We’ve all heard the old adage that Laughter Is The Best Medicine, but how many of us take this natural prescription regularly?

Things haven’t seemed very funny lately.

Why’s everybody got to be so serious?

In today’s world, even professional comedians can’t laugh at themselves without being called out for being insensitive to someone’s feelings. ​We humans are taught to believe that we are all very different from one another, but there is scientific evidence that shows that collective human DNA is 99.9% identical. That’s not what you hear from the mail in ancestry kits, is it?

This fact is not meant to diminish or take away from our individual and family history. We are who we are based on our parents, and their parents, and so on. Some of us have straight hair and wish we had curls, just like some of us are tall and slim while wishing we were petite and curvy. Our skin may be pink and ruddy, or warm like cocoa. These are factors that are out of our control, but they are ours, and if you’re blessed with parents who loved each other, your traits are genetic gifts of love. If we look at ourselves and devalue what we see, based on what society tells us we should see, we will never be happy. Maybe if we begin to accept that we really all are quite similar, then just maybe we can start honoring not only ourselves, but also accepting each other.

In the southern neighborhood where I grew up, where everyone’s skin tone varied, we all played together anyway. Skin color was a non issue. What did matter though, was how good you could make mud pies, explore the woods, and ride a bike. Many lifetime friendships were formed in my community.

As someone who appreciates wise words of wisdom, my grandmother once said to me,

“You must learn about where someone comes from in order to understand how to walk with them.”

At the time, I didn’t fully comprehend the gravity of that statement, but recently I’ve come to realize what she meant.

What if we encourage each other to not only walk together physically, but proverably? How could that change us, and the world in which we live? Before we can fully grasp where we are in this country today, we must first take a hard look at the history of how we, the human race, have treated each other.

When people are taught only one way to do things, it’s not easy to adapt to a different way. It often takes time, and a different skill set to do things a new way. Most of us don’t want to do that. We like to do things the way we like to do things. Look how long it took us to get beyond the tea cupping grip in shooting. Heck, people are still teaching something that gives no support or stability to a shot. Those who don’t step outside of the tea cupping box will never know if their control or accuracy will improve. But if it did improve, that could open a whole new world.

In order for us to successfully work together as a team, there are certain elements that have to be in place, such as kindness, empathy, and mutual respect. Why is it that we can do this to make our salary paying jobs flow, but not when we step out of that arena?

Perhaps if we seriously look inward and examine what is stopping us from being able to step outside of our world, and what we hold closely, we could see the 30,000 foot view. Who knows, We just might find some like minded people on the outside of our tea cupping box to walk with.

Wouldn’t it be cool If we were the conduit to bringing some of the much needed healing that needs to happen in our broken world.

By bringing unity in the 2A community, We all are the sum of our parts.

Being a catalyst for positive change requires us to use our time, GOD given talents and energy to move forward. There’s a lot of people right now who are frightened, hurting, and worried about so much. We may be one of them, but I truly believe that the key to healing begins by listening with both our hearts and ears. It is then, that GOD’S grace will be revealed to us, and the message will be loud and clear. Be the positive change.