I turned my television on after breakfast this morning. The news was the usual every single horrible thing that is happening in the world. That wasn’t the worst of it, though. This being an election year the commercials were all the most venomous, hate-filled, political attack ads I had ever seen. It turned my stomach listening to them. And my heart felt weighed down with sadness. “Is this who we have become?”, I asked myself. “Is this who we are supposed to be?”

I turned the TV off and instead went over to my vinyl records. I opened up the record player that my beautiful daughter had bought me a few years ago, took out a 40 year old record and put it on. The delightful music of my childhood filled the room and I thanked my daughter in my heart for buying this record player for me.

Just as I was thinking of her I looked out my window and saw her across the road, in the driveway of her house. She was patiently standing between two plates of cat food so the two stray cats she was feeding wouldn’t fight each other. I knew too that when she was done she would also set out food on her porch bannister to feed the cardinals, robins, and blue jays nesting in the trees around her home. Seeing this humble, sweet soul going about her morning acts of love made me smile. Watching her filled my heart with love. And in that moment the truth washed over me: “This is who we are supposed to be!” “This is who we truly are!”

We are all Children of God. We are all beings of light. We are all creatures of love. Whether we live up to who we are supposed to be, however, is up to us. The choice is yours. You can fill your days with anger, hatred, fear, violence and prejudice. Or like my daughter you can fill your days with kindness, acceptance, empathy, peace, and unconditional love. May you choose wisely. May you choose to be who you truly are.