We Are All Just People

This video is making the rounds on Facebook and it's a much-needed reprieve amongst the hate, disrespect, and anger that has been predominant on the internet as of late. It reminds us that no matter our beliefs, color, gender, appearance, religion, or other external differences we are all fundamentally human. We all want to be loved and accepted. We want to come home at the end of a long day to a warm and safe home, and fill our bellies with healthy and plentiful food. We want our children to grow up in a better world than we did, safe and happy and healthy. We all want to be loved and accepted. I repeat that sentence because it is a basic human desire.

I will take it a step further to say it is more than a human desire; it is a basic requirement of all living things. Our dogs, cats, horses, ducks, and other domestic animals need and deserve a safe place to sleep and raise their young, good food, and love. Anyone who has rescued a pet knows how love can change them from fearful and timid to self-confident and loving. I would take it a step further and say the wild animals and plants and trees also flourish and thrive when their environment suits them well.

Now one step more ... all living beings everywhere respond to love and acceptance, including those lifeforms not of this Earth. Love is the glue of the universe whether you call it the unified field theory, God, Divine Intelligence or The Force; all can be described as definitions and explanations for Love. Not love as humans understand it, with its complications and conditions and guilt and manipulations, but Love as the source of all, the basic stuff of life itself.

Love and fear are two sides of the same coin. Love cannot exist in the same place as fear. The next time you feel fear, or its cohorts judgement or guilt, try visualizing a giant STOP sign in your mind, or a red rubber stamp that says CANCEL. Then replace that feeling with Love.

Yes there are circumstances in which fear is the appropriate response; if you're out in the woods and a mountain lion is stalking you, if you're in a city street and a bus is speeding towards you, if your toddler picks up a screwdriver and ambles towards an open electrical outlet. This is why we are programmed to feel fear; it's a warning system for true danger. The problem starts when we resort to fear when it is unwarranted and that's when it takes a toll on us emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically. That fight-or-flight response can even become our default emotion as we relish the rush of adrenaline, overstressing our bodies and emotions until we forget that being in "stress mode" is not our normal or natural state of being.

Taking a step back, taking a deep breath and remembering that we all exist in a loving universal embrace is not always easy in today's world. At first your body and mind may resist, clamoring that you are being lazy, you need to check your email, did you turn off the stove? But take a few moments each day to relax body and mind and focus on only Love. Nothing else but Love. Think of the Love that went into the creation of a single flower, think of the Love of a hummingbird as it gently took its sweet nectar. Whatever form you can best feel Love, start there, whether it's a puppy or a sunset or the face of your beloved. Start there, and don't stop expanding on that feeling.

Love expands; fear contracts. You can feel the difference in your body when you experience fear versus the experience of Love.

Once you realize and accept that Love is really all there is, you can entertain the possibility that aliens are people too. And they desire Love and acceptance as much as you and I do.

#love #fear #aliens #universe #stress