Choosing Happiness Over Chaos

As we edge closer and closer to division, I find myself overwhelmed by just how much negativity is being thrown at us.

When we tune into the mainstream narrative, it can feel as though we are constantly being fed messages of anger, hatred, fear and separation. Even when that division does not touch my little circle of friends, it is out there, like a big bad wolf lurking in the shadows.

And I wonder why we allow it to take up so much space in our minds.

Your friends should not care what religion you follow, what political party you vote for, or what your personal stance is on Palestine, immigration or any other deeply complicated issue facing our world.

Those things may be important to you. They may form part of your personal convictions. But they are not the entirety of who you are.

They are certainly not the only things that make us friends.

Our religions can be different. Our politics can be different. Our understanding of the world can be completely different from that of the person sitting across the table from us, and yet we can still share a meal, laugh together, help one another and respect each other's right to think differently.

Surely that is what being human is about.

Life will throw us fakery, delusion, outrage and endless things designed to pull us into an argument. We do not have to engage with all of it.

We can recognise it.

We can see what is happening.

And we can simply move along.

There is enormous power in choosing not to be pulled into every battle placed in front of us.

As I age sweetly into my twilight years, I feel privileged to finally be the woman I have always wanted to be. I know myself better now. I know what matters to me. And I have learned that somebody else's judgment does not have to throw me off my path.

So, lovely readers, if someone in your life disagrees with your views or opinions, perhaps we can learn to leave room for that difference.

And if a friendship becomes impossible because every conversation has turned into a battlefield, you have the freedom to move along and find your tribe. Find the people who can support your journey without requiring you to think exactly as they do.

But let us not mistake disagreement for hatred.

Let us not allow people who want division to decide who our friends should be.

As we enjoy this long Heritage weekend, and the scented start of Spring, perhaps we can pause and reflect on our ancestors, on the journeys they made, the challenges they faced and the mistakes from which we can still learn.

Our heritage is not meant to keep us trapped in old divisions. It should help us understand where we have come from and perhaps give us the wisdom to choose a better way forward.

We are awake.

We can see the noise.

We can see the manipulation, the anger and the endless invitations to choose sides.

But we also have a choice.

We can choose kindness.

We can choose friendship.

We can choose respect.

We can choose to disagree without destroying one another.

And most importantly, we can choose happiness over chaos.

Perhaps that is our little rebellion in these trying times.

To remain human, to remain open, to remain curious about one another and to recognise that beneath our politics, our religions, our histories, our skin colours and our personal convictions, there is still a human being standing in front of us.

Ubuntu.

I am because we are.

And perhaps, in a world determined to divide us, remembering that is more important than ever.

Your true friends should not need you to think exactly as they do. They should simply want you to be you.