Let your emotions compel you to action

Originally published on Medium on March 31, 2022

I understand I’m late to the game here and others have already shared beautifully, in response to Marilyn Flower’s prompt from March 14:

How do you keep the world in your heart while living your life? Is it one or the other? Or can it be both/and?

Fully aware that I may sound callous, my immediate response to this question was, “I don’t.”

Don’t get me wrong, I am not heartless. But attempting to keep the world in my heart while living my life is untenable. — the anger would destroy me.

I am not saddened by the events of these recent weeks of war and destruction in Ukraine. I am angered. I am angry that evil people so easily rise to power and that weapons of war exist.

Yes, the attempted occupation of Ukraine and the outright slaughter of innocent people is horrific and sad, and I feel the pain of those losing loved ones SO unnecessarily.

I AM ANGRY

AND I am angry that this violence and hatred are receiving more attention than all the other acts of oppression, genocide, and war around the world are not getting the same attention. How and why are THESE refugees more deserving of safety and security than all the others?

I am angered by the state of the United States political scene: that just this week it was officially made illegal to lynch someone — JUST THIS WEEK! And that our democracy is being dismantled by ridiculous voting restrictions.

And that the rights of women are being stripped — and many will be endangered because of ignorance. And that our LGBTQIA2S+ communities are being demeaned and threatened. And that white supremacy not only exists but is running rampant.

I am angered by the treatment of Ketanji Brown Jackson by the very people who voted so swiftly to elect the likes of those who sit on the high court as we speak — and those in Congress who say or do nothing about their colleagues who have been credibly accused of egregious actions and negligence in protecting young people.

I am angered that almost nothing has been done to hold accountable those responsible for the horrific attacks and attempted coup on January 6. While we are all watching Russia invade Ukraine, are we missing what is happening right under our noses?

I cannot hold the events of the world in my heart — I must lay them down — or lift them up — or let them be SO THAT my head can reason through the anger and work to find solutions.

My heart is reserved for love, peace, joy, light, compassion, and hope.

I remember the words of St. Teresa of Avila:

Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

And I look with loving compassion on those whom I encounter each day. I direct my feet to walk to do good and I invite my hands — that cannot mend the wounds of the injured on the other side of the world — to bless, as best I can, my little corner of the world.