I can’t stop thinking about the state of the world these days and while I do that I can’t stop hearing this wonderful tune by the lovely Stevie Wonder in my head. Its message and melodies reverberate in my soul. We all know what’s going on in the world right now: confusion, anger, haterd, genocide, racism, sexism, the rise of fascism, and more and more and more that I don’t need to list here. We all feel it in our heads and hearts. My mind races through the days, and within hours of waking up I feel overwhelmed in the moment and underprepared for the future. I find myself clinging onto the positive moments that happen here and there to get me through. I feel the rest of our world feeling the effects of the current negative state of everything. We’re going through it deeply right now.

My heart feels positivity and warmth when Stevie kicks into the second verse of this song. His words, coupled with the melodies and the blanket of love that song promotes makes me know that we’re all going to be OK in the end. The universal message and promise of love is never going away, but we have to fight to keep it alive:

… The force of evil plans
To make you its possession
And it will if we let it
Destroy everybody
We all must take
Precautionary measures
If love and please you treasure
Then you’ll hear me when I say
… Oh that
Love’s in need of love today
Don’t delay
Send yours in right away
Hate’s goin’ ’round
Breaking many hearts
Stop it please
Before it’s gone too far

It can be overwheming to constantly have to confront hate and anger, but if we can carve out just a sliver of posititivy in our hearts and just a dash of warmth to what we bring to the world we can overcome. I keep telling my kids that evil and hate are like a snake eating its own tail. Eventually hate and evil will eat itself, and the only thing that can remain is love and kindness. We all watch the movies and read the books and have heard all of the tales: love and kindness always win in the long run. It feels like there could never be a break in the evil that consumes our world these days, but I hope you know that this is not the end, that this is not how it will always be. It’s important that we stick together. It is important that we believe in each other. It is important that we show grace and kindness to each other every single day. Take a moment to help someone out. Hold the door for someone. Ask someone how they are doing, and when they respond, actually listen to them. Find the faults in the world that surround us, and instead of being dragged down into the depths with depression and negative thinking, find a way to turn those faults around. Another thing that I keep telling my kids these days is that we have the ability to shape our world into the world that we all dream about. The love that’s in our hearts? Bring that out into the world. Don’t get sucked into drama and despair. Be the change. Be the positive person in the world.

This song is Stevie’s gift to us, a reminder that each one of us can be a being of love and positivity. I open my heart and soul to this song and I allow it to give me a hug. That hug makes me feel that I am part of the good in the world and that I have the ability to be a being of pure love and positivity. I take that feeling out into the world and I try to make a small difference. Remember that whole throwing a rock into a pond and watching the ripples thing? That’s we we all have to do right now until our forces build up enough into a tidal wave of love that autocorrects everything that we don’t want around.

It may sound crazy to say this in the moment when I am writing this, but I have an immensely positive and overwhelming feeling about where we are headed as a collection of human beings on Earth. People seem to be waking up to the idea that together we can achieve anything, especially the positive. People are starting to wake up and realize that what has held us back in the past no longer has to apply to our future. The future doesn’t have to be a shithole. The future, even with its challenges, can be shaped into something positive, something community focused, something caring. Look at the youth of today and shed any negative stereotypes you may have picked up along the way. Don’t you see the hope and positivity in them? Don’t you see that these are the folks that are going to change things for the world? They will, and it won’t be a suprise to me. I believe in this generation, and folks of my generation and older, please find it in your hearts to believe as well.

Thank you, and may your days be filled with love and kindness.