Recently our nation has been witnessing the separation of children from parents who had attempted to illegally cross our southern border. We didn’t like it. There was a huge emotional outcry from the American citizenry. The images of children – even babies – being separated from their parents were jolting. We empathized. The emotional bond of a child to his or her mother is sacred, and breaking it is simply cruel. It’s good to notice what provokes our ire. Sometimes it startles us. When we get really outraged it usually a sign that something inside us is personally affected. Some of us have agonizing memories of being separated from our parents when we were little, whether we got lost in a store or were homesick at camp. Some of us experienced trauma in our past and when we witness a triggering event we re-experience the pain. Healing can be a long road. I am a firm believer that complete healing is possible because I’ve witnessed it many, many times. We also have to take a long, hard look at ourselves and recognize that what happens in the world is a reflection of our personal and/or collective consciousness. It’s not that we directly cause what happens. But what we are most reactive about points us to some aspect of ourselves that may be hidden, yet seeks transformation and healing. This isn’t about blaming or shaming ourselves or anyone else. In fact, it is the complete opposite. Looking inside ourselves is our path to wholeness and the only chance we have at evolving beyond the cycles of violence that we repeat over and over again. We must wake up and change ourselves if there is any chance for us to someday live in a world free of violence. We must become non-violent people in all facets of life. Let’s take that long, hard look inside. Here is the raw truth. Most of us actively participate in stripping young ones – newborns – from mothers every day of our lives. Let that sink in, because at first it seems unimaginable. But every day most of us are cruel in this way, and it causes us no emotional distress. In fact, we don’t give it any thought. We may be completely unaware of the impact of our actions because we simply don’t know, or haven’t asked the right questions. But that doesn’t make us innocent. We’ve built a wall in our consciousness between what we choose to see and what actually happens – a wall that we simply don’t want to look over. And one place that wall exists is between our plates and the real lives of the sentient beings we use to get what we want. Art by Sue Coe Here are a couple examples. When we look at our plates, we may be delighted seeing and tasting butter, ice cream, milk and cheese. But over the wall are desperate mothers bellowing and weeping as their babies are stripped from them shortly after birth, all so that we can have their milk. On our plates, we may see and taste freshly cooked omelettes, souffles, scrambled eggs or egg salad sandwiches, but over the wall are billions of babies who are born with no mothers to care for them, half of whom (males) are cruelly extinguished as newborns (ground up alive) because they are economically useless. And that’s just the beginning, because on that side of the wall, the parents are killed too - long before they’ve grown to be what we would call adults. Living quarters of calves separated from their mothers Newborn chicks before males are separated and destroyed Are we not also agents of systematic separation of babes from parents? How are we different from those we condemn? If there is a difference it lies in the belief that violence toward animals is justified while violence toward our fellow humans is evil. Why would we see it that way? When it comes right down to it, the emotions of animals aren’t that different from those of humans. Animals and humans both experience joy, fun, play, friendship and connection, have likes and dislikes and mourn their dead. The ways that animals and humans experience suffering aren’t different. Both feel anxiety, seek comfort, get depressed, reel against confinement, feel pain and fear death. Both sets of moms and babies feel deep anguish when they are separated from each other and yearn to be reunited. And the desires of humans and animals to live full lives aren’t different. All of us just want to be happy and will fight for our lives when we're threatened. Can we justify violence toward those who mean us no harm, yet feel, suffer, bond and want to live just like we do? If we can, we are not the superior species. So, here’s something to think about one more time. When we look out into the world and find ourselves reacting with extreme fervor about the behaviors of others, at some level, we are seeing ourselves in those we condemn. This is our shadow and facing it is our greatest leverage to becoming the loving and compassionate people we were created to be. We are not doomed to repeat cycles of violence over and over again. We can change who we are and what we do. We can peer over those walls we firmly built – walls designed to protect ourselves from reality – and honestly see the consequences of our choices, the impact we have on other beings. We can then let go of the violent behaviors we currently engage in, and find all the ways that we can be kinder. We have the power to break free of our cultural conditioning. And when we do, we will change the world. It will bend to our new, kinder way of being. Let’s create a future where all babes and moms stay together. We are ALL One. © carol saunders 2018
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AuthorRev. Carol Saunders I am an ordained Unity and Interfaith minister, speaker, writer and lover of all life. In 2010 I founded a spiritual community in Deerfield, IL, a suburb of Chicago, and led it through mid-2021. In my current ministry I host a podcast called The Spiritual Forum and an annual Whole Planet Spirituality Retreat at Unity Village, Mo. Being a voice for the animals and a light for the spiritually-inclined who are willing to seriously examine the self and begin to awaken, are what Spirit has called me to be. I am here to support anyone who wants to move toward living in closer alignment with their deeply held spiritual values - i.e. sovereignty, freedom, love, peace and kindness. We have the power to change our world by changing ourselves. A first step is identifying and releasing all the cultural conditioning that normalizes cruelty and violence. Be Love. Be Peace. Be Kind. Today.
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