random spout

So it's 6:30am and you're at Starbucks with 3 women that you just suffered with in a Turbo Kickboxing class. This could be a morning where you bitch about how sore you are or how old you feel or who was doing what, where and when - OR you can do what we did and dive right into topics that are strictly forbidden: Religion and Politics. What I love is that people are often not what you'd expect. This particular morning, I found these women were more than I imagined. I live in an area where it seems stupidity and a sense of entitlement runs deep BUT what I'm finding is there are quite extraordinary women and men living among me. People with a conscience and a voice and the will to make this world a better place. What does it take to makes this world a better place? Getting off your ass, for starters, and opening some minds. It's so easy to watch the news and scoff at the crime or violence happening across the globe. What isn't so easy is making a choice to stand up for something. To voice your concerns even if it's as simple as sending a letter or writing a blog. Anyway, to sit down and realize we aren't all shallow and lost and negligent, that gives me hope. In a world where massacres occur at rates unprecedented, greed and power rob innocence and beauty, and selfishness toys with willing hearts - something has to change. We have to glimpse into something more possible. More soulful. More thoughtful. We can't just talk over our $4 coffees while entire villages in Africa could feed off the price of our coffee for months! We must find a way, a cause we can believe in, and we have to devote our time to changing it. Our lives are so short and I cannot fathom a world where boredom sucks me dry. I can't imagine a world where a twisted cycle of destruction and hate run the core of our systems. It's not because I am a dreamer - I'm a realist first. The world we have all accepted, that is the fabricated version of what should be. A world where those on top take more without any accountability or care. Selfishness is the cancer of this world. Love - love should be its catalyst. I know love doesn't come in a perfect, shiny box. It makes no sense. It causes pain and harm but it never, when it is true, is without purpose. I will not apologize for my heart or for those I love or for what I love. I won't apologize for believing this world is better than the torrid strain of religion, the hate that breeds more hate, the anger that no longer soothes brokenness but rather fuels malice, the murders that are committed in the name of freedom. When people can just realize they can attain all the power in the world only to lose it the moment death comes to swiftly take them from all they've acquired, that is justice. No god rewards hate or intolerance. Quotes to ponder: I can never worship a god that demands to be praised. I can no longer love when I am consumed by anger. I am free to be kind and yet I chose to be horrid. I have power and I have money but when it all falls away I have mere emptiness. I can never speak of goodness until I am willing to be good. I love but I have silenced that love with fear. Fear is the monster that tears us down. A gift has been given to me - I am free to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. I can do something to stop the cycle of violence in this world. I can educate people whose minds are closed that life is far more than the sheltered, simple, quieted life they've chosen to accept. What can you do?