When we become objects we no longer contain value. When persons become only ‘the people’, liberty becomes an idea and not a practice and living becomes a curse and not a gift, then there is no longer any value to them.Creation gives an intrinsic value to what it creates. Humanity decides whether or not to keep and respect that inherent worth. Each person takes in air, food and water. We bleed, love and suffer as individual creations with value that is understood through its preciousness to each of us. When we become an object, we become something with a…
BY C.L. HARMON Many times we hear that we need to choose a side, pick a team, know where we stand and not stand in the middle of the road. Perhaps though, it is in the middle of the road where we should all strive to walk the path of life. Now consider the best vantage point to see both sides of any issue. Wouldn’t the middle be the best location in which to not only step away and see the ideas more clearly, but also to give us the view to get a better understanding of the side in…
By C.L. Harmon The SD organization in Nazi Germany was the country’s intelligence and security branch. Heinrich Himmler, the most feared man in Nazi Germany next to Hitler, described the SD’s function as this: “The SD will discover the enemies of the National Socialist concepts and it will initiate counter-measures through the official police authorities.” It’s interesting that if we replace “National Socialist” with the word Democratic then this very sentiment has become acceptable reasoning in the US and many other countries around the world in their plight to fight terrorism. I should note that the SD was deemed an…
By C.L. Harmon Some people carry the Cross. Some people build the Cross. Some people burn the Cross. Life is about deciding which of these people we will be.
By C.L. Harmon When we make room for others in our lives, we fill up spaces in our souls that might otherwise become cluttered with the baggage that accumulates over time. Life is in constant motion from our first breath to our last and within that time comes the sum of all our actions. We have no control over the rate in which time passes, but we do have dominion over how that time is spent. We can spend it creating baggage that we must store in the limited spaces that are available. Or we can use that time to…
By C.L. Harmon What separates us? What unites us or draws us together? Differences of opinions, belief systems and even traditions distance from each other. This is a fundamental fact of humanity since the beginning. What comes of these when we focus so heavily on what divides us as opposed to what unites us? There are wars, acts of terror, violence, political upheaval and even attempts at genocide. We are so focused on being right and having our beliefs accepted by others that we lose sight that our opinions are stealing from us what allows us to connect to each…
Perspectives change depending on where one is standing. Convictions however, stands regardless of where one’s perspectives may change. ~C.L. Harmon
By C.L. Harmon The right to speak, to be informed, to be heard and to understand are not free, nor are they easily attainable or kept. They represent the very essence of self and the expression associated with identity. A sense of self and one’s belief to expression is an enemy to authority. Control and freedom can only coexist within a society when both are respective of the role the other plays and its importance in maintaining the balance that is necessary for harmony. Although there can be harmony, one must always be dominant. We can choose to be free…
Nothing has ever been destroyed by peace, lost through understanding, burdened by compassion or stolen through honesty. These are lessons that have slipped from the human conscience as we have grown older and grown apart. We have become a people that has forgotten to raise our nations in simplicity, thus we have become a race lost unto itself. We have forgotten to teach honesty to our children so they will be become adults with integrity. We have forgotten to teach that we all must accept responsibility for our actions and learn to apologize so we can understand that the true…
Every destination is the beginning of a new journey just as every thought can the beginning of a new dream. Upon arrival, if we step back for a moment then we see where it all began. We further see why we started, how we have traveled and where we have been. And mostly we see where we are now and this is a must in order to move to other places we wish to go. Stepping back in our lives does not make us weak, misguided or hinder us from moving forward. It gives us perspective and the tools such…
At times throughout our existence, we find ourselves in positions or situations that seem to go against our natural character. We are forced to act and make decisions that make us feel uncomfortable and sometimes even guilty for our lack of knowledge, experience, or natural ability It would seem as though this is a contradiction in how we are designed. Why would we be created to be a certain way only to be thrust into situations where we feel we are not equipped with the tools necessary to perform the task? Could it be the fact that we know we…
During the Holocaust, a brave group of people who had lost everything except their own lives, took a stand to risk their only tie left to this world—their very existence. On October 7, 1944, several hundred Jewish prisoners at the death camp Auschwitz (at Birkenau,) was being forced to carry corpses from the gas chambers to the furnace to dispose of the bodies. In those horrible moments, they chose to show the scope of humanity’s spirit in one of the world’s darkest hours. The band of broken, weak souls blew up one of the gas chambers and set fire to…
Why is it that we fear those who seem foreign to us? What is it about us that allows our differences to bridge distances between us when that very bridge could be keeping us from reaching that which we need the most? Overt actions of contempt or the intentional act of ignoring someone simply because that person is different is a grave injustice to ourselves. We are all born with messages to share that develop as we grow. These insights are sent to us by our Creator with the notion that some will be given to individuals and others to…
At times being ourselves can be the most difficult task in our lives. Because of prejudice, fear, lack of self-confidence or a desire for acceptance, we often conceal what is on the inside creating a persona that is safer or one we believe others will find more intriguing than our true identities. We seek those qualities that we do not possess or simply have not yet developed in hopes of gaining acceptance from others What we accomplish though is not real acceptance because we have not accepted ourselves. As a result, we have only succeeded in mimicking those qualities we…
We are an extension of everything we do. Our actions are a reflection of who we are in that moment and who we will become for the rest of our lives. A slave to evil or a warrior of the righteous is never very far from their master. If we represent or act for those who prey on the weak or innocent through our words and actions, then we too are guilty of harboring darkness in our hearts and adding hatred and injury into the world. There will always be those who serve themselves first and they do so by their own…
It seems we spend a great amount of our lives picking up the pieces of broken dreams; hearts and hopes that sometimes belong to us and other times belong to those we care about. It is as though we are all pieces of a puzzle that long to connect with each other in an effort to be completed or whole. I can think of no other definition that explains the internal unity we feel towards others. Perhaps it is out of this need that qualities like compassion and kindness toward others are born and hopefully from these we can truly…