message. He was speaking or addressing the plight of people of color, but it was a focal point of observation of and the elimination of oppression. If one of us is in chains, then all of us are in a prison of the body and mind. To my thinking, in order to achieve peace, we have to be existing in a state of equality. But, sometimes dreams take a while to evolve until they come to a state of becoming. I believe we are standing at the door. It is time to knock and turn the knob for entry.
“Anything you love, can be saved.” Alice Walker
My dream for our humanity started in the 1960’s, before I even understood the full meaning of equal rights. Back then, I just wanted my rights and I would not mind the others coming along. It has taken me over fifty years to understand the truth and the meaning of equal opportunity and equal rights. What we are talking about is the sharing of information, resources and compassion. In 2017, we must be triple “A,” Aware, Awake and Arranged—in order to be ready to make the changes we need to help heal our society back to its intended wholeness.
In these new times, we have to practice mindful living, and being aware. This means sitting with yourself to know yourself. We have to practice being awake by doing things in a mindful way, which includes using daily rituals as reminders of our chosen course. This means to practice the art of visioning to create a plan of action. It is in accordance to an intentional program of change, it is time to arrange our minds, hearts and our gifts that we were given to upgrade and support the society.
When your truth is known, you will know what will be your path to travel. In your knowing, you will commit to joining with others to create a stronger whole. We have to practice being a village and not being a one-person army. Also, we as a people need to learn to reveal our true self. There is a need to know how to forgive in order to live in peace, with ourselves and all others. We have the gift of awareness to arrange our minds and hearts in the veins of being intimate with our sharing of being humans together.
As a society, we have to relearn how to share the load of carrying the water and planting the seeds. Doing it alone is harder and takes so much longer. In unison, we are more powerful. In unison, it is so much easier to begin to address the larger problem. In unison, it is easier to problem solve when you are aware enough to be able to see and recognize the problem. Life is a circle of being a step at a time as we complete each cycle of the journey. Hopefully within your next step, you are to be awake enough to be able to critically analyze the situation in order to find a solution.
With a new map in hand, it has become the time to arrange your life for a deeper sense of personal success by nurturing self-love, so you may give out more healthy love to your family and community. Build a foundation with bricks of love, hands held together in the sacredness of unity and you will have roots that will never be dry.
Allow yourself not to become divided from your society in any way. Allow yourself not to fall in the river of failure because you are no longer in the pack or you have lost your ears of compassion. It is important and necessary to be united in the pursuit of happiness to obtain success as a united people. Together, we can arrange our lives to operate on the “agape” love principle. It is a simple application of putting one foot in front of the other, in daily acts of being love in action. As long as you put principles before personalities, it is the gift that just keeps giving.
I am standing firmly in love, because I am a Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi and Mandela kind of man and I believe in practical solutions for our country’s healing.
We need new rituals of giving and being loving.
We have to be the love we seek, so we can be the dream. When I awake every day, I want to have a dream of our society experiencing “agape love,” from sunrise to sunset, all day, every day.
“Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
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