Why do bad things happen to good people? Why are babies born with illnesses that prevent them from having any chance at what we call a normal life? Why can’t life be fair?
Evil people should be punished, and yet many of them seem to be rewarded in this society. The prisons are full and yet the streets still teem with criminals. Gun violence and stabbings and robberies fill the news, and fraud and computer crimes are on the rise.
Why does it have to be this way?
And is it really this way?
Energy flows where attention goes. Unfortunately our attention is hooked by the media which has found success in providing us with negative news. Bad news sells papers, at least it did when people bought papers.
The more sensational and salacious the headline, the more interest in it.
But why? Why this natural affinity for reading or hearing about the negative things in life? Does nothing good ever happen?
Of course it does. But it happens without fanfare, without drawing attention to itself.
There are more honest, caring people in the world than criminals. It’s just that they don’t make good news stories.
Even celebrities have bought into this. The most dangerous thing that could happen for someone who makes a living as a public persona would be to become uninteresting. The quickest way to stay relevant is to be controversial.
Madonna had this down to an art form. Most celebrities, whether knowingly or not, have bought into this mindset.
Unfortunately, with the availability of news and social media and movies and tabloids, this kind of behaviour is celebrated and has shifted to the mainstream, when before it was looked at as an anomaly.
Children are being educated by the media during their impressionable years and this may not be the best thing, but of that I am not sure. Maybe it is what needs to happen, as a distaste or an aversion to the sensational becomes more prevalent.
But that’s a topic for another day.
In the middle of this, what I have found that works for me is to become more resolute in maintaining the inner peace and tranquility of which I can control. I can’t control what is happening around me, but I am in control of how I allow it to affect me on the inside.
I choose to deal with situations as they arise and not to anticipate or worry about what could happen. If I am going to predict the future then I choose to predict it in a positive way, not a negative one. Either way these are just stories so I prefer to tell myself a happy one.
I choose to be pleasant to everyone and kind during every interaction. If the encounter becomes something that demands that I act in a different way, then I will choose the appropriate response in the moment. I am confident that my reaction will always be the correct one.
I choose to treat myself with kindness and to feel love for all that I am and all that I have. As this is my dominant energy, I attract that in my physical world.
I find peace in not assuming that anything has to make sense to me, because I will never understand the entire picture. My peace comes from knowing that I am not here for forever, and whatever seems meaningless is just another situation in another moment.
I choose to be the peace I want to feel, and I find this to be all the meaning I need.