Sunday, January 8, 2017

Mark Twain: Travel Is Fatal

I love this! -- 

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness, and many  people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one's life." - Mark Twain.

So true! Many speak to the sickness of our times as being that of separation. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of this when he wrote: "Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated." 

Pema Chödrön went on to speak of the path of reconnection: "We don’t set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people’s hearts." 

Yes, this is so vital - that we reflect on how our actions, our belief systems, and the way we are in the world affects other people's hearts. May we all work to find ways to travel into the physical and heart territory of those we have considered as Other, of those we have felt separate from through the stories of disconnection and judgment that we are taught. May we question these stories and work to transform those that cause harm into stories that strengthen caring, compassion, kindness, and love. May each and every one of us increasingly open our hearts to the deeper truth of our interbeing and of how the Sacred is woven through all of life.

Bless us all - Molly
 

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