Let go of your hatred

Forgiveness is defined as the willingness to overlook others’ mistakes and evildeeds. It is definitely not a natural human characteristic. Almost everybody has to try hard to attain this virtue. Personally, it is lacking in me. Forgiveness, sounds to be a word that we can all say easily and even do without hesitation, at least, that was how I had thought when I was little. However, it simply does not work on the grown-up me. In fact, I feel that forgiving is a huge challenge for every one of us but it is a virtue worth fighting for.

Mummy always tells me, “Being mad at others is like taking their mistakes and using it to punish ourselves. To forgive is the best way for others to have a second chance.” Even though I understand its philosophy, it still does not make it any easier for me to forgive others for what they have done unto me. In my memory, my younger sister and I always used to quarrel ever since the earliest days of our childhood. Due to our completely disparate styles, characteristics and opinions, it always leads us to a result of fight. Mother often advises us to forgive each other rather than just talking about each other’s faults and weaknesses. Perhaps, I did try once, but my sister’s unruliness proved to me that it simply would not work on her... That definitely made me feel that my efforts were totally wasted on her. In fact, she does not understand my mind, she thought I was just pretending in front of Mother. I suppose she harbours in her mind a devilish image of her elder sister and it would be similar to swimming against to tide for her to give me a second chance. Everyone is reluctant to concede their error, so the vicious cycle of blame continues.

Still, some human actions are indeed unforgivable. Theft, kidnap and assassination are mortal sins many criminals do. Pedophiles who prey on young innocent children surely cannot be forgiven, can they? We are all human beings with frailties of varying degrees, but some wrongdoings are just pure evil. Perpetrators cannot go unpunished, yet there is a rare breed who are capable of forgiveness even in the face of wickedness.

Matt Manning is indeed a rarity. Some time ago as a young gay man, he was brutally knifed, raped and left for dead at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. He contracted AIDS and was near death but for the miraculous healing and his conversion to Christianity. Years later, and now a pastor ministering in prisons, he came face to face with his rapist, who answered his altar call. Matt Manning forgave him. I think God enabled him to do so.

The ability to forgive does not occur naturally in us. Yet the godly are capable of this virtuous act because it is the best way to have a fresh start, to build a firm belief and trust among friends and former foes, to mend festering wounds, dry up tears and heal broken hearts. Begin with baby steps if it is not your forte. If you remember, forgiving others means liberating yourself too, then forgive will becomes more doable. It is worth fighting for ------- forgiveness. ‘To err is human, to forgive is divine,’ so let us take the high road and travel on the journey of life with less baggage. ‘Travel light,’ I remind myself.

Resources:
http://www.mysteriouspeople.com/Matthew_Manning.htm
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZWIJMgkzgN62YFLOcWzYL9AM9VkxiDCuU_GaCfv_ks7fyrBUkTkPhGmZzWYasueuhvnC3GwRlvQsxtMKGaOdO0EKNhPBB_sW8ON415AsLcFmNm-rTw1BMSEaVLxx5TVMelzMI4KjEMEg/s400/forgiveness-3.jpg

This I Believe

Being bold in the midst of frightening realities

Evil lurks, but goodness will triumph

Love the unlovely, love in a world full of hatred

I will believe!

Even when discouragement sets in

Victory in the midst of seeming defeat

Echoes true in my heart

Believe, forms a strong faith in our hearts, and is always under lock and key in a way that we do not mention. Even when we reach the terminus of difficulty or failure, it will grow stronger and firmer, continuing on for us to build on a glimmer of hope. Looking at historical events, evil has existed throughout the ages. Yet we are still here, inhabiting this more sophisticated land of abundance. I wonder, if this is the evidence of the firm belief in our minds and faith in our hearts?

Although we are surrounded by advancements in technology, whenever we switch on the television or browse the pages of newspaper, we still see sadness and the harsh realities of our world today. We have come so far as a human race, but we continue to struggle with the same old problems ----fighting, disagreements, hunger, poverty...the list is endless.

Today, nations are rising against nations as we have seen taking place in the Middle East region. Totalitarian regimes fall and democracy triumphs but at too costly a price. Can true peace and freedom be had when violence are used to secure them? Do their attainment justify the means by which they are accomplished? Do they sit well in the deep recesses of our conscience? The gruesome pictures of the slayed Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, has raised these questions in my mind. Even the most evil deserves to be judged in the international court of law, just like Saddam Hussein. If we return evil for evil, we are no better than our enemy, no less savage than the beasts. We must hold on to our humanity just as we hold on to dear life.

We must persist in believing that through fighting we will learn from history, through disagreements we will reach a unanimous decision, through witnessing hunger and poverty we will be rudely awakened from our apathetic stupor. React with kindness when confronted with evil, speak up for the voiceless and the muzzled, defend the defenseless, feed the hungry, heal the sick but first, begin by jumpstarting our cold, hardened and desensitized hearts. It begins with me and you, stand up and be counted. Be not mere bystanders but participants in life.

