To/ You

I know we're not as close as we ought to be, but I have something I consider important to say to you, and I very much hope that you will take the time to hear it.

This world we share is so difficult to behold at times. It's not easy to observe others be misled into making choices that come at a cost to theirselves and to their people. It's even more difficult to watch our own selves make such decisions, knowing that what we're doing is wrong but feeling that we must for fear of inviting further discomfort into our lives. It's these choices that we make, out of what seems like necessity, that ultimately lead us to disconnect ourselves from our people and to adopt a smaller, more manageable circle of friends and family to care for. It has to be this way. For to look upon our people as our people, is to invite the feeling of regret every time we make a decision to serve ourselves at a detriment to them.

This is why it is hard for me to accept this world sometimes. We bully and belittle one another so that we might raise our social standing and escape the same treatment from others. We buy our shopping from Tesco or Wallmart, as opposed the small family owned business on our street, knowing that in the process we're wiping small businesses from the face of the Earth by feeding these monopolies. But it's cheaper, and we don't want to be without, so we do it anyway. We accept jobs knowing there's not enough to go around, and bank loans knowing that each time we do the amount of unrepayable debt in the system increases, forcing more of our neighbours into impoverishment and homelessness. We even pay taxes to the system that makes it all happen, so that it can grow more powerful and force billions more of us to do the same, because avoiding paying them invites the potential for discomfort into our lives, and life's uncomfortable enough as it is. This is not to mention the intentional suffering we inflict upon others just to feel that we are in control, when in truth we're just running from the fact that we don't feel in control of our lives or our decisions at all. And what about the prejudices we adopt that allow us to hate by default, because accepting that others might be worthy of our love only opens up more avenues for us to be hurt.

Yes. The choices that you and I have made, and that we continue to, make this world very difficult to look upon. But for all my loathing and distaste for the home I've found myself in, there is one thing that makes all this suffering, all this deceit and all this heart ache worth it; you.

When I stop to think for a moment about all you've endured in this life, and when I then recognise the fact that you're still here, fighting on, I see a strength that a life in no other world could inspire.

Should I take even a second to recount the challenges you have overcome just in the past year, it becomes impossible to overlook the perseverance growing inside you, that could once again only be evoked by a world comprised of hurdles such as this one.

If I choose to glance upon the many mistakes that you've made throughout the years, I cannot help but marvel at the explosive potential firing inside of you. For the moment you decide to disregard those mistakes, and interpret them as lessons that you do not wish to have to learn again, that potential will be realised and this world will receive an immeasurable blessing; you, born again, and in the fashion you were always intended to be.

I know why you've avoided this transformation thus far. It's the same reason I have avoided it. Why bother to make a change that no one else is making, especially when that change will open your heart to the suffering you've been trying to avoid for most of your life? Why seek to be better in a world that demands only the worst?

I'll tell you why. Because it may be easier to swim with and in the direction of the current, and it may be more comfortable; but to swim against the current, will undoubtedly provide you with a strength that even the greatest fantasy fiction writer could not conjure within their imagination. Furthermore, if the current, this world, is pushing you in one direction; only by deciding to turn around and swim in the other direction can you discover what is behind that overwhelming force- the one thing that you, I and everyone else is being ushered away from.

I want to know what that thing is. Nothing seems more important to me. But I'm afraid to journey headfirst in the opposite direction alone. So why don't you come with me? And why don't you invite another to do the same? Perhaps if enough of us turn around from the direction this world has been forcing us to swim, we can reverse the current, and lead every single soul in this world towards that which we've been led away from.

What you've done in the past no longer matters. You had to do that, so you could become who you are right now. Make the choice to make the right choices from now on, and all your regrets will disappear, and become nothing more than necessary life lessons that provided you with the tools you needed to turn around, and find your way home.

Let me know when you're ready, and we will start the journey together, for you are the one I've been waiting for.