"My friends, love is better than anger.
Hope is better than fear.
Optimism is better than despair.
So let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic.
And we'll
change the world."
~ Jack Layton
Jack Layton wrote these words to the people of Canada two days before he died of
cancer.
It’s like a life-guiding love letter, not only for the people of Canada, but for all of us - in the U.S., in all countries, throughout the world.
We desperately need messages like this - letters, speeches, all forms of communication that lead us toward friendship, love, hope, and kindness. If we are not hearing it, let's be the ones expressing it - encouraging each other to nurture and practice love and hope.
We can change the world. We do change the world -our own world - when we live guided by the highest principles. And we affect the world of those around us. Can we affect the whole world? Change the world?
It sure is worth working toward. We have nothing to gain with fear and hate and everything to gain with love and hope, especially when we add kindness, courage, compassion, faith, gratitude, joy - all the aspects of goodness.
Today, let's reflect on Jack Layton's words. Let's also open our minds and hearts to a sense of universal friendliness and the notion that "strangers are friends we just haven't met yet." We are all connected in a way we don't yet see or understand. But we can respect it, with faith.
Today, let's aim to love, to care, and to cultivate reverence for all.
With hope,
Charlene
PS - Jack Layton was a Canadian academic and political leader who lived from 1950-2011.
THE NINTH GIFT IS REVERENCE.
May you appreciate the wonder that you are
and the miracle of all creation.
- from The Twelve Gifts of Birth
