It’s a Family Thing..

We are One is just another way of saying, God Is. As we’re all extensions of Source Energy (God, Goddess, Allah if you prefer) our Oneness is a given. It’s All That Is. Along the journey we take in physical form, we resonate with and embrace many ideas and perspectives.

Sometimes we gather in groups to express those ideas. Organized religion in whatever form it takes is one such way to do that. Depending upon one’s perspective, violence in the name of said religion will be viewed as the solution or the problem. And the violence doesn’t have to involve guns or shooting. It can settle in to how we live our lives. When that happens, the “isms” begin to emerge, latching on to willing participants, and they begin to spread insidiously throughout our world.

It’s tempting after involving ourselves in war with a particular group of people to lump all of them into the same radical category as the crazy people who began this round of it. Governments never see what their citizens see, that policies of encroachment and control tend to foster this violence, so any conversation that includes dialog like that never seems to happen. We might actually get somewhere if we did. But it’s hard to listen to someone else say that we’ve hurt them somehow. That’s true for anyone. Folks become defensive in situations like that, particularly if it involves people we don’t actually know, or have a way of life that seems different to us. And it’s particularly difficult when we are exhibiting the same kind of behavior, albeit on a less violent scale, ourselves. Oppression is oppression, no matter if it’s ugly and out front for everyone to see, or if it’s painted up real nice with a bow in it and served up with a smile. It’s still crap and the whole world is tired of it.

Now, what if we replaced the word, world, with family? Because that’s what’s really going on here. We’re family in the nonphysical realm. How can we not be, if we’re all individuated expressions of Source? Our natural state is Oneness. We resonate as one with each other whether or not we even realize it. It’s from that position, our point of origin if you will, that we go forward, instead of from the position of fragmentation and division.

The hate speech alone in the political arena is breathtaking. I don’t relish the upcoming election because of it. Instead of talking about what the issues really are in this country and how we might fix them, we’re talking about email servers and everything that happened in the past. Not that we can actually agree on what happened in the past, but it still doesn’t stop anyone from pontificating on it. One news program is actually devoting a segment to educate millenials on all things Clinton. What, millenials didn’t take History in high school or college? Do we really need to put out more fodder?

It would be nice if we could tone it down a bit, and see people for who they really are. Family. If the police violence lately toward citizens has shown us anything, we can definitely come together for the sake of family. All Lives Matter. Black, White, Brown, or any shade in between. I’m Irish, so without a tan, I glow in the dark. Advantageous though that may be, I prefer the tan. What difference does skin color make? I mean, really. What difference does it make?

Cultural differences, our collective heritage, bring so much richness to the conversation and to our collective awareness. And doesn’t everyone want an Abuela who cooks heavenly food? Or a grandmother from Italy who understands how to grow tomatoes and cooks her own heavenly food? I know I do. How can we even begin to not embrace all these wonderful cultures that make up our blessed country?

Sometimes sitting down at a table and having a meal with people helps, hence the above food references. We exist to connect with each other. Judgment prevents that connection from forming. Then come the ‘isms. Racism, sexism, ageism, and all the other expressions of intolerance that exist today have no place in our family.

Religious or not, organized religion is part of our lives. We’re affected by it even if we don’t embrace a particular religion. But if we do, and we don’t use it to oppress others, then we shouldn’t be included in the category with those that do. Sometimes some of us get lost along the way and really bad things happen. ISIL is an example of that. Al-Qaida is an another example of that. So were the Crusades. President Obama got in some hot water mentioning that, which sort of makes my point.

It appears that our focus into physical form involves remembering that we’re still One in Source, even though we appear to be separate individuals here. There are many pathways to that remembrance. Organized religion is one. At some point, we’re all going to have to realize that and stop condemning religion for what some wayward family members do. Even when it’s really bad. Maybe we need our hearts to resonate as One especially when it’s really bad.

We’re living in a time of wake-up calls. There are lots of expressions of how we don’t want to live everywhere we look. And what happens then? We come together in some fashion, even if it’s to tweet to the Ed Show. We make our voices heard in service to a better day. Social media is on fire with expressions of Oneness, and it’s awesome to see that love coalesce.

Because at the end of the day, it’s a family thing..

~Blessed Be Our One Family!