Life has been a lot different since the year the world stood still. COVID exposed us to a world of solitude, amplifying the digital realm of connection. And in case you haven’t noticed, the internet is the wild, wild west, and the media stretches out like a vast, open prairie. Every day brings some new violent act: a person committing the unthinkable against their neighbor, a student walking into their school aiming at classmates, or children starving or dying in the midst of war. And all the while, the media amplifies the noise.

People choose media figures over their own sons and daughters. Some religious leaders who once preached love have been twisted into weapons of hate. And the ones most responsible, our supposed leaders, often help themselves at the cost of the very people who put them in power.

We are not each other’s enemy. We should be each other’s strength. It’s not your neighbor, quietly living their life, who is making your life miserable. The real struggle isn’t against the people around us… it’s against the habits of judgment and bitterness that keep us divided. It’s ego. Choosing love means turning toward connection, not conflict… and it doesn’t mean to excuse harm. 

So let’s choose today to pick love, for our neighbors, for our families, for the small corners of the world we touch every day. Let’s choose unity.

With Peace,

Shay

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