Not If, but When

Image Credit: Mehrshadrezaei

In my silence, I once again find myself ruminating about the same old thing just on a different day.

I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer today, but we can no longer wonder if it’s going to happen again, but when. Not even a week ago, I wrote a post, The Fragility of Life, and yet, my heart once again cries out in agony. As of Sunday, we have had 200 mass shootings/murders for 2023 in the United States. As of today, we are only 130 days into a new year. But who’s counting right? It’s simply one too many.

I am sad, hurt, and angry, nope scratch that, I am furious about the insensitivity that is being fanned into an enormous inferno in our society. This is pure, unfiltered evil occurring and is being normalized like drinking a glass of water. These acts were premeditated. It’s astonishing how many of these perpetrators legally purchased their weapons and decided to play God. When I saw over the weekend that an SUV driver plowed into a crowd at a bus stop in Brownsville, Texas, in front of a shelter for migrants and homeless people I wanted to throw up. Various reports alleged that the driver also had weapons in their car. Thus, quite possibly, had the SUV not overturned, those weapons would have been used, causing more unimaginable fatalities taking innocent lives. A few reports from bystanders said that there were individuals who drove by them shouting that this incident was their fault, and that’s why this happened. Really? The scope of homegrown “hate crimes” and “terrorist attacks” has accelerated and extended beyond anything I have ever seen in my lifetime.

Yet still, as I mentioned in my post from last week, in spite of how crazy things look right now, I can’t lose hope because I believe humanity is much better than this. Evil is drawing a lot of attention. That’s just what evil does. I believe humanity has better, more optimistic, ethical, compassionate, equitable, and encouraging things to offer. The better and best of humanity has to shout louder and stronger to prove the greater good, truth, and empathy of the heart are evident by squashing out and counteracting the sounds of hate with the showmanship of love. I’m a realist and not a blind Pollyanna.

I think about the people I love and care about who could have been one of these victims, for simply being in school, or shopping for groceries, enjoying a concert, or watching a parade. I’m not breathing life into these catastrophic events by mentioning them, but I am beyond disgusted, exhausted, and horrified than before. As much as this may look like the new normal, I pray we quickly show that we won’t settle for this type of insensitivity by rising above and overpowering the wiles of evil.

If You Missed the Chance, You Still Have Time

Image Credit: Polina Kovaleva

We have arrived at the end of another week. As we reflect on the last few days since this week began, was there something you did to change the world? Of course, something changed as we moved from February to March in a heartbeat. But, what did you do? Now, it didn’t have to be magnanimous, but it could have been huge to someone else.

You could have changed the world around you with your smile, encouraged someone who needed it, helped someone requiring assistance or simply allowed your light to shine brightly so that others had to put on sunglasses. 😎 But your chance to change things for the better and greater good is still available. Seize the moment. Seize the opportunity! If not now, then when?

Image Credit: Jefferson Palomique

What Can I Do?

Image Credit: Randy Fath

There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous. –Nelson Mandela

What is my purpose

how can I step up and step out

what is inside of me to stand up

and be an agent of change

not to put bandages on problems

but to unwrap the gauze of solutions.

© Kym Gordon Moore

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution. –Stephen Covey

You Are Your ‘Bestabilities’

Image Credit: Alysha Rosly

All too often we tend to use the lives of other people as our gauge to living and even success. We tend to pin the extremism of their materialism on our vision board of what success looks like instead of what our success looks like to us. We shouldn’t compare ourselves to others because their approach to their goals and their access to resources may be clearly different from what’s available to us.

So take what you have, use it, and even revamp it if you have to. But whatever and however you do it, always do your best, look your best, and be your best. You represent you.

Image Credit: Tanya Santos

Poetry of an Origami Dance

Image Credit: J. Balla Photography (Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding that transforms a flat square sheet of paper into a finished sculpture.)

Crease, fold, crease, fold, shape

three-dimensional paper

colorful textures.

© Kym Gordon Moore

Do you ever have those times when you feel contorted like an origami project? You know, the times when it seems like you are twisted and turned this way and that way, and shaped into someone who does not recognize who they are and what they have become? Sometimes this isn’t a bad thing, especially when we find that such contortions have turned us into a sparkling diamond. But on another note, we cannot allow someone else to twist us into something or someone we don’t want to be; something that could destroy us. We are better than that.

So make your own folds and allow yourself to be transformed into the colorful, more brilliant person that you are capable of being…uniquely you!

Image Credit: Shinta Kikuchi

Image Credit: Di Sahu

Image Credit: Corentin

Don’t Waste Your Talents, Never Stop Learning!

