Communication is energy

"Love, laugh, make the world happy. Your joy-making shall spread in ever-widening circles, beyond all your knowledge. Centuries after it still bears precious fruit." two listeners

A quick note before I go play on this day after Christmas . . .

communication is better understood as energy, rather than as an exchange of verbal messages. That's why the non-verbal communication reveals more than the verbal content of anything you say or listen to.

We have a wonderful mission ahead of us this year: to spread the joy of God's love to as many people as possible.

As we do that, we will come forth with our joy and our gratitude as we walk in God's presence, but we can't be flustered, frustrated or stopped by those offering equally strong energy in an oppositional manner. So my thought of the day in terms of communication turns back to that axiom about leadership:

Lead, follow or get out of the way.

We can lead people to better lives and a better planet if they are ready to listen and are already looking for answers.

We can follow people who accepted this path already and have developed many methods and maps by which we may navigate our journey through life.

Finally, and most importantly for our health, we can get out of the way of people who are projecting very strong energy against us. You and I will always look both ways before crossing traffic since that is what we learned as soon as we could walk. An oncoming car is not a challenge to our ego; we stop and let it pass.

The same is true for the haters and the hateful. Even Gandhi admitted that you can not use peaceful non-violent resistance against a tyrant.

He was blessed to have an enemy, such as the British Empire, to which he could turn to their better instincts. Gandhi also knew that he had to be patient, and he couldn't run his non-violent rebellion during the middle of World War II.

At least in the immediate vicinity of our lives, our task is relatively easier than Gandhi's. As we take on the greater part of the journey--to spread joy to dark places and in hardened hearts--understanding how to properly marshal our energy will require a level of mastery even greater than "lead, follow or get out of the way". Then we will need to be judo masters of the heart.