Share Six | Reflections

September’s Share Six theme is Reflections.  Back in August we, as well as my in-laws, took a trip out to Virginia to visit my brother and sister-in-law.  So we all took two days and visited Washington D.C. as well.  It was a whirlwind trip to D.C., but it was well worth it.

I’d love to be profound with what I have to say, but as I’ve gotten older my ability to articulate my thoughts has declined.  The last few years I have watched an illness come over our country.  I don’t want to touch on politics, so this is a risk I’m taking, but I feel that it’s something we need to do.  These last few years I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on our country, on its history, on our people, on myself…my own life.  Those two days in Washington D.C. involved a lot of reflection.  It breaks my heart that we (that’s ALL of us, BOTH sides of the political spectrum) can be so filled with hate.  A lot of the hate stems from hurt.  We all have stories we’ve heard, situations we’ve experienced, things that shape our feelings towards others.  That’s never going to change.  We will ALL look at things differently because no two people go through life with the same exact experiences. The problem is, we can let those experiences, those stories, those feelings shape us for the better or shape us for the worse.  We can act in love or we can act in hate.  As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have decided to stick to love…Hate is too great a burden to bear.”  At some point we have to let go of the hurt, the grudges, the hate, otherwise it will eat away at us and rot our very souls.  As I said before, we are ALL guilty of this in some shape or form, in some area(s) of our lives.  In the political realm, BOTH parties are guilty of hate simply if someone doesn’t agree with their line of thinking.  Here’s the thing, I am a optimist and always have been, but I have to face reality and realize that every person is unique and comes with their own unique perception of how life is.  I can not change them or their beliefs.  Do you know what I can do though? I can change myself.  I am in charge of no one else except myself.  So if I want to see change, I need to BE that change.  If I want to see love, than I need to show love.  Unfortunately the media loves to create hype, they know that hate sells and so that’s what they are going to show.  You know what though, when I am out and about around my community I see so much love.  Why don’t we take it upon ourselves to spread that love?  Take pictures of love in action and share those!  Let’s flood social media with images of love in action, because if you open your eyes you will see that there is so much love out there.  We’ve all heard people say to get rid of the negativity in our lives and yet we turn on our tvs and fill our minds with the negativity the news media so gloriously loves to spread.  We get on our social media accounts and see post after post of all the talk about hate.  We even make our own posts about the hate.  Are we that naive to think that so much dwelling on the hate is somehow going to take AWAY the hate??  As I was a child I was told that “what goes in comes out”.  Why don’t we start filling our eyes, ears and minds with love instead of hate.  Instead of ranting about the hate, let’s get off of social media and out of our homes and live our lives for others, spreading the love that this world so desperately needs!!  Let’s be the change we want to see in the world!!

Ok, back to my images.  Here are a few images I took in Washington D.C.  While visiting there, you can’t help but reflect on all that this nation has been through, on all of the people that so selflessly gave their lives for our country.  Shame on us for dishonoring these men and women who fought for us and who built this amazing but flawed nation!!  Let’s honor them by changing our thoughts and actions and demonstrating love AND respect for every person!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!  Head on over to Kathy’s blog to see her lovely images!!