The title is a mantra that keeps coming to me recently. I don't know exactly why. Well, I guess I hope I know. For Lent this year, I didn't given up anything very specific but I'm trying to make some positive changes in my life. More than anything, though, I've been praying that God give me a new direction, a new way of viewing things... a way that makes me more full of peace and in turn, act more peaceful towards others. As if a mist is slowly dissipating around me and my vision becoming clearer, I see how regularly I find fault with the way others act or with how systems, of which I am a part, operate. Things that come to my head might be, "Well, I would not have done it that way..." "I am so bored in this weekly meeting, no one wants to be here..." "Why can't she be cleaner..." "We Americans are ruining so much of the environment..." And many more examples, there are. So, the mantra, "Become the change you want to see," I believe is the answer to my Lenten prayer. If I want a meeting to be productive, I need to look at my own lack of participation. If I dislike the pollution issue, then I ask myself, how well am I recycling? If I am unhappy of how my environment looks or feels, I must look no further than myself to try to change it or at least change the perspective towards it in positive ways. Positive energy is contagious, life giving, and a force for motivation!
About the pictures: I do like to include pictures with my topic, if possible. The first one is of a dove (symbol of peace) enveloping the world. As a side note, my son's name is means "dove" in Hebrew. The second is an invitation to view waging war, instead lets be proponents for peace; the third is that of Gandhi, one of my heroes who embodied the title: he became what he wanted to see.
