Willow Dawn Becker

For a while now, I have been prompted that I need to talk to you guys. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. But it’s been made clear that I have some kind of responsibility when it comes to disseminating the things I know.

Russia and Ukraine. Blah.

I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to talk about it. And yet, here I am, typing about it ON PURPOSE when I could be planting seeds in the tiny grow chamber that my husband made for me for Christmas.

This is not a post about politics, but it is a post about something that’s related to it—love.

Not the kind of hand-holding, kum-bay-ya-ma-lord love that the 60s were so passionate about. Although I do quite like the idea of world peace and I hope that one day I get to live in a place where peace is the predominant political party. But the feeling I want to live in is possible now. And that feeling is love.

Kyle and I have talked a lot about death since our twins passed away December of 2020. One of the things we have chatted a lot about is near death experiences. There are a lot of them, and have always been, and there are a few things that are often common amongst people who die and then come back to life.

1. Life review
2. Tunnel of light
3. Dead relatives
4. Spirit guide
5. Option to go back to earth

But some of the themes are common as well. Here are the ones that are most interesting to me:

1. We don’t belong here and that earth is not our first home
2. Time is a construct designed specifically for our time on earth
3. Our actions, thoughts, and feelings are inseparable from each other—we are one

This is the idea that I feel is so important today. I look around at the hard things of the world—abuse, war, neglect, violence—and feel so helpless sometimes. There is a mean little voice in my head that tells me that I can’t change anything, and even if I could, I’d never be brave or motivated enough to do so.

That voice is an asshole.

Okay, so I’m not super important. I haven’t won any awards and I certainly am not on anyone’s radar for fame and fortune. But I think that’s okay. In fact, I think that’s the point.

One of the near death experiences Kyle and I have watched was about this older gentleman who was a workaholic. His wife was a devout Christian (although that doesn’t seem to matter much when it comes to NDEs—all religions have them in common) and she prayed he’d have a change of heart when it came to faith. Well, according to her prayer, her husband totally died. So, let that be a lesson to well-meaning wives everywhere.

Anyway, I thought it was funny because he saw Jesus, who he wasn’t a huge fan of. Jesus walks him around heaven, and the guy is like, “This is awesome. I love you, man. I would like to build you a huge church or make you a symphony or something.”

And Jesus says (paraphrased): I’d rather you didn’t.

The guy gets all frustrated. “Other people have built you churches and written you books and songs. Why can’t I? What can I do to show you how much I love you? What can I do to impact the world for good?”

And Jesus says (direct quote): Love the people around you.

The guy says (direct quote), “Well, that’s not gonna work.”

Jesus laughs and tells him, “That’s the plan. That’s how it was always meant to be.”

I LOVE THIS STORY. Even if you believe that it was just one guy’s brain dying and shooting sparks of electricity willy-nilly into his consciousness, you can’t deny that’s some pretty awesome advice. And it makes a lot of sense, too. If we are all connected to each other, like an interwoven fabric so large that we can’t see the end from the beginning, if we simply fill our lives with love for those around us, we ripple that love over and over, lifting the light of the fabric itself.

We change the love in the universe. We bring light to people we’ll never meet in this life.

We change the world.

It takes a bit of faith to believe that kindness and love where you are—in your house, in your school, in your job—can influence Vladamir Putin or Joe Biden. But it takes a bit of faith to believe in global warming and that vaccines can stop people from dying of COVID-19. It takes a bit of faith to believe that people who make bad decisions can learn to make good ones. And what is the cost of that faith? Not much, really. And if you’re wrong, you’ve still done a thing with the intent to make the world better.

Ripple. Choose to love people and it starts a ripple that touches one heart after another, eventually influencing the world.

And the real secret? We are never the start of the ripple. Someone has rippled before us, touched us for good, and we are simply passing that goodness on. In fact, I think that we were never the original ripple. A long time ago, someone stepped into existence and made huge waves, and we are all shimmers of light spreading out from that magnificent stone. Everything we do for good is a reflection of His light, and all of the love we give ripples not only out from Him, but back to Him.

But that’s just what I believe.

The reality is, you don’t have to believe that to be a part of the great lifting of the world through love. All it takes is a series of kindnesses. Forgiving someone who doesn’t deserve it. Building someone up when you could tear them down. A high-five. A smile. A good deed. A call to someone who has been on your mind for a while.

Giving time. Giving attention. Giving love.

These are the things you can do today to change the world. You don’t like how things are going? You can get angry and yell. But that isn’t going to fix everything, and it might not fix anything. It might just add to the divisiveness and angry rhetoric that is already so suffocating.

Instead, find a way to love and lift. You may never see the end result, but your one ripple will make huge waves that have already touched the edges of eternity.