For there must surely be goodness in people. Humanity is worth fighting for, even though what we see unfolding shows little evidence of it. Mahatma Gandhi once said wisely: “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” This too, I believe.

Resources: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPwOCLjtOwI http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4467789.Mahatma_Gandhi

What makes us human?

What makes us human?

I noticed in Somalia the hungry,
While others discarded pies and pastry,
They laughed, consumed excessively,
Dispassionate and unmoved. Tragically.
Why do people do that,
Such horrible things to one another?

A mate but also a competitor,
Chopped down by a friend, a traitor,
For that better job aggressively,
Friendship was forgotten. Totally.
Why do people do that,
Such horrible things to one another?

What makes us human
Empathy
Sympathy
Loyalty
Integrity
I implore you to unmask
Your clever disguises
You hardened hearts.

It is ironic that famine can still be seen in some parts of the world when modern technology and advancement forge ahead at a breakneck speed. It seems that Somalia and Ethiopia have become its permanent posterchild, stuck in the time warp of the harshest of realities. We can still see people wasting food or indulging in pure gluttony. Have we forgotten how lucky we are and that people are still starving to death in other countries? The self-serving rich have become richer but the destitute are no better. Is the latter not a damning evidence that the price of progress has been the erosion of humanity? Alas, human brilliance has not provided a solution for an age old problem ----- hunger. In an increasingly borderless world, competition is so much keener that betrayal has become the express way to prominence. A colleague would not hesitate to step on another to reach the higher echelons of success. There are also friends with a hidden agenda. Let us take stock of the immutable old school values: integrity, loyalty, sympathy and empathy less we regress to our stone age savagery. I fear we may not recognize ourselves anymore.

Resource : http://thewe.cc/weplanet/news/children/hunger_children_dying.htm

Life is precious, therefore love and love unceasingly

"Life is so fragile and precious. Please love each other" ~ Julia Roberts

The year 2001 was an annus horribilis. In every nook and cranny of the world, humanity watched in horror. The skyline of New York City was irreversibly changed forever. More importantly, the odious cruelty of terrorism reared its hideous head and approximately 3,000 innocent lives were senselessly lost in the blink of an eye. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre collapsed like a horrific scene from a Hollywood movie. The extent of the heinous crime against humanity is comparable to the Holocaust for it shocked the entire world, which stood still while CNN delivered the breaking news.

The seemingly normal morning of 11 September, 2001 was blown to smithereens when 19 suicide terrorists from the Islamic extremist group, Al Qaeda under the leadership of the now deceased Osama bin Laden, crashed two planes into the iconic skyscrapers, a third one into the Pentagon and still another was targeted at a governmental site in Washington D.C. Their motivation was the demand for the release of imprisoned fellow terrorists.

The physical damage to the world-renown properties were on a scale never before experienced by any nation, let alone the most powerful in the world, America. Yet the unseen wound ~ the spirit of a nation ~ laid bare and in tatters in the immediate aftermath of the unspeakable catastrophe. America had suffered a blow below the belt, and many were worried that the Americans would not recover from such terrible acts against its people, against humanity.

Ten years on and tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of 9/11. It is a painful and sad milestone for the families of those who had perished in the disaster. The world stands in silence to honor those who lost their lives innocently. In mourning and with bowed heads, we ask ourselves, "What is worth fighting for?"

The preservation of innocent lives, to enjoy freedom without constant fear, the defense of the weak and the defenseless, a voice for the muffled cries of the oppressed. These are worth fighting for. Are they not the things that separate humans from beasts? Hate destroys all that it touches but love nurtures and protects. Life is too precious. Let the 9/11 deaths not be in vain.

Resources:

http://www.journeyofhearts.org/kirstimd/911_wake.htm

Remembrance

Remembrance
Here I stand in the midst of Auschwitz
My mind racing with memories.
Silent people walk
Where living skeletons worked.

There is a silence,
But I hear the cries of my people.
A slight breeze passes,
But I feel the beating of a whip.

My hands sift through what seems like ashes
And I glimpse a sea of bodies aflame.
There is an open field,
But I see innocent people beaten.

A lone building stands in the distance,
But I see a place of death.
A place where terrible things took place
Horrors not even known to man.

