Frozen Hearts

There are those who work subtly shrouded in cloaks of darkness. Creating monsters in the name of change. Yet, prove themselves incapable of holding onto the reigns meant to guide and control the monster they’ve created. Invariably the reigns are pulled from their ill prepared hands and the monsters run free. Unbeknownst to their would-be prey.

How could we have known the plans they’d laid for us. It never crossed our minds that a formidable enemy, free of need for rest, void of empathy, and fueled only by parsimonious hatred disguised as rational thought had somehow gained control of our lives. Covertly dividing us before we realized what was happening.

Many of us continued our daily routines, ignoring the rhetoric spewing from every media outlet available. Not wanting to involve ourselves with the timeless squabbles of men scratching and over-reaching to satisfy their lust for more.

Would it surprise you to know you are being studied? Your reactions to just about everything you can react to have been observed and documented. Your default behavior thoroughly recognized. The only differences humans hold is opinions, and opinions are easily swayed. Eventually we will willingly sort ourselves. Separating into opposing sides.

We do our best to avoid confrontation. Giving more and more space to that which will never be satisfied with the space given it. Eventually we find ourselves pushed into a very small corner. When the discomfort becomes too much for us to deny we lash out. Washed away in the fog of our emotions, and unable to see the real culprit.

Human nature is honestly very simple. Comfort, peace, love and happiness are the passions of our hearts. We are happy to offer our hands to steady work in order to bring about that which we desire. We are content to live and let live until opposition threatens our perceived safety, threatens our hearts’ desires. Once threatened, we become suspicious. Suspicions lead to mistrust, mistrust leads to fear and fear to dangerous, impetuous behaviors. The monsters covertly infiltrated humanity, convincing us through poisonous ideologies, that we, humanity itself, is the greatest threat to one another.

Disbelief, denial? Call it what you will. We just didn’t see what was burrowing down upon us with breakneck speed. One day we woke up and the world had turned upside down and inside out. The big change slithered in through small deceptions while we stood oblivious with eyes closed. One day can truly change everything.

Everything I tell you is hindsight. Hindsight never takes away what has already happened. It only serves the future of those who take heed and pay homage to its untimely wisdom. Now, as I wait for our frozen world to thaw, I have nothing more to do then to leave the words of hindsight and wisdom to those fortunate enough to happen upon them.

We are one. The human race is one. One body we all inhabit. Our lack of seeing this simple truth was the absolute beginning of our demise. We began to assume ourselves more important than our neighbor. Eventually wanting nothing to do with them. Living our lives in isolation. Forgetting the very things that made us so much alike.

Soon the complications of obtaining the