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Sometimes I forget that not everyone understands exactly what it is I am trying to do here. For those of you just joining us (hello, welcome), this is my best effort to capture something relatively simple: finding faith in the grandest sense of the word. Call it belief in Good, call it God, it doesn’t really matter to me, so long as faith is cultivated. 

What does faith mean to me? Many things, really, but the most important component is the belief that everything is going to work out for the best. In the beginning, there was a fair amount of me gritting my teeth and willing myself to believe that everything happens for a reason. How can that be when there seems to be so much going wrong in the world? 

Well, first of all, me being a complete wreck with stress over the bad news of the world doesn’t exactly make me useful in my day-to-day operations, in my community, in my family, in my head or heart or soul. 

And, second, once I stopped paying attention to the news and started paying attention to my community, there are so many wonderful people everywhere trying to do good or well or better, and that awareness makes it much harder to be in a bad mood. 

Third, the reason everything seems to be going to BLEEP in a handbasket at the national level is because of these absurdly negative messages we are all buying, hook, line, and sinker, about each other and the world. The fact of the matter is that there are incredibly good, smart, wonderful people working on our problems every day, all the time, during every single waking moment all over the world. I would rather focus my energy, heart, and mind on them and their efforts, instead of feeding the anxiety machine that is modern media. 

This is my record of believing in Good. It is my best effort to believe that things will pan out, that my future is bright, that my goals are attainable. I have spent the last few years forcing myself to believe that my dreams are within reach and, so far, it’s working. 

Being angry, as far as I can tell, is a belief system. Being critical or judgmental or catty is a belief system, just like being happy or hopeful or community oriented is. 

Don’t get me wrong - there are people out there who hate others or hate themselves. There are those among us who preach positivity while doing a lot of damage to themselves and others. There are people who cause harm and think nothing of it, or worse, laugh about it amongst themselves. I have a lot of sympathy for all of them. It’s hard to walk around with such darkness in our hearts. We all know what it feels like because none of us are saints, but, the reality is, it takes a toll over time. 

I am not advocating for sainthood in this writing. I am advocating for a return to focusing on and believing in a basic Good first, before anything else. And if any reader is so inclined, they can call it God. For some, removing one letter - one letter O - makes us squeamish. For others, it feels silly. Once I got over my own fears of looking and feeling silly, I have gotten quite a kick out of calling this important focus God or Good interchangeably. 

Faith requires a lot of practice, but, let’s be honest, so does stress, worry, and misery. In my experience so far, the difference is that faith, prayer, and meditation has a promise of peace, calm, comfort, connection, authenticity, synchronicity, and many other rewards. Rewards fear, stress, and doubt cannot provide. Believe me, I tried.