By David Harder on June, 15, 2017

About Yesterday

I have the pleasure of knowing some of the most spiritually advanced leaders in the world and most of them never mention politics in their posts, publishing or presentations.

I’ve always admired them for that discipline. I did not join them because there continued to be parts of me that wanted to re-experience the rush of anger, the drug of superiority, and the extension of an old more emotionally violent life. Now, I am finally “getting it.”

For the last 27 years, I have had the miracle of doing work that is transformative and impacts others. But, in the beginning, I literally suffered from my own bias. Someone would walk in our doors and I would quietly decide their political limitations, religious ideas, education, even where they lived as indicators they wouldn’t get it. Each and every time, I witnessed the same capacity to change. They proved me wrong and it became clear that most everyone wants what’s best for their lives, their families, their loved ones, and the world around them.

We are spending so much time throwing rocks at each other, hurling insults online, and engaging in poisonous negativity, that I believe we are turning into something far worse than Republicans or Democrats. In fact, we are lowering the tone of our own souls.

Yesterday reminded me that no matter the color of the skin or the gender preference or the religious beliefs or political parties, we are flesh and bone. Wounded greviously, we hurt. Our families gather by our side and I dare say they are not thinking of superficiality, they are terrified of whether or not we live or die.

When Toni Morrison accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, she said, “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

“Well they started it.”

We can justify lowering ourselves but that doesn’t preclude the fact that we have lowered ourselves and where we invest our attention is what we become.

I am not a saffron robe wearing, meditate and hit the gong kind of man. I’m not proposing sitting this one out. But, it has become clear that each of us has the choice of the words that we use. Each of us has the power to raise the conversation, to be more willing to praise, to demonstrate more kindness, and let go of the righteoussness that harms ourselves and others.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

P: (310) 277-4850 / E: david@inspiredworkservices.com