Sunday Story...The Year is 2010

Sunday Story…The Year is 2010
The year is 2010 and I have neighbors who don’t have enough to eat.
The year is 2010 and I have friends with no place to live.
The year is 2010 and I am aware that some people make a choice everyday between food and health care.
The year is 2010 and I know people who have no job because there is no longer a job for them here.
The year is 2010 and I live in the most prosperous country on the planet during the most prosperous time in history. We produce enough food to feed everyone in the world if we knew how to get it to them. We have lots of places for people to live. We could provide health care for the poor, indigenous and less fortunate. We could create jobs.
The year is 2010 and I live in a place abundant and verdant yet the people in it seem to operate from a mindset of scarcity and lack. Instead of being generous and giving, all of a sudden we seem to be worrying about making sure our piece of the pie doesn’t get any smaller, even though the slice I have is plenty big enough for me and a few others.
The year is 2010 and we are all more closely connected than ever before. Yet there is a profound disconnect between us that prevents me from truly connecting with the soul in you. I see your tweets, you status updates, all your friends and the various doings in your life. But do I really get to see YOU? The You that wakes at 3:12AM and wonders if tomorrow will be the day the company lays you off, or if the bank will repossess the house, or if your kids will need another prescription you can’t afford. Do I really know the YOU that dies a little when you see the line getting bigger every week at the food pantry. Do YOU let me know how your heart breaks when you see people living in tents in 0 degree weather?
The year is 2010; 10 years into a new century and our problems seem to have shifted into overdrive. We are all waiting for something…the economy, 2012, the second coming, global warming, something.
The year is 2010 and we sit upon the edge, the cusp of something truly amazing. We are at a tipping point in history. A time not unlike the 1770s when a new idea for governance was created and implemented among the blood, sweat and tears of a new nation.
The year is 2010 and we can continue doing what we have always done. We can try to go back to the economy we enjoyed before. We can try to re-do and correct the mistakes using the same tired technology that we have been using the past years.
The year is 2010 and the time has come for each of us to begin anew. To take a fresh look at our priorities and the things we really want in our lives. Do I want a giant house? Do I want to not see my neighbors in the food line. And yes, you could have both. But what is your priority? Where do you want to place your focus? The time is here when we should start valuing people over things, relationships before monetary wealth, and smiles over savings accounts, and a child’s well being before my own.
The year is 2010 and I am responsible for the way my world looks today and it is time to change it. I want a different result. I want a different world. I want a world where I am connected to people not separate from them. I want a world where no one goes hungry, lives in a box under a bridge, or dies from lack of basic sanitation and health care.
The year is 2010 and it is time for US to take care of each other. We have abdicated responsibility for each other to faceless governments, nameless corporations and uncaring institutions. There is no US and THEM, there is only WE.
The year is 2010 and things have changed if we allow them to be changed. Or we can return to the way things were before. But this is going to happen again and again until we change. Just like in our own lives the universe will keep giving us signals, opportunities and signs that our course is wrong. We ignore these things at our own peril. Our society, our culture, our world, is getting the signs that it is time to shift, to change, to transform into the next thing. Just like not paying attention to that stop sign, failure to pay attention now will result in long term pain and suffering.
The year is 2010 and all is not well. Yet. We can make it better but we must move forward, facing our fear and jumping anyway. After all we can always go back to the way we were, right?
The year is 2010 and I am hopeful. I believe in the power of individual effort and vision. I believe our birthright is to be connected and happy. I believe there is enough for everyone in the world to have what they want…if they know what it is, believe they deserve it, know why they want it and what it takes to get it.
The year is 2010 and …

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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