Erasing Hate

I have been doing a LOT of thinking lately. What direction I want to take my blog, what I want to talk about, how often to post, can I make a career out of it? I'd like to! What I want to continue to do is motivate everyone to live better and love more, despite whatever might be happening in the world, or even IN SPITE of everything that happens. Hate can come easy when you've been wronged. Continuing to choose love over fear. Light over dark. Helping others over destroying others is the decision we should always choose.

I have to confess that I sometimes choose anger over love and understanding. One thing that has helped me overcome this is practicing more gratitude. When we're "wronged" we have blinders on that causes us to see things with a certain perspective - our own. I'm not saying that we have to give people the benefit of the doubt, what I am saying is that we can act with more compassion.
As in 'Karen' from the office may have stolen your pudding cup and instead of marching over to her desk to demand the money she owes you for that sweet treat, instead talk to her about it. Maybe there's another side to the story. Maybe she was desperate for a snack or accidentally grabbed yours by mistake. If she just didn't blatantly care because she thinks the world owes her everything, it's time to have the hard talk. She now owes you 1 pudding cup...if that doesn't work, take it the boss, if the boss doesn't care, take it to HR, if HR doesn't care, it's time to get out of there. Sometimes we need to hear truths about ourselves that aren't easy to hear. For instance, at bible study one night, my group leader let me know that I can sometimes be disrespectful when my husband is taking (FOREVER) to make a decision. Rather I should act with compassion. That statement hit me in the heart. It's true... I often joke about how my husband makes glue out of a dead horse because it takes him so long to make a decision. What I should be doing instead is listening to him, help him weigh the pros and cons. Now, I'm not his mother, (neither did God intend for me to be!) so the ultimate decision he needs to make about something HE is thinking over is up to HIM. Unless of course, it's an outcome that directly affects me, then obviously I'll have more input so that WE can come to a decision TOGETHER.

Part of what spurred this thought process was watching The Handmaids Tale on Hulu. If you don't know anything about the show, the small encapsulated back story is that fertility rates dropped so low and Global warming caused toxic soil, that a bunch of dudes got together "for God" because they didn't like the direction the country was going in. Then they imprisoned certain women they deemed to be "unfit" due to their life choices (i.e. people who sin differently than they do. Stone meet glass house.) and force them to procreate based off of how they cherry-picked the bible apart to support their ideas and causes.
The amount of love it takes for some of the handmaids to stick together despite death threats, rape, and torture they are put through is outstanding. I believe the only thing we have to fear is hate. Hate is the emotion that festers inside of you that if left to grow becomes vicious things like slander, lying, stealing, plotting evil, arrogance, and even murder.

How can we keep from becoming the next Gilead? How can gratitude change hate into love? Simple, start by being grateful for the things that you love. Bryon Widner is a former skinhead, who went through the excruciating process of having roughly two dozen tattoos on his face and body that depicted themes of violence and hate. Erasing Hate is an MSNBC documentary on Widner's life and depart from the gang.

Widner and his wife were interviewed on the Dr. Drew Show about what got them in and out of the life of hatred.

Watch this YouTube Video on James Brassfield, who reformed his life after being involved in a prison gang. How he faced and erased the dark painful events of his life.