Splintered Apart: When We Fail to Realize Our Interconnectedness

Nothing in this world happens without a reason or a purpose. Although it seems like the disjointed events of our life seem haphazard and random, if we quietly observe and connect the dots we can easily see that there is a purpose to it all. It is quite evident that there is a universal story unfolding in front of our eyes, not in a superficial or corny way, but within the authentic depth of our spirit and consciousness. Behind every story, headline and viral video that has us looping around on an emotional roller coaster, there is a silent spirit of universal consciousness working towards the betterment and unity of humanity. Yet, our denial, fear and judgement has us trapped in a stagnant energy that keeps us anxious, angry and helpless in a world that seems to have gone mad.

In this crazy time, it is easy to get caught up in the sensation of the latest headlines until the next tragedy unfolds and not see the bigger picture at work. This is especially evident in recent history; we’ve have had a series of events that should really shake us to our core but somehow we keep continuing to resort to our state of denial, anger, and frustration towards each other rather than ask the questions of what we are supposed to learn and change in society and within each one of us. Every tragedy is a wake-up call, an opening of the heart, a search for meaning and a journey towards compassion. Yet, somehow, our need for comfort and self- preservation overrides this opportunity for growth and understanding.

If you go back to the time right after 9/11, people were afraid and heart-broken but there was also an energy shift towards compassion and understanding. I remember how everyone seemed so open, caring and were seeking for real answers. People really wanted to understand and asked “why do they hate us so much”, sales of the Koran by non-Muslims was higher than any other time as people were seeking to understand why this tragic event unfolded. It was an opening to start understanding why we as Americans were viewed differently from how we have chosen to perceive ourselves.

How can we be the land of the free and the home of the brave and yet have so many that hate us from abroad and have so many who feel lost and exclude from our system within. We unfortunately did not have the type of leadership that channeled the new sentiments of that time, instead we resorted to the famous quote, of you’re either WITH US or AGAINST US. An opening of our hearts was quickly closed as we prepared to go to war and further jump into the ideology of us versus them.

Since then, we have had many opportunities to wake up and see what is really going on. Every tragedy, from Hurricane Katrina, to the Tsunami, to the economic collapse, to police brutality, to mass school shootings, to the opioid epidemic, to mass incarceration, to the crumbling state of our education system, to the me too movement, to the rise of nationalism has been wake up call for us to rise up from the comfort of our illusion and seek meaningful interactions to find common ground, understanding and compassion. Yet, we are still resorting to the US vs. THEM tag line as we continue to debate on a singular focused and over simplified issues of race, religion, status, gender and immigration status without understanding our universal humanity.

Everything is forcing us to not only debate but to air out our trauma and grievances so we can finally see that there is not much difference between all of us. It is easy to vilify another based on differences, yet, if we took the time to not judge, assume or lump people into groups, we would quickly see that there is not much difference between each other. We are all seeking a better life, a life of meaning, love, understanding and belonging. Yet, our fear continues to keep us alienated as we continue to have surface conversations without going deeper into issues.

We are a country that has functioned on a the surface because we are too scared, too busy, too tired, too ignorant to really take the time to see how we are all biased towards any group of people we judge. Poverty, police brutality, rise of nationalism, religious zealotry, political radicalism, anger, frustration, isolation, anxiety, fear, hatred and division is the symptom of a broken system of separateness and fear. Only when you are separate from what you are fighting can you feel fear and seek simplified answer to life’s big questions and try to define the unknown.

The root of our problem is that we have learned to view the world is us vs. them mentality and we have not acknowledged the generational impact of past genocides and atrocities that are still haunting all of us today. We have to truly learn human history and what has happened to people to understand where we are at today. It is time to go deeper and learn history from all angles instead of the simplified and washed down version that has some feeling superior and others feeling defeated and lost. History belongs to all of us and we have to learn the truth of evil and understand that it can only exist when we think we are separate from each other. History, religion and politics use separation because they benefit and profit off peoples’ fear.

True history, religion or government would not preach separation and fear but instead work towards expanding our interdependence and need for universal participation towards a common good. We should not separate history into African, Western, or Asian history but rather learn the common theme of all our human history. Our universal struggle for freedom and birth right has always been suppressed and sustained by the grips of power and greed regardless of geography, religion or race. Every war that has ever been waged, has somehow been based on the ideology of separation, division and subjugation of others. It is a belief that we can value one life over another based on the constructs of race, ethnicity or religion.

Most religions preach about peace and love but don’t truly grasp the concept of it because it is based on separateness and their peace and love is only reserved for those that practice what they preach. It can never lead to true peace or love because it does not possess the ability to promote our Oneness nor understand the concept of One creator, One Life and One spirit. Politics and government only seem to rise to power through the promotion of fear and vilifying the other party, candidate or constituent.

This is what keeps us separate, isolated, afraid and lonely in a world with of over 6 Billion people. If instead of focusing on our separateness, we seeked our spiritual unity, valued our One creator regardless of what religion we practiced, saw our universal need for love or our fear of rejection, we would then have more compassion and love towards ourselves and each other. That is the next wave of our human evolution that is desperately needed to move us out of Chaos and into the peace that is awaiting for us. Thru all the pain and division we are witnessing, we are slowly waking up to the illusion that has been keeping us separate. We have to evolve beyond our archaic survival instincts to stand up for each other and learn that those who brutalized our past can only survive in the present and the future when we remain divided. Click To Tweet

We have got to work harder to not ignore any injustice, go beyond our superficial identity and rely on our universal humanity to guide us toward love. Learning the atrocity of slavery, genocide, colonialism, tribalism, war and superiority is something we all must all do to make sure it does not continue to happen. This is not the burden reserved for those who have been victimized by history but rather a burden that should be shared within each of us that we need to acknowledge and heal. We can’t assume that we can create a separate cocoon and isolate our experience and those of our future generation and not be impacted by the vulgar brutality of our past. We all have to heal from our past wounds and see each other’s humanity in order to find peace in this world.

We can’t continue to ignore the everyday injustices we witness everyday and assume that we can find any form of peace by adoring in glitter and gold, over medicating our restless souls, overstimulating our fragile mind or bandaging our broken hearts. We are choosing denial because we think it is an easier way to live but we have no idea the price we are paying. We are afraid to feel guilty, to give up our comfort, to questions ourselves, to self-protect our ego because we are living in our heads and not our hearts. Standing up for others does not mean you have to give up anything or feel responsible to fix everything. It just means you stop being a neutral bystander to any form of injustice. It just means you have to open your heart and if nothing else pray for others and wish others the best of outcomes instead of sitting in the high moral judgement of condemning others. This in turn will allow you to be kind not only to others but yourself as well.

At the end of the day, the journey toward finding compassion towards others will only open the doorway towards finding compassion for ourselves. That is when we will work toward, universal understanding, peace, love and utter reverence for life and our creator. Otherwise, we will continue to live in the despair of our fears and loneliness. So I say stand up in truth, stand up in love and stand up in courage to take the steps necessary towards our universal humanity. Only then can we heal ourselves, each other and our planet that is desperately crying out for the day we wake up to truth.

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi