Love In the Time of Fear
You can choose the good even when everything is bad

Yesterday marked a turning point in one of the most hated presidencies in American history. With a very clear threat directed at North Korea, our leader set us up as a nation to go to war with another country just crazy enough to actually follow through with a nuclear attack.
I mean, we have done it before, so what is so far-fetched about the idea of another country giving it a shot as well?
We have entered a time in history only dreamed of by dystopian authors.
And in the midst of all of this world turmoil and national embarrassment, the sun continues to shine and there are still rainbows and the memes are as dank as ever.
Fear is an understandable and justified reaction.
The problem is, we were not meant to live our lives in fear. We were never meant to remain chained to all of the what-ifs that this life sends our way.
Despite the growing tensions between America and the other sovereign nations of the planet, we can find our own individual freedoms. We have the opportunity every single day to choose something bigger than ourselves.
To make the world a better place.
We have the option to love.

In a world so chock full of hatred and bigotry, love is hard.
It is easy to let those hateful, negative emotions well up and consume us.
Falling in love in the midst of all of this fear and negativity can be a challenge.
But it is vitally necessary if we want to survive as individuals.
A big hindrance, though, is that we have been taught that to fall in love, you have to go looking for love. Like it is something hiding from us just waiting to be sought out like an existential game of hide and seek.
But this is not how it works.
If you want to fall in love, you have to actually be filled with love yourself. You have to allow yourself to love others unconditionally.
Love is so much more than a way you feel or a thing that you do. Love is a way of living.
Love is a mindset.
Love is a worldview.
And as you love others in the broadest sense of the term, those small, significant, moments will inevitably lead to that romantic love that, by that point, you will have forgotten that you were really looking for.
Bigger than your personal romantic fulfillment, though, is what happens as each and every one of us lives a life defined by love.
All of the negativity and hatred fades away. We stop supporting words and people that speak against love. If we all as individuals live lives defined by love, collective peace finally has the potential to grown.
Things are bad. Things are ugly. We are chained by our nationality to an association with words and people that we may or may not support. Every day we wake up with this little nagging voice in the back of our heads wondering what fresh hell today is going to unleash.
This voice awakens the fear that lies dormant inside of us.
We can, and must, choose not to be controlled by this fear and instead choose that which is good and beautiful in the world and embrace that and promote it.
We must choose love at every chance we get.
It is not easy, but, even when things are bad, we have the power within us to actively choose the good.
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