Messages that potentiate growth arrive sometimes in odd and peculiar places when least expected.

A Wal-Mart store presented as the place. As I reached for a shopping cart, two grey-haired women approached and struggled to pull apart the linked carts. I offered them each a cart to quiet their struggle. One woman thanked me for being a gentleman. She then looked me square in the eye and exclaimed, to paraphrase, that she’d been born in the 1930s. She added that she’s never experienced such an “ugly world” as now. I’m not certain she wanted a reply. I offered none. We went our separate shopping ways.

Later, after returning to my vehicle, I sat and was struck by the woman’s words. Her words were few, her sentiments rich and profound. I wondered about her life. I knew nothing specific. Yet, history will suggest a woman who lived through a World War, the aftermath of the Great Depression, other wars, planetary changes, family, work, and a myriad of unknowns. Here she presents herself to a stranger. She carried 80-plus years of experiences to the present time. I meditated and wondered about her message.

Sadly, I had to admit that she was not only entitled to her feelings; she, too, was not alone. The plight of our country has us in jeopardy of dividing families, friends and fellow workers. Extreme raw feelings and emotions have no govern to protect ourselves from others as well as ourselves. One perspective suggests a regression individually and collectively to a primitive state of being.

We find fault with others. We blame others for our plight. We have become embroiled in powerful emotional forces that challenge the collective mental health of our country. What we’ve criticized in non-developing and every developing nation replete with divisiveness and harsh-cruel sentiments have seeped into our consciousness. We are becoming what others experience and that we abhor. “We have met the enemy and it is us” rings loudly.

If we allow ourselves to follow the flock, so to speak, to the abyss, much of our technical advances will have been for naught. To use technology to demean others for some insane purpose only serves to prevent the natural evolution of emotional and spiritual connection. The disconnect and divide will only lead to violence and abuse. If the behavior serves only a purpose of satisfying one’s ego, that’s  a mental disturbance. Whether it be families, friends, workplace environments, we need to reconnect. Looking within ourselves rather than outside ourselves potentiates growth, harmony and well-being. Mental health and spiritual counselors who practice the aforementioned can be a vital cog in guiding the misinformed and those with hatred in their being to a healthy consciousness.

We don’t need a civil war, folks. We need to come together as people on this guiding light called planet Earth. We are all valuable beings to the collective well-being of Mother Earth. Our technology has infinite measures to provide direction away from the abyss. Faith, hope, love and forgiveness are what we have as tools. Let’s use them.

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. M.G.