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Invaluable…that’s what you are. What will you learn today that you didn’t learn before? So many people are sadly sitting on and squandering their gifts and talents. So many people are simply existing, thinking they have gone as far as they can go in life. Simply carve another path, in a new direction, and then continue to pave and expand your mind, thoughts, and creativity to new heights that will fulfill your purpose. Personal change can provide the platform for unlimited opportunities and possibilities for you.

Image Credit: amy hogan

Take the Leap, Be your own Hero

Image Credit: Sammie Chaffin

It’s time for the great escape. If you have any hesitation, doubts, or fear about changing your outlook on life, or reimagining yourself as you shape your world, which shapes the world around you, stop imprisoning yourself now. I just want you to take the next couple of minutes to see some of the decisions people made in this video, and how change can domino into something magical, marvelous, and magnificent.

We have to decide for ourselves if we truly want to find a way or make a way to stop our self-imprisonment and remove whatever emotional shackles and handcuffs that keep us confined to a maze of never-ending dead ends. There are too many people who are incarcerated but are not locked up in jail behind prison bars. (#SelfImprisonment) So, decide if you want to take that bold leap of faith. Plan your work, and work your plan. Just don’t procrastinate and take too long. Be your own hero!

Is it Time to Shake Things Up?

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You know, let’s face it, there are days when you feel blah! 😝 You can relate to the type of days when you don’t know if you’re going or coming, or just plain ole stuck. There are days when you feel exhausted or depressed because it seems like you can’t get your gear shifted in drive so you can see and make some progress.

Then it seems like everyone else is going somewhere and you are stuck in nowhere. I think all of us can identify with that feeling at some given point or points in our life. Sometimes we find ourselves in the same old position feeling like we are on the same conveyor belt going in circles with the lack of motivation to make colossal improvements.

Sometimes we don’t know what to do or how to do it, but find ourselves bearing a moody, crappy disposition because we’re stuck. So if you feel like you are that residue in the bottom of the cup, add a little something to that residue, shake it up and make something new. I’ve mentioned this before, when you’re tired of being sick and tired, you have no choice but to do something positively grand. If not, you’ll still be sitting in the same spot, singing the same old sad tune, when the only thing that changes is the time of the day. Take a grand leap of faith! Now, shake some things up!

Harvest for the World 🌾

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There is something shifting in the air, something that is changing marvelously for the birth of the new from remnants of the past. So here’s to something new, robust, and vibrant as we celebrate the arrival of the harvest season.

Today is the autumnal equinox, also known as the September or Fall equinox. Today marks the start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

And so we dance to the excitement of seasonal changes and personal harvests. Is this your season? Is this your time? As we mark the beginning of our reaping season, let’s not forget about the people around the world who are struggling to survive on so many levels. There are still wars being fought, food shortages abounding mercilessly, climate change intensifying, and natural disasters occurring everywhere. This song, “Harvest for the World” released by The Isley Brothers the year I graduated from high school in 1976, is a deep, spiritual hit that still resonates powerfully and is relevant today. I provided the lyrics after the following video. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy. Happy Autumn! 🍁🎑🍂

Harvest for the World

The Isley Brothers

 

All babies together, everyone a seed
Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need
Love’s bountiful in us, tarnished by our greed
When will there be a harvest for the world

 

A nation planted, so concerned with gain
As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain
And far too many feelin’ the strain
When will there be a harvest for the world

 

Gather everyman, gather everywoman
Celebrate your lives, give thanks for your children
Gather everyone, gather all together
Overlooking none, hopin’ life gets better for the world

 

Dress me up for battle, when all I want is peace
Those of us who pay the price, come home with the least
Nation after nation, turning into beast
When will there be a harvest for the world

Interrupting Your Regularly Scheduled Program

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        When you see this banner flash across the television screen during the opening of a newscast or interrupting your regularly scheduled program, we know that 9 times out of 10 the news is not going to be good. When bad or disappointing things occur, we try to change the narrative by reporting good and encouraging news, even if it is not as sensationalized as the traumatizing news. When we try to make positive changes, the world says to us, why bother? What difference is it going to make? It won’t change anything. Nobody is going to notice. It doesn’t matter anyway.

        Maybe to the world, it looks like things are hopeless, and it doesn’t matter if we do the right thing or not. Looks may not be all it’s cut out to be. It’s all about accountability. In what direction is your moral compass pointing? If there is something that we can do to make a positive change in our community, our businesses, our schools, or in the world, it behooves us to do it. What is reported on those breaking news reports should matter to all of us and not merely be a buffer between us and the broadcast.