“Love’s the only engine of survival.” – Leonard Cohen

Inevitably, there comes a time in every child’s life when they wonder about or question, how and why humans can treat each other in such awful ways. It would serve us all well to remember that moment and what that felt like, so we can connect to that part of our humanity prior to identifying with groups, religions, and political parties, a time when there wasn’t a need to be right or better than someone else.
This is a place we all come from. If we are to be sustainable as a human species and move forward as the Global Community that we are, we need to nurture and cultivate the qualities we inherently glean from the innocence of our childhood that help to unite us, such as connection, cooperation and openness. We are interdependent and what we do has an impact on one another in unfathomable ways.

Bring yourself back to that moment of wondering how we could treat each other so awfully and wonder again how things have gotten to be where they are now? Has fear made your choices along the way, or love? Love embraces and connects, fear separates, having us choose sides and trying to be right, instead of cooperating to find solutions that work for everyone. I see W.A.R. as an acronym for We Are Right. This is the cause of so much conflict in the world. It is time to use the lessons we have learned from our time of wonder and innocence.

Next time you engage with challenging people or situations, take a moment to remember that curious child and wonder again if you are being what you wish to see in the world and become it, if you are not already. Give yourself that extra moment to embody and bestow kindness, and it will ripple outward making a remarkable difference in your interactions and the world.