Know Your Enemies

I often hear about our terrorist enemies even though I don’t get my news from the radio or television; occasionally I will read our local newspaper. Even so, it seems the fear of terrorism surrounds us and infiltrates our peace and solitude with threats to our wellbeing. I hear of extremists to the east, drug cartels to the south, nuclear weapons to the west and global warming to the north. These things may all truly exist. I am not disputing that.
I believe that we are distracted from the enemies that are a threat, not only to our ability to survive, but to our innate drive to thrive. By survive I mean secure food, shelter, and clothing. By thrive I mean create and appreciate beauty, give and receive love, laugh and find joy in ordinary living with fond memories of the past and crystal clear vision of a wholesome future.
In my mind the real enemies we face are cynicism, hatred, complacency, and intolerance, not the people in the Middle East trying to fight for what they believe in; nor the apparent earth changes that are a result of our greedy and selfish environmental choices; nor the way we disrespect the power of the natural elements causing us to build neighborhoods where they don’t belong, believing that we are mightier than the spring floods, the hurricane winds or the harnessed atomic energy of the sun.
In my view, the true threat to our security comes from neglected children, demolished health care, ineffective education, suffering mothers and fathers, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, and spiritual starvation. Our ignored and dismissed elders hold our wisdom and we negate them as well. We are disconnected from the people we love and the land that sustains us and we find ourselves adrift on a stormy sea of hopelessness, fear and self hatred. Our financial markets reflect our faltering self esteem.
It is time to wake up and face the sun with gratitude and allow the renewal of our spirits and souls. We must rage against the dimming of the light. It is time to stand up and stand firmly in what we want and know as good.
We must begin with healing ourselves. We must learn to be kind to ourselves and others, appreciate beauty, give and receive love, forgive and not forget, nurture solitude, nourish wisdom, and connect with the natural world.
We must learn to relax our shoulders, our expectations, and our fears. We must be willing to be vulnerable physically, emotionally, and spiritually as a way to grow and deepen our love of self and others. We must celebrate life and witness its mystery.
If we are to thrive we must first ask ourselves some pointed questions. For example:

• What do I love?
• Why do I love it?
• What can I do as an act of kindness today?
• What is one thing I can do right now to change the way I withhold love from myself or others?
• How do I define beauty?
• How do I create beauty?
• How can I express beauty?
• What am I willing to do to honor what I know to be good?
• How can I be with the natural world today?

Health, peace, and love are the given. The gift of life is to choose them. Our enemies offer us an opportunity to create a space for peace, love, and healing to reside.
May these prevail on earth.