A Little Tenderness - Returning To the Good Times

We exist in a magical time where medical breakthroughs restore hope and fill hearts with new dreams of tomorrows that were not promised, where hope is restored. This is combined with senseless loss of loved ones and random deaths that continue around the world. We struggle to understand; history will record these as turbulent years, tempered with amazing grace.

People who may never meet have become polarized by positions founded in fear. We separate from those who do not seem to understand what is important to us in our effort to regain control of a world that seems to have tilted to the point of being precarious. It is the human response, this act of standing firm and immovable about something you can believe in. We have witnessed the very worst in humanity as we stared in horror at innocent people run down in the streets, and slaughtered at their favorite nightclub. Now we are directed to hide from something we cannot see; to retreat and hope those medical breakthroughs may once again restore any semblance of a world we used to know. Our 'normal' has been redefined. These events are a mere sampling of what we are asked to accept and understand. The unthinkable continues to crash into our reality. Like a turbulent storm that approaches with lightning and thunder, we hear the thunder roll and wonder if the winds of change will bring something even worse.

Is our world as we know it ending? It is not. We are witnessing a time when the darkest energy rises up to remind us starkly that this is not the way forward. As ugly and awful as it feels, it is a reminder of what we used to be. These are barbaric acts that we recoil in horror from. It is a changing of the guard, a shifting of gears as we speed past what was and turn towards what can be. Looking intently at the goodness that also surrounds us brings balance and peace into the madness.

You may never know when or how you will encounter a victim of the pain or violence we have witnessed. You will know them better by recognizing their pain. It is an opportunity to reach out and touch without judgment or fear, to understand that another's path may have been fraught with peril they never invited into their lives. The desperation to understand why is a daily battle.

This holiday season invites us to reach out to others with kindness, tolerance and faith. We become a healing force when we turn from our own emotional turmoil to reach out and understand. Somehow this simple act of temperance and grace inspires our own healing. It is the pendulum of life that swings equidistant, returning that which we extended in full measure. 

At every opportunity it is time to try a little tenderness as we reach out to touch others.