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| Photo: Lisa Raymond |
At a time when everyone seems uptight, angry and stressed, there is no better time than now to calm your thoughts and learn to enjoy your journey.
In general, people seem to be over worked, underpaid, and for the larger part, always ready to expect and accept the worst. Over the past years, there is a drastic increase in overall worldly violence as well as familiar domestic violence, and tempers are short and fuses can be quickly set off at the drop of a pin. We've watched movie stars command large paychecks for half rate movies, we've seen the rich continue to create boundaries and barriers that we can only dream of reaching all the while falling further and further behind in bills and basic life needs.
As I'm writing this, I understand how difficult it is to enjoy life when it seems like everything is caving in around you, but, your journey is in your control. And even if everything in your world doesn't fall the way you want it, not fully seeing the better side of things won't make the hard times any less hard, nor will it make a tough journey any easier to travel.
Living in Your Lane
Life is not a competition. It is not a race, and the person with the biggest best toys does not always mean "winner"! Competition to be king/queen of the hill seems to be the issue of more people. This is the desire to have what someone else has, or get even better at just about any cost. Including to the detriment to your financial status or quality of health. The need to outdo someone, especially when it's not feasible or necessary usually puts us in a state of unease. They used to call it keeping up with the Jones', however now, everyone seems to try to out do everyone else so life for many has become a complete mess. Rather than realize the emotional and mental stress that's caused by trying to outdo someone, we press forward walking down a path that doesn't really fully exist leaving us feeling empty and usually providing only short term gains and shorter term happiness.
Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being ambitious and wanting all that you deserve and can rightfully afford. However, as a society, we've taken the general meaning of living at a level that is affordable and reasonable to a level that puts us in a state of economic debt. This not living in our lane. It's living in a world that doesn't exist for the majority of mankind.
As a culture of people, we’ve lost sight of what is really important to focus on things that won’t mean two cents down the road. Who cares about who married who, who had gender reassignment, or who wore it best when there are wars, unfed children, and people dying from curable diseases.
What Went Wrong
It's definitely not like it used to be! I remember growing up during a time in the 70's and 80's where we could leave bikes out over night. If you did wrong, all the adults in the neighborhood got on you and then went back to tell your parents. I remember when parents were (for the most part) mean, and made us do homework, study and play.... outside. If you had someone you didn't like, you would fight one day, and be friends the next. We were not out for blood. We were not fighting till the death, and there were definitely no weapons. The journey for me back then, may have seemed hard, but it was not impossible.
Television and radio haven't helped as the FCC has lowered its standards of what is shown and heard over the airwaves. Sex, violence, and drugs have become second nature to us all both on TV and in secular music, that it has become normal for our kids to not only watch but to aspire to become a part of. It seems with the explosion of Social Media, we have become a society that is constantly and consistently trying to "one-up" each other and out do what other's in their social networks are doing.
This disruption has caused many to live in a way they may not normally in a quest to be seen as something they are not. Social Media has allowed us to all have fifteen minutes of fame, good, bad, or indifferent. This brief type of publicity, street credibility and misguided reality allows anger to flair and grow quickly as it is common for it to either end up on the evening news or broadcast across Youtube, Snapchat, FaceBook or land on a Twitter Feed. Therefore, instead of walking down a sensible path, many seem to be looking for a cell phone to capture the essence of anger that can catapult one into instant "stardom" only to be mocked and made a spectacle of by the very ones they are attempting to impress.
We all have heard and/or said that we want our kids to have a better life than what we had, but how can this happen when we are laying the path of pain and destruction as groundwork for them to travel. I'm sure no one wants their child to fall victim to a pedophile, yet we put sexual scenes and references on TV, in music or advertise clothing that is not age appropriate that put young children in situations where they portray the role of someone beyond their normal years. How can we expect them not to become prey when we advertise them as such? This is not cute, it is not funny, and it is not appropriate. How many times have you seen a Social Media Feed where there is a 5 year old twerking and her mama is cheering her on? What does life look like for that child? Or the 16 year old singing about gang banging because an "artist" made it sound so glamorous? The envelope has been pushed, but really, who wins? Who becomes the victims of life? Whose journeys become tainted?
Life is a Circle
This is nothing new. Throughout life and over time, this cycle consistently repeats itself. Each generation has added to the negative cycle, and from the beginning of time until now, repeated patterns of sex, violence and drugs have been amplified to the times in which they currently exist and represent.
What you put out into the world, you will (at some time) get back. If you are kind, then I believe kindness will come to you. If you are mean... well, I guess you will get that too.
The world can be cruel, but it can also be kind, forgiving and even loving. But it’s up to us to change the trend. Pay attention and ultimately, give love.
