We Are All Connected

By Bernadette A. Moyer

We are all connected, we are all more alike than not. In just two days I have heard from more than a dozen readers, readers that wrote to me and connected with me after reading me. They could relate. Some had an alcoholic in the family or strained relationships, some were filled with grief. Some are aspiring writers. Some made comments and thought about what I wrote. I am happy to hear from all of them, we are connected.

The take away for me is always the connections, I write for the connections that I seek with all others. I share my life and my story not because I think I am so special but I know that my story is your story. Somewhere along the pathway of this life we will know the same experiences, some sooner than later and some to a higher or a lesser degree.

This is why we are called to God, our Father and it is because we are all brothers and sisters. We are here, in this life together. Sometimes we are happy with our brothers and sisters and sometimes we are not happy with them.

Whatever we are going through, there is someone else who has already gone through it.  They survived and so will we. “Pain shared is pain divided.”  Michael Pritchard

God wants us to love one another as our own sisters and our brothers; he wants us to forgive them as he promises to forgive us. So often the people that have the hardest time forgiving others are the same ones that can’t seem to forgive themselves.

We must learn to forgive ourselves, before we can begin to forgive any others.

“Forget yesterday, it has already forgotten you. Don’t sweat tomorrow, you haven’t even met. Instead open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift, today.” Steve Maraboli

My todays are so much better than so many of my yesterdays, this is my choice. We all have that choice. Do you want to dwell on the past that has come and gone, fret about tomorrow that has yet to arrive or live in the moment and appreciate all that we have right here and right now.

When we turn away from our brother or our sister is it because of them, or is it because of ourselves? So many of us can’t look at what we see in someone else that is a mirror of what we don’t like or want in ourselves.

"You are so accepting!" My friend Nick

My response, "C'mon I am Italian and Catholic! I was raised on huge doses of guilt. I'm sure they meant well and I was more like them than not, then I got hurt over and over again. My heart didn't get smaller it grew even bigger. I finally said to myself, "Who am I to judge?"

God didn’t just create some of us, God created all of us. The person who sits in constant judgments of others, would they themselves hold up under that same judgment?

So many great quotes come to mind, “Be kind to the people you meet on the way up, these are the same ones you will see on the way back down.”  Jimmy Durante

“Judge not, lest ye be judged.” MATTHEW 7:15 

My thoughts for today, What if everyone really was doing the best that they could for this moment in time?

And what if you knew that God would judge you as you have chosen to judge others, would you continue in your judgments?

In God's Peace, Bernadette