What the World Needs Now

I am writing this blog on the eve of the US presidential elections. At church this past Sunday, my pastor said, "Many people will be happy with the outcome of the Presidential election, and many will be very disappointed. However, let’s remain as brothers and sisters and be civil, kind and caring of each other." I have been contemplating what we need in order to live this way.

​As a Safe Conversations facilitator, I instruct participants in my workshops that our goal is to seek to understand and love beyond difference. As a person of faith, I believe that there is only one God, our Heavenly Parent. Of course, there are many different expressions of faith beliefs but seeing others as my sibling, as my pastor said, means that we are part of an amazing, multi-faceted, and beautiful world family.

I don't have to look far to see how quickly the reality of this idea struggles. But no matter what happens in my neighborhood, my community, and my family, I have a choice. I choose how I interact with others. I can choose to find common ground. Every Thursday, I get to step into my grandmother’s role, and I pick up my granddaughter at the elementary school near her house. As I walk into the school grounds, I am surrounded by parents and grandparents of many different ethnicities who are all there because they love their children and grandchildren.

While writing this blog, I remembered a commercial that moved me to tears the first time I saw. Created by Loblaws, a Canadian grocery chain for Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, they were on a mission to get Canadians "to eat together...to put down their phones, turn off the TV, and sit down to share a meal. When we eat together, good things happen. We share a bit of our lives. We talk, we laugh, and we share the foods we love. We get a little closer." Enjoy the commercial and think how you can do this during the holiday seasons.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLsSy64xILI

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