Last month a friend published a message on Facebook indicating that Santa is the most evil, insidious concept ever introduced to society. He went on to say “the season of goodwill” ought to be 12 months long. Let’s leave the Santa debate to others and tap into the possibility for Goodwill year round. I’m intrigued.
How did the holiday season coopt goodwill?
Do I reserve goodwill only for year-end holidays?
Are you truly feeling goodwill right now? Or is goodwill just a marketing ploy?
What if goodwill was the baseline of how we relate to others?
Can you see kindness as the bare minimum?
I wonder how many of us would pass… I am afraid I already flunked.
I want to be kinder. But there is a lot of stuff that pisses me off. Here is my top ten:
10. Narcissistic politicians who have lost the meaning of public servant.
9. Wasting resources: time, money, minerals, human talents, the planets.
8. Hypocrisy
7. Judgment
6. Negativity (this is funny – notice the problem here?)
Hmmm, writing down the stuff that pisses me off brings a density and lethargy to my body senses. In fact, after four items I became bored with the list and wanted to shift to what enlivens and inspires – negativity takes the conversation to a dark hole.
There is a big difference between dark holes that go nowhere (or deepen), and being wholeheartedly with a painful situation. The former is a habitual pattern the ego manifests; you remain in the sludge of sorrow and darkness, gripping beliefs and behavior. The latter may be dark and tears may fall, but there is a vast open space, holding all that arises – enabling insight and awareness to flourish. It is not personal to you or me; it just is what is.
In this vast open dark space, holding the stuff that pisses me off, I can feel the truth underneath these partial top-tens:
10. Politicians are doing the best they can, even if performance is subpar. I appreciate them for serving. How can my actions be of service regardless of how others serve? How can I be a model for public service?
9. How do I/we/they waste resources? How am I willing to be a conscious creator rather than a consumer? What are my values, how do my values about resources support all beings and what actions are aligned with sufficient use of resources?
8. Hypocrisy reflects the flow of this revealing truth. What is the essence of my hypocrisy? In other words, am I being insincere, pious, or deceitful about wasting resources? You see now the movement in our wholehearted dark place. When I see, you see and we all benefit.
7. Judgment follows hypocrisy on the flow of discovery, shifting and moving in and around the dark space. What am I judging? Where is my mind categorizing likes and dislikes?
6. The darkness shifts ever so slowly so that by the moment negativity arises it has no meaning. What is negative and what is positive? The light of insight pops us to inspiration and back to goodwill.
Goodwill year round. What about it? Are you game?
Fresh in the New Year, I am harnessing the love, joy and peace typically reserved for the holidays and declaring goodwill now – always – period.
May I be kind and inspire kindness from others.
May the wealth in my life manifest goodwill. Simple.