With wistful eyes, I observe this place
Seeing things of the past
This place being as I left it
With an echo of remembrance.
~ Tawnysha Lynch

As I stood in the crisp morning of an autumn’s day clutching my mother’s favorite blooms, pink roses, I still felt the pain of yesteryear. The date was the 27th of January, Holocaust Memorial Day, and I had travelled thousands of miles to Auschwitz, a Birkenau Memorial site near Warsaw, Poland in remembrance of my parents and my fellow Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

I have made this pilgrimage for several years now, it is still never quite well-rehearsed, tears from my eyes always drops down, for the painful memories of the concentration camp came flooding in once again. Thousands of strange faces, yet who were my Jewish brothers and sisters, strained because of hunger, torture and hard labour. Their lifeless eyes sunk back into the sockets and their bodies so emaciated that they were all bones wrapped up in a thin layer of grayish, bloodless skin. They were all walking corpses, my parents and me included.

We had come here full of hope just like the rest of them. The SS stands for Schutzstaffel, the bodyguards of the Nazis, who were responsible for the atrocities in the Holocaust. They had promised to relocate us to another place where bountiful jobs could be had. So like lamb to the slaughter, my parents and I were bundled onto a train bound for Warsaw. We suspected nothing but as soon as we got to our destination, men, women and children were hastily segregated. I remember that that was the exact moment when immense fear entered my heart and I began to sense something amiss. I still saw my parents at least, albeit from a distance. They worked on the field moving heavy boulders. Then our numbers dwindled and the odd thing I noticed was, they never came out from the shower building where delousing took place regularly. The smoke from the chimney nearby billowed curiously and endlessly. It did not take too long for the rest of us to put two and two together. From that day forward, I prayed hard against a fate that was surely doomed.

And doom came not a day later. From the barbed fence, I witnessed several rows of Jewish men and women being ushered into the shower building, all the time the menacing SS soldiers were butting them with the rear pact of their guns. If the earth could weep then, it would have wept rivers of blood. I could not tell you exactly how I felt for I was numb with terror and crushing pain. When my eyes fell on the shadowy figures of my parents, I stopped feeling like a human altogether. My heart stopped bumping, my blood froze in my veins and arteries, and my breath seized. They did not see me. I was only nine years old then. But I saw everything. All that was required to make me die a thousand deaths since then.

Of course, Father and Mother disappeared into that building, the labyrinth of six million deaths. That is why today, I am here to honor them and my fellow Jews, for their indomitable spirits which live on in me.

Today as the world acknowledges this dark chapter of humanity, may we all remember what is worth fighting for. Sadly, discrimination on the basis of race or religion still exists in this modern age. An extreme example of this is the ethnic cleansing which took place in the former Yugoslavia. In the aftermath of its breakup, sweeping and violent efforts were initiated to create pure ethnic territories. Croatia wanted to rid its land of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies while Bosnia desired to forcibly remove Muslims from its territory. During the Bosnian War which stretched from 1992-1995, over 200,000 Muslims were massacred by the Bosnian Serbs led by the power-hungry Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic. The world has since deemed this crime against humanity as "the greatest failure of the West since the 1930s."

Therefore, let us not allow our differences to divide us, but fight to preserve our uniqueness as individuals and citizens of great sovereign nations around the world. In essence, beyond these superficial dissimilarities flows the blood that runs through and sustains human life. It is still red. Universally.

Resources:

http://www.datasync.com/~davidg59/holo_art.html

My Story, My World

Once, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war." Peace is defined as freedom from disturbance. A world without disturbance of fighting and war is known as a peaceful world, and that is what we need. If I had the ability to build a new world, I hope the world would be full of peace.

Looking at historical events, for example World War II, it is evident how cruel the chaos of wars are. Soldiers and armies defending their countries by fighting, and some attacking others only for their own benefits. What is fighting really for? Is fighting really the only way to protect ourselves? Would there be other ways to defend ourselves other than fighting? Why can’t develop a peaceful ending other than a sorrow ending? Peaceful life is the true life, peace is our real treasure. Peace is important to create a society that is free from violence and fear. A wonderful world for me is simple. If I can live peacefully with freedom and happiness, even staying on a small farm is more than enough because that is my dream.

“Peace begins with a smile,” said Mother Teresa. Peace is not difficult to build; we can even start with a smile. Ever since I was little, I liked to help others. People often asked, "Why do you still help the others even without any rewards?" What should I reply? Because I am stupid or having too much free time? The answer will always be, "I already had the rewards ------ a smile!" If everyone gives each other a smile, I believe our days will be more perfect and even our world will be proud of us. The world will be more glorious because of our existences.

In addition, peace is a momentous element for a society to built around since we are all human-beings, and we do not need pain and death in our life from fighting. Peace is the rainbow in our lives. It makes our world colorful, and lets us know how pretty our world is. God conveys us to this world, and taught us that all life has its own significance, all human-beings have a responsibility to keep the world peaceful. Let us be part of the ones who loves peace; our world can be delightful.

Without peace, the New World would slowly collapse because of our greed and selfishness. As mentioned earlier in Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote, the final victory will be for the ones who are sharing and loving in the process of building peace. Spread your love, and you will surely get your reward of peace.