I love knowing that instead of feeling powerless in front of the news of violence at home and abroad, I get to make choices every single day that promote peace and spread the energy of love.
We kid ourselves if we think our lives have nothing to do with what is going on in the world. We are like pebbles in the bigger collective pool. Our ripples extend way beyond where we can see. The energy of our thoughts, feelings and actions merges with the universal soup in which we all swim and, the more we choose peace, connection and love, the more we create the kind of world we want to live in.
This story takes place in a super-market: full carts, long lines- a potentially high stress situation. It is a success story told to me by a client. I could see how far she has come in her ability to deliberately create her own reality, feel better and have a positive effect of those around her.
She was waiting patiently on a long line. She was relaxed and had brought a good book. The cart in front of her was full but the shopper in absentia and not back by the time my friend was “next up”. She pushed the cart to the side and started to put her stuff on the belt. Just then, the shopper, an older woman, returned – hands on hips, poised for resistance and a fight. My friend explained the cashier was ready, she hadn’t known what to do – then she said, “OK, get back in line.” The woman behind pointed out that the line in the next aisle was shorter and the woman reclaimed her cart and moved. More waiting and just as my friend was loaded on the belt, the woman returned and said she wanted her place back. “You’ve got to be kidding,” my friend said. The woman said the other line turned out to be really slow and she wanted her spot. Hesitating, my friend said, “Oh, OK, go ahead,” and resumed reading. The woman looked surprised and grateful. She took her hands off her hips and accepted, thanking my friend.
The woman behind my friend worked at the store and was shopping on her lunch hour. She was being called to bag groceries and didn’t know what to do with her stuff. My friend said, “Go ahead and bag. I’ll pull your cart along, put your stuff on the belt and then you can pay for it.” Thank you so very much. My friend continued reading. Good book. Good vibes. And it’s not over yet. Just after my friend had checked her stuff out and was about to put the employee’s stuff on the belt, she noticed a woman with on 2 items chomping at the bit, looking at the full cart in front of her. My friend said, “Go ahead.” Yet another grateful, happy person.
As she was telling me this story, my friend was smiling. Her intention is to spread peace and love where ever she goes and she did and it felt good. All four women – the absent prodigal shopper, the store employee, the chomping at the bit 2-item shopper and my friend connected in meaningful ways that created a small community, demonstrated that people can be surprising generous and helpful and that a situation that could have gone the angry, confrontational ,blame way could morph into its opposite.
When we choose to think new thoughts and new ways of being and doing, our lives change and the world changes. We are extremely powerful energetic beings. We are faced with many choices each and every day. We kid ourselves if we think they don’t count. They do. The way we treat our husbands and wives, our children, co-workers, people on lines and the friends and strangers who cross our paths – indicates the direction that we’re traveling AND the direction in which the world is heading. We get to point our directional arrows.
Which way will you point yours? How will you decide to further peace in the world right now, today?
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