Gifford Volunteer Chaplain Kathy Rohloff shares her personal reflections in this blog post. Kathy and all of our volunteer chaplains offer a nonsectarian presence. If you need someone to listen, and hear you with compassion, you can reach them by calling the Rev. Tim Eberhardt at 802-728-2107.
By Kathy Rohloff
Every day begins with opportunities to be a better version of ourselves.
We start each day with words playing in our head. What are we saying to ourselves?
How we critique our physical appearance, life situation, or partner will be reflected in our attitude throughout the day.
If all of our social media content is about disasters and unrest and hate speech, we will carry that burden all day even if we think we are unaffected.
We cannot change another person but we all have the ability to be a better version of ourselves. This is grueling work. It will take determination and vigilance, but the end result will bring peace.
We may ask where does violence and hate reside? The answer is simple, within the dark recesses of our own hearts where we categorize and judge and blame. This is where people become the “other”.
We can disagree, we can debate, but we cannot reduce another to less than human because they differ from us.
Until the rhetoric of name calling and judgment is erased in our hearts, it will be passed on to children that are not born hating; they learn it by examples they imitate.
Today and everyday, we must eradicate the violence and hate inside of ourselves.
We have to choose to not live in the shadows but in light.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
Today might be a good day to take an inventory of our life. There will come a time when it ends.
Whatever is left undone will be undone.
Whatever is unsaid cannot be spoken.
Whomever we have wronged, stays wounded.
Where we have not forgiven, that unforgiveness resides in us.
But if we have loved whomever we have encountered, it will be known.
If we have served “the least of these”, we have made a difference.
We are responsible for who we become. Only we have the power to determine who that will be.
