Most people won't bother reading my posts, because most of my posts are not feel good shallow memes. We have limited time on this earth, and things aren't going in a good direction, and I feel impelled to do what little my old self can to reach out and say, wait, think, before it is too late.

I'm not perfect. I fail. A lot. But I honestly try to learn, and to do better. And I try to share what I feel/see/learn in hopes of helping others. I was tormented as a kid by black gangs when my dad was in the Navy and we were transferred up north. It was horrible, I lived in fear, but I learned from that experience that people do cruel things out of their own fear and lack of understanding. I was prejudged as a racist because I am from the South, my southern accent set the black kids off because it was a cruel reminder, to them, of their one generation removed history as slaves. I didn't know that at the time, but I've had decades to think about it and learn. I chose to learn and not return hate for hate. I chose to understand.

I have been on the receiving end of abuse from many people in my life. It doesn't matter who, it only matters that it taught me how hurtful it is to receive cruel treatment from anyone, to be put down for any reason, to be limited by others for arbitrary reasons that caused pain. It taught me that I don't want to be that someone who prejudges others, who hates anyone just because they are different, who makes anyone feel like they have less value as a human being.

I learned, and I made my choices based on love and understanding, not on hate or anger or payback. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, but love can heal anything if we are willing to let go of the darkness and let the light shine through us.

I walked away from the church, forever, because I learned they did not truly believe what Jesus taught about love. They got caught up in end times mania, nearly drooling over the prospect they envisioned of themselves being raptured out of here and leaving billions of souls to suffer and die horrible deaths. I read what the so called fathers of the faith said centuries ago about rejoicing in heaven and looking down on the suffering of others. I can't do that.

If even one person is doomed to not be healed and restored, then leave me with them. I can not rejoice when others suffer. To me, that is not love. That is hate, it is cruel, and it destroys the sacredness of life.

IMO our creator poured its very soul into diversity of life, into trees and flowers and rocks and animals and landscapes with so many amazing variations that ones mind has to stretch to even begin to take it all in. It is a beautiful tapestry of light and love, an example for we humans to learn from, embrace, and embody.

THIS is what is taught by our Native American ancestors, by our pagan ancestors, who venerate our earth and all life. They embody the teachings of Jesus and others who taught the same lesson, that we are all one and hating others is hating yourself, and if we want to survive, we must learn to live in a sacred way, honoring others.

I don't care if you are black, if you are of another nationality, if you have religious beliefs different from me, if you are of any gender...you are a living being and an expression of our Creator, and I choose love.

I'm old now, I'm sick, and have no idea how much time I have left on this earth. What I DO know is I have no desire to leave this world filled with hate. My hate is for cruelty to others, sorrow for those who are blind to the real harm they do to others and themselves out of their own fear and hate, and sadness they cannot see how powerful people use their own fear against them for their own profit.

The rich and powerful seek to divide us with hate, convince us that the others different from us are enemies, all while they shove their hands into our pockets and impoverish the world and spread darkness and hate.

They may control the governments, the religious hierarchies, the money of this world, but they do not control my heart. I do. I am not for sale, my morality of love, compassion, granting grace for others that I seek for myself, understanding--none of that is for sale.

Our representatives have sold their souls. I have not, and I will not. See, for me, what Jesus taught about love sank into my very being of who I am. When I saw the church walk away from that love and choose condemnation and to rejoice in the suffering of others, I walked away from them. As much as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it to me, Jesus said.

As I see the world that is controlled by the rich elites sowing hate and division, I walk away from that, too.

This is what being woke truly means. Knowing yourself, seeking to understand others, making the conscience choice to love and have compassion, not because it is easy but because it is the right spiritual thing to do, to not hate but choose the high road of giving a damn about others. That is all it truly is, it is what our parents taught us of doing unto others what we would have them do unto us.

Allowing those who have not learned the lessons of love to mock compassion and convince us to hate each other is to give away the most sacred aspect of your own divinity, which is to learn that we are all divine sparks of the divine flame that created everything, and hating others is hating ourselves.

I know as I said that my posts aren't usually read, but I'm putting this out there into the universe, anyway, in the hopes that maybe one little old lady here in Tennessee can plant a seed of love that will maybe help turn the tide of imposed hate and division that others seek to use to sicken us and manipulate us for their own profit.

Love is the way. Jesus knew it and taught it, so did Buddha and countless other enlightened beings. Hate divides. It destroys, It creates actual toxins in our own bodies that literally sicken us. But love heals, love strengthens us, love brings joy.

Love is the way. I choose love. I can only hope others do the same, before it is too late for our world to pull back from the darkness that hate brings, and turn back to the light.

My favorite bible verse is this one, and though I no longer am part of a corrupted church, this still resonates with me...

1 Corinthians 13 New International Version 13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Sounds pretty woke to me, and that is who I am. May everyone who reads this find love and hold onto it, for yourself and for everyone else. Blessed be.💖