My mind been filled with fields of wild thoughts today. It could certainly just be my ADHD ping-ponging from one subject to another in this constantly whirring brain of mine. The thoughts, regardless of cause, are wild, and as frustrating as I find that I just cannot reach a definitive conclusion for the questions I have about the world around me, I also find beauty in it. Curiosity is something I want to live and breathe. It helps me understand the people who are different than me. Curiosity invites me to learn and develop as a human. It fosters empathy and creates room for growth. It causes me to ask questions, sit in discomfort, consider different perspectives, either form my own opinion or choose the option of accepting the unknown.
The hardest part about the journey I have been on in my twenty-seven years of living has been coming to the belief that the unknown is not as scary as I have made it out to be. Where I used to deal exclusively in absolutes, I now marvel at the maybes. Possibility is one of my favorite words. It confidently rests in the gray, extending an arm of invitation to see what could be rather than what is. The word is inextricably tied to hope, to faith, to desire.
In a world where we are of many different belief systems, how beautiful would it be if we turned away from words like confusion, lost, wrong to define what we see and instead consider life as the galaxy in its vastness, stars innumerable. The possibilities of what lay in wait outside our atmosphere are endless. Depending on one's perspective, it might be terrifying, or it might be mesmerizing.
I have thought a lot about the words we use to describe our individual outlooks. In newspaper articles, we can detect how the writer might feel about a subject based on the words used in a simple headline. As writers, we choose our words carefully in an effort to establish a certain tone, to spark a particular feeling.
Here, I choose words like marvel, curiosity, and possibility to make room for hope and comfort. Because in a world where there is so much frustration, harm, and hatred, we need words that elicit hope for a better tomorrow. Words that won't make us shrink in anxiety that our world is going to hell in a handbasket. Because it isn't. Our world is beautiful, if only we allow ourselves to look at the bits and pieces of it that truly are.
I firmly believe it is important to look the bad in the eye. It is important to stand up when we see someone being harmed by another. We need to name it for what it is. Hate. It is important to stand up to hate in all of its forms. Admittedly, I have found myself in the internal cross-hairs of my advocacy for the marginalized. I have asked the question of Christians, "Didn't Jesus say, 'Judge not, lest ye be judged?'" and in turn placed definitive judgment on those same people with words I attached to their existence rather than their actions. If there is anything I struggle with more than anything, it is the way we love and care for only a fraction of the world--those who think like we do politically, religiously, socially, etc.
Words carry power. They can be a force for love and hope or a weapon for hate and despair. As my wild thoughts took root early this morning, I pondered what my life--what the world--would be like if we could see the potential for good in each person, hold them accountable when necessary, and help them along in this journey for which our destination is unknown.
The only thing we know for certain is that you and I are here, living and breathing in the same moment. Our spirits naturally yearn for human connection. Somewhere along the way, that tie has been tangled, the connection not lost, but limited. I hope one day we can again find our way back to each other and open our minds and hearts to the one thing that brings us all together:
Our humanity.
