What If?

What if we all just stopped?

What if time froze just before the man killed the two men protecting the two defenseless women?

What if the earth stood still right before the woman screamed at the people in the store to go back to where they came from?

What if the waves hovered suddenly above the shore just as the broken children prepared to mock and ridicule the little girl who said she was afraid of heights?

What if the leaves held silent their rustling in the seconds leading up to the husband's next abuse of his wife?

What if the birds' song was cut off mid tweet in anticipation of the enraged woman roaring at the man in the other car who cut her off?

We cannot go back.  I know this.  Too much to lose.  Too much progress that could go undone.  Too many consequences.  We cannot go back.

But can we just stop?

Breathe?

Think?

Feel?  Feel for someone else?  Feel for the person in front of us?  The person we will hurt?

What if we came at everything we did from a place of love?  What if we opened our hearts?  What if we actually turned the other cheek when we were slapped?  What if when our coat was stolen we gave our boots too?  What if instead of feeling insulted or offended we wondered where the potential offender was coming from?  How that person had been hurt so badly?  What it must be like to be so wounded that your first instinct is to hurt others?  What must it feel like to be imprisoned, trapped, to feel your freedom has been stolen from you?

Freedom.

What if we took back our freedom?

What if we explored our deepest joys, our loves, our passions?

What if we gave our children the freedom we never had?

What if we freed them from the shackles of a system determined to work them to death, determined to make them anxious, stressed, desperate, and angry?

What if we started a revolution?  A revolution of children who laughed and played, children that were kind and open hearted, children who love to explore, who give, who help, who hold hands, who sleep peacefully, free of worry, who are unencumbered by the stresses we have inherited.  What if we decided today to let the inheritance stop here, with us?  What if we just stopped?

What if instead of trying to learn anything, or teach anything, we shifted instead toward remembering?  Toward showing?

What if we stopped saying no?  What if we stopped saying "I can't?"  What if we gave up trying and we just started doing?

What if we all realized that life is meant to be lived?  That we came into this world to love, to laugh, to use our bodies in all the ways it was meant to be used, for walking, running, jumping, eating, drinking, loving, laughing, feeling.  What if we remembered that we knew all of this all along, but we forgot?  What if all we have to do with our children is show them how to find their truest selves, and what if the way to show them that is for us to find ours?

What if we remembered that it is infinitely easier to be happy than to be angry?  What if we forgave ourselves for everything we are angry at ourselves for?  And then what if in forgiving ourselves, we could extend that forgiveness to others?  What if?

What if?

What if we just let go.

Just.  Let.  Go.