The Importance of Being Important

I wasn’t going to write about this. I wasn’t.

But I feel like I need to, because a lot of people who I know and love have been in the habit of making people feel less than important and unloved and unwanted. Maybe they know they do it, like a mean girl in high school….but it really needs to stop.

I hear people preaching love and light and high vibration of energy, and then I watch those same people turn their backs on others or trash someone who loves them behind their backs. Have I been a party to this particular brand of ugliness? Oh hell yes I have.  I am not proud of this. I am fully in the correcting of it though. It’s way past time to grow up. It is time to be mindful. The damage that gets done may not be seen quickly, but the damage and hurt is there.

I have lived here, just south of Atlanta, for a year and some change. Just as in any situation, there are people who have charmed me and warmed my heart. One of those people was a quirky man who lived across the parking lot from us. He wasn’t a very big man and he wasn’t a very young man. He had a great big yellow dog that I got dog love from every time I could. Even though this man was small, his heart and courage was as 5 times bigger than his big loving, giant dog.

I am not going to go into the details of all of this story, but I will say that he looked out after anyone that needed looking out after. He kept things clean and had a lovely garden that raised the vibration of this area with stellar color and texture. He was important to this community. We thought he was a little crazy, and we cared about him. He was important to us, even if it was at an arms distance. He was a big part of our quiet little world, and an important part.

A week ago he was out walking that big yellow dog very early in the morning. He was confronted by a 19-year-old young man. We don’t know what or how anything happened, but our friend ended up getting shot in the face no less than 5 times. That angry young man unloaded his gun in a 57-year-old mans face. How does that happen? We have been shocked and devastated and frightened. We have wrung our hands and looked out of windows and worried. We look at his condo and are sad, and we miss him and we miss that dog. Our safe little quiet world is now upside down and we have been shaken to our foundation. Why did that young kid to this? How could he do this? When does someone lose their sense of life?

So, I have thought about it. At first I was so angry at that boy. I was angry at his blatant disregard for life. I was angry that he didn’t think about how he was affecting anyone, I was angry that he left that big giant dog without the person that had loved him for over 13 years. He didn’t care about how important he was. He didn’t care about that man. He didn’t care about that dog. He didn’t care about himself. He didn’t care. I had to think hard about my anger and I realized that I was feeling the same negative feeling that the caused the boy to pull that trigger.

Then it dawned on me. I was angry because he didn’t care. It made me and everything else in the world feel less that important. Worth nothing. That was what was making me mad.

I wonder if that boy had a lifetime of that. I don’t have any clues about that, but I do know that the neighborhood where the the police pulled that boy out of  feels dangerous. Property is damaged there.  When people discount and destroy things, they lose importance. The lose their value. People are like that too. If you aren’t valued then you lose importance and perspective, you quit caring about those who don’t care for you and you quit caring about yourself and anything else.

So, I started thinking and wondering…Was this young man shown how important he was when he was a baby? Was he shown how important he was from teachers? Did his mother and father show him that he was important and that he was needed…that he made a difference? If not, then I can understand how that kind of anger builds. Did anyone ever tell him that he had a Divine spark? Did anyone ever tell him that he was of the same cosmic DNA as our creator and that our creator is just big giant love?

Being important is being loved. I am not going to stand on a soapbox and preach, although I could. What I am going to say is that it is time to acknowledge the contributions that others make in your life. It is time that you show them how important they have been to you. It is time to stop turning your back on others and find the love in your heart that is the very seat of your soul.

Love can save the day. Love can save a life. Love can change this whole world. Love is important.

Look at your children, look at your friends, look at those who cause you grief and then look in the mirror and say “I love you. I appreciate you. You are important. We are big giant love and we make a difference.”

I love you meeces to pieces. Be the love in the room, I know that you are the love in mine, and you are oh, so important.

Smooch out…and don’t forget to shake your behind today. 🙂

http://www.susanrushing.com