Love Over Hate
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” It may be one of his finest quotes, focusing on what he wanted not what he didn’t want. The burden of hate is tremendous. There are physical feelings that come with hate; stomach in knots, bile build-up, tension in the muscles; clenched jaw. There are emotional feelings that come from hate; anger, frustration, guilt, apathy. Hate is an emotion that comes from fear. It can be inward toward yourself or external toward others. The vibration of hate or fear is very low, putting out a frequency that is met by the same emotions.
The physical feelings of love are lighter; muscles relaxed, a skip in the step. The emotional feelings that come from love are lighter; gratitude, appreciation, compassion, happiness. Love allows openness, and can also be inward or external. Internal love allows you to attract external love. The vibration of love is a high frequency that attracts similar energy; bliss, joy, contentment.
As this year has begun there has been a lot of fear and hate among us. We are concerned with the virus, of catching it, of giving it to others. We are concerned financially, with businesses still not fully functioning and an economy that has people frightened about keeping their homes or feeding their families. We are struggling to be with people we want to be with for fear of spreading the virus, or we are allowing the virus to spread by not protecting ourselves or our families, our neighbors.
We have allowed idealogical differences to create havoc in our relationships, in our country. And we have seen a radicalization through social media that was once only seen in countries that we tried to help, not here in the USA. And the radicalization is on both sides of the aisle, this is a scary time no matter what you believe. We have people believing they are being censured, and from their perspective maybe they are. We have people believing an election was stolen, and from their perspective maybe it was. The truth, which was always clear, seems hazy to many. The truth seems crystal clear to many. It is very difficult to have discussions, they become arguments.
It has all taken it’s toll on people, on families, on friendships. Recently, I was reminded that back when we were growing up, there were two subjects that were never spoken about publicly; religion and politics. Yet today, they are both spoken about on social media as absolutes many times with veiled threats. People believing or not believing and agreeing or not agreeing, all with anger and attitude. People are mean to each other and say disgusting things. People say things that they would never say to someone’s face, because it is easy to hide behind a computer. (maybe there are some that would say some of these disgusting things to someone, I try to hope that isn’t the case.)
As the events of the week unfolded, I found myself in tears seeing what we, as a human race, have become. I am included in all of this as I have shared my thoughts and opinions and have been rude at times as well. I try not to be and sometimes that anger comes through. I also found myself reflecting on where I am in life and what I want moving forward.
I do not want anger, fear, frustration and hate to dictate my life. I do not want that burden of hate to sit upon my chest. I can no longer allow that to fester inside of me, like an illness. I realize that my ideology is different than some of those who surround me. I must allow for people to have their own ideals. I am allowed to have mine. I know I have beliefs that work for me, whether they be religious, spiritual, politically, societal, they are mine. I do not want to continue to feel this anger and frustration toward people I know and people I don’t know.
I choose to love. I choose to no longer allow fear to dictate anything in my life. I choose love to guide me.
I have decided to stick with love, hate is too great a burden to bear.