Happy 2024
New year, new beginning as they say. And as we look around the world it does seem that what we all need is a super dose of hope for a new beginning for many people and many environments.
Hope seems to be in short supply; in some places like Gaza it would seem almost impossible. But there are many places in the world that face the same feelings, albeit to a lesser extent.
For me I would start by looking at my humanity for that is what appears to be missing the most. Here in the UK we are beginning to see some withdrawal into isolation caused by the recognition that resources are becoming scarcer. For example, the recent legislation to stop polluting vehicles from big city centres which causes poor child development, breathing problems and even death is enough to create a strong reaction and shouts about removing freedoms and nanny states. As our resource shortages become more obvious our humanity and willingness to share and support others is seen as a cost to us, and therefore something we are increasingly unwilling to do.
To win back our humanity is to begin to see ourselves as all in the same boat, to have the willingness to treat everyone as we would like to be treated in the face of our challenges. This would create very different responses than we are currently seeing in our world. But it is also essential to recognise such changes in consciousness start within us, rather than us condemning others for their actions.
The world is in a place which really calls for healing and understanding. The first part of that is to remember the healing principle that the way anyone is acting is because of how they are feeling; therefore to judge the actions alone is to then bury the underlying feelings which then creates recurrences of the situations.
The conflict in the Middle East is a good example. Imagine how the Israelis felt on October 7th last year when they were attacked by Hamas: feelings of being victimised, horrified, devastated, terrorised and anguished. That was how the Palestinians were feeling that they did what they did. But Israel’s reaction has now inflicted another cycle of the same feelings on their neighbours. Both sides of a fight are feeling the same thing and if neither side has dealt with these buried emotions then the fight will continue. The idea of winning over the other or inflicting their destruction is only to prolong the problems for in this regard both Israel and Hamas are the same. Only when someone takes responsibility for their feelings and does their healing and gains a higher perspective can there be any lasting and peaceful outcome.
Our belief that attack in any form is a solution starts with us and our egos. Our willingness to attack others is but a reflection of our buried self-attack; our hatred of others is but a reflection of our hatred towards ourselves. This then brings everything back to us as we begin to understand the effects of our attack thoughts and begin to see how little we love ourselves. It is learning the lessons of self-love that begin to place us on the path of harmlessness, when we truly become benign and even gentle. And in doing so we win back our humanity.
Let this be our lesson for this year because we are all called to be the saviours of the world even if that just starts with our personal world.
With love,
Jeff