Who Decides For You?

Have you ever thought about how many issues, events, problems – even wars! – are created for us by others? In the past week we’ve had Grey Thursday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The results of these made-up days of shopping will be analyzed, scrutinized and victimized as the news media, Wall Street and politicians decide the happiness and security of the next month – or perhaps the coming year! – based on how much we spent.

Seriously? Do you realize that there have been people who have lived virtually unscathed through the “Great Recession” we’re coming out of right now? While there were people committing suicide in 1929 many others made their fortunes in the Great Depression. How?

They practiced what many of us already know is possible:  Change your thinking – Change your life! We have choice. We are not mindless automatons. We are creatures of free will who are not bound by instincts. Unlike geese we can choose to fly south for the winter or we can choose to stay in the north and bundle up.

I grew up as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Members of that religion do not enlist in the military or fight in wars. A woman once angrily asked my mother what the world would be like if everyone was like that. I remember my mom smiling back at the woman without saying anything. Why? Because if everyone – literally everyone – refused to fight we’d have peace on earth.

There would be no people in Bangladesh dying in a factory fire while they were sewing clothes for Wal-Mart, Tommy Hilfiger and The Gap at twenty cents an hour. We’d have love in families. We’d have different religions and faiths and cultures enjoying diversity and richness. There would be no hunger, for we would care for one another. There would be no loneliness, because everyone would be loved.

Does world peace sound too good to be true? I still think that it’s good enough to be true, and we can have it now if as a species we decide to have it. We can choose to be bogged down in the strife of the world and the economic reports, or we can choose to live in a way that supports each other and the planet.

We are children of the Universe, abundantly supplied and magnificently blessed with the power to affect change in our lives, which in turns helps everyone around us. We have the power – you and I. Decide to use your power for good for yourself and others today. It beats having to turn on the news or get an alert on your smart phone to inform you how your life will turn out.

In Spirit, Truth and Playfulness,

Terry