Have you struggled with finding the humanity in the world today?

Does it seem like we’re living in a world completely devoid of even the smallest semblance of humanity today?

Like many of us, I am an empath and feel the pain of those affected by the preponderance of inhumane practices today. I feel for the individuals, the families separated from loved ones, especially with young children. I fear for the long-term impact on those kids, and the years that they will be dealing with their emotional and psychological pain.

To be clear, I am not condoning turning a blind eye to those who may come to our country to cause harm and skirt our laws. I believe, however, that we should always be compassionate and allow due process to those we suspect of crimes. We are all aware of historical cases where someone has been wrongly charged, convicted and imprisoned for a crime only to be exonerated in later years when new evidence comes to light.  I am against the indiscriminate enforcement of hateful and often violent acts perpetrated in the name of justice.

I am in favor of empathetic treatment of others, and a true path forward for those who contribute positively to our communities. Yes, our immigration process is broken; we need clear steps to citizenship. We also need to remember that our country’s forefathers were, in fact, immigrants themselves. Diversity is what has made us stronger. Hateful rhetoric and uncompassionate, indiscriminate acts do not make us stronger, rather it weakens us.

What is ‘Humanity?’

Humanity*

compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition : the quality or state of being humane

bespeaking humanity for the enemy in the midst of a bloody struggle—

: the quality or state of being human

joined together by their common humanity

*Merriam-Webster

As we look at the chaos unfolding here in the U.S., as well as around the world, we should never turn a blind eye to injustice, propagandized hate and intolerance. It seems we are bombarded with never-ending evidence of that intolerance and injustice. It’s easy to give up hope that we will ever find a solution.  Every single news report seems to prioritize negative, fear-based reports.

So, what can we do to not blindly succumb to fear?

First, seek out all the facts; there are mistruths on both sides of any issue. Intuitively discern what makes logical sense to you. Never limit yourself, at least initially, to seeking out a single point of view. Once you have all the facts, peacefully stand up to injustice, opening your eyes wide and recognize that the vast majority of people in this world are good, kind-hearted, and God-loving. Remember to look for the good happening all around us each and every day…we just need to open our eyes to see them. Once you do you’ll find renewed faith in our world as a result.

So why, you might ask, aren’t we seeing more positive news?! The truth is main stream media is here for viewership. They often make more money portraying extreme negativity and divisiveness.  Fear-based ‘breaking’ stories are a much bigger audience ratings than reporting on the positive things that people around us are doing. Yes, we’ve all known that there is inherent bias in most news reporting.

As human beings we all tend to seek out messages that support our own ideological point of view. For the news sources that you follow today, ask yourself ‘What master are they actually serving?’ and ‘Who is their intended audience?’ Most often, that master is not you the viewer, it is rather the management of the news station, the owners of the news conglomerate, the shareholders, and more specifically the almighty dollar.

At one point in my career, I spent 14 years working for a publishing company in the Midwest that grew to having a dozen advertising-free national magazines. At the height of our company’s circulation, we had over 16 million subscribers, with an estimated readership each issue of nearly 50 million people.

What set us apart from other publishers at the time was that we published every issue without paid advertising!  When our founder and publisher concepted his very first publication, he took note of the fact that when someone purchased a book to read, they purchased it for the content alone. He felt the same should be true for magazines. Offering quality content alone…that the reader wanted to read…turned out to be a winning concept. The company did extremely well financially with this format…far better, in fact, than a lot of traditional publishers. We were never beholden to advertisers in what stories we printed. Rather we shared stories, recipes, photos, crafts, decorating tips that our subscribers wanted to share with us and fellow readers. We liked to say we were ‘good news’ publishers. We shared down-home features that the publisher often said a reader would never be embarrassed to have on their coffee table should their church leader decide to stop by for a visit.

While we were not widely known outside of our large customer base, we were successful! In fact, a more widely-known cooking magazine’s editor-in-chief was once questioned about our own much more widely-circulated food title, and he had no idea that we even existed, despite the fact that we had approximately triple their own circulation.

What each of us wants regardless of our current circumstances, political ideations, or family situation, is HOPE! Hope that our future, and the future of our children, and our children’s children, is filled with freedom, opportunity, love, friendship, and, of course, life’s basic necessities.

We all want to be supported and loved by the people around us, our friends, neighbors and communities. Every one of us wants to feel accepted unconditionally for who we are, human beings who are prone to our fair share of mistakes and misjudgments, but also individuals who have our fair share of seemingly divine moments of clarity and genius!

Now is the time to dream! It’s time to manifest the world we want to live in. For me, and hopefully for all, it’s a time to accept others for who they are, and recognize that we are all on our own unique life path. What may be perfect and good for your soul’s growth will always share some commonalities but also many differences from others. We are all on a truly individualized soul journey. Those journeys, and their associated struggles, should be applauded and celebrated!

We should avoid judgement and cast our eyes upward to see others for who they truly are deep within their heart and soul. There should be no need to ever look down on anyone. We should wholeheartedly support the right of others to make their own life choices as they express their free will, and to navigate their own life lessons, and to learn in their own time from those lessons. That is how we all grow as human…and as spiritual beings.

My hope is that we all feel comfortable, recognized and supported for the road we have already traveled in life and the challenges we have faced. No individual is less a ‘chosen one’ in the eyes of God. We are all united with, and are individualized emanations of the Truth, the Light and our Creator God.

Rejoice in each and every day. Rejoice in the lessons learned not only from our successes, but from our struggles. Rejoice in our Unity, the ‘brotherhood’ and connection we each share at the deepest level of our existence. And as individuals walking our path, remember always to have the utmost compassion for yourself at the same time as we have it for others.

I have every faith that the challenges we face today, are the building blocks we will use to build our better selves, and our better world of tomorrow. Until that reality is realized, continue to live and enjoy your best journey possible. Remember to seek out the good in all people, as they live their own life path of experience and learning.