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Do something about the mental ‘litter’
Some time ago, I attended a peace-building summit, where there were speakers representing different faiths and various countries in the Middle East. During the summit, I felt that an incredible sense of unconditional love was being expressed. Many of the wonderful speakers talked about what they were doing to promote peace and told those of us attending the conference that we could each take effective action, starting with ourselves. It was truly a moving experience, and I wondered how I could take action.
One morning around the end of the summit, I was out running and passed some pieces of trash I hadn’t noticed, despite having run on this trail before. I started to run by the first piece but then thought, “No, you have to do something about it.” I turned back, picked it up, and then saw four other pieces that had blended in with the path. I picked them up, too. On a regular day, I might have run by the litter without noticing it, but because my consciousness was raised by my experiences at the summit, I was more aware of my surroundings.
I wondered how I could take action.
The combination of thinking about taking action and picking up the litter made me think of another person attending the summit. I realized that I had some mental “litter” that needed to be disposed of—I had felt uncomfortable and judgmental around this person.
Divine Love spoke to me on that run. A piece of “trash” in my thought now glistened in this new light. I began to unpack the thoughts that had come to me and apply them to the need for peace: What is the opposite of love? Hate. There are not shades to peace, only peace; there are no shades to hate, only hate. There is not a big hate and a little hate. The Bible says “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness“ (Genesis 1:26). By not seeing the true person as the image and likeness of God, Love, I had been expressing hate and thereby contributing to the unrest and instability in our world.
Although I had heard it before, I had a fresh understanding that in order to have peace, we have to have only love in our hearts. What a wake-up call! Every time we have a negative thought, we can think about it in terms of how it’s disrupting peace. To be peace builders, we have to start with raising our own consciousness so that we hold only Godlike thoughts.
I realized that I had some mental “litter” that needed to be disposed of.
For my part, I have challenged myself to do something about the litter in my thought and to eliminate it—just as I did with those five pieces of trash along the trail in the woods. It’s a big challenge, but I am committed to doing it because I am convinced that as I strive to remove the tiniest piece of mental litter (ungodlike thinking), it will get easier, and more peace will be realized.
As Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (p. 261). And “Love is reflected in love” (p. 17). Let’s do something about the mental litter that hides peace!