I have been trying to compose this message for a few months, and hit constant road blocks, but now seems the most appropriate.  I would ask that my email friends and family no longer include me in their forwards of anything that is negative towards another country, race, and illegal alien or contains political bashing.  This holiday is supposed to be about Peace on Earth not just peace for "us"; and when we forward these negative emails, we do not promote Peace, we further the separation between us.  Please don't misunderstand, I am grateful to be living in a country where I can send this email, but I also feel that it is my responsibility to foster Peace and not separation.  There is not "us and them", there is only Us.  One World, not one country.  That conscious decision to judge others as being less than ourselves is the underlying cause of everyone's problems all over the world.

Mother Earth is showing Us, in a not so gentle way, how we have separated ourselves from Her; how we have separated ourselves from God.  We sit in judgment of others and then wonder why there is such sadness, illness, poverty, injustice and violence.  Then we wonder why there is drought, ice storms, hurricanes, and the list goes on and on.  God loves Us all, not just a few from a certain country or religious group. It is separation from each other that causes separation from God and the further we separate ourselves from God the more sadness, illness, poverty, injustice and violence we will experience as a whole community, no matter where you live, no matter what country you are from.  And the more we separate ourselves from God the more we separate ourselves from Nature.  The very thing that keeps us and nurtures our physical bodies.

When we watch the violence on the news and listen to the negativity on the radio we further the separation.  It seeps into us and becomes a part of our consciousness. It's difficult to then stay off the bandwagon when it is being pushed into our brains by our own conscious choice to foster that mind frame.  I mean by listening to the reports of sadness, illness, poverty, injustice and violence and then blaming others for it.

These last few days I have experienced the worst drivers ever.  People cutting each other off, driving as if there is no red light for them, "that exit is mine and I'm going to take it now, so to hell with you" and then they get mad at others for getting mad at them.  Fostering anger and more anger and more negativity.  Can't you feel it?  It hangs in the air when you go to work, drive the streets or shop.  Where is the Peace in that?  What has happened to Us?  We have separated ourselves from the Whole. We have forgotten that the person we almost killed with our car by running that light or cutting them off because they aren't doing 10 miles over the speed limit, may have a loved one at home who is dying; may be terminal themselves, or just lost the job and can't buy food for their family and keep a roof over their heads.  We must try to treat each other with compassion and loving support---all the time.  Not just during this holiday season.

So my message evolved into this much longer email over these last few months.  If you agree you can pass this along to anyone you want and ask that they don't forward any negativity to you.  Nothing will happen after you forward it on your computer; your phone won't ring in 30 seconds and there are no consequences if you don't forward it to 10 friends with the next 30 minutes.  If you do agree and decide to promote Peace, then send this message and what may happen is that someone will agree and they too will stop receiving negativity and decide to promote Peace too.  Ah, then what?  We can only wait and see. 

God Bless You in this Peaceful Season - and always.

Rev. Sue Henley