I Choose Love

A flower is a flower, not matter its colour.

It was a close thing. I almost succumbed to despair. With all the news lately of mass shootings, bombing, hateful rhetoric, seemingly intelligent people spewing nonsense, it's easy to buckle under the weight. Perhaps, it also is an echo of post vacation blues, I don't know, but both Ron and I were feeling it.

The anger and hate that is floating around is like a miasma; poisoning our hearts and souls. It's palpable and cancerous. It can cut you off at your knees.

We lost a friend recently. He had the amazing gift of being able to hold onto his childlike wonder. He loved to travel and see places both new and ancient, but got the same joy from a custom made Magnum bar or bubble wand. I was thinking about what I wanted to write on his memorial page. It is hard to sum up a person in a few words. They never seem enough, but it was his wonder that got me. That's when it struck me. All of the grey that had been clouding my emotions was due to lack of wonder. Even knowing that that's what all those hate-filled and hate-fueled people wanted, I was choosing to let them win. No more. I'm taking the high road and the hard road.

I choose to stand up for equality, acceptance and understanding. I choose light over dark.. I will not sit quiet and listen to untruths, hate-mongering and self-pity; not even from myself. I choose wonder for this amazing world that we live in; for the people that populate it. I do it for those who have come before and fought the hard fight, for present and future generations, so that they can know that I wasn't weak, sad or despairing; that I live in hope.

Above all else: I choose LOVE.