Fear is the opposite of Love. Hatred seems like the opposite of love, but hate is actually a manifestation of fear. The further we move away from love, the further we move away from ourselves, landing unsteadily in a world outside ourselves where rather than navigate from our natural instincts, we navigate from our thoughts. It takes one hundred thoughts to make a bad one disappear. That is a lot of energy to waste, when we could instead trust love, choose faith over fear and experience joy in every waking moment.
Love is the most powerful force on earth. Haters gonna hate, but that is their choice. Our experience of every moment is a choice.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. explained that “[d]arkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.” How powerful must love be if it can drive out what appears to be the worst possible human emotion? Haters are seeking to inflict pain in others to bring them down… to their level.
But why? … FEAR. People who hate do not hate everyone - only those they believe are a threat to their homeostasis. A hateful person will still get butterflies when they meet someone they believe is special. They will still be overcome with emotion watching their son or daughter perform or win a prize. And don’t get me started on babies! Even a person with a heart full of hate melts at the sight of a newborn baby!
Think about the way a smile works its way across your face at the sight of a baby of any kind - puppies, kittens, humans, ducklings following their mama across the street. I’m pretty sure Tony Soprano would jump out of his car to divert traffic away from that precious little lineup.
The way we think about the world around us is exactly that - the way we think about it. Our thoughts create our experience. If I judge another person, I create violence either overtly to that person’s self esteem or violence against us both by being closed to a potential human connection.
If we can change our thoughts, we can change our experience. The thing about love is, it is always there if we trust enough to let go of fear and just enjoy. Treat every negative thought as an invader. Choose love. Choose joy. After all, all you need is love (love is all you need).
*Italicized words are song lyric in the following order:
Carole King (You’ve got a Friend); Paul Francis Webster (Love is a many-splendored thing); Burt Bacharach (Only Love can Break a Heart); Anne Danielewski, a.k.a Poe (A Terrible Thought); Taylor Swift (Shake it off); John Lennon & Paul McCartney (All You Need is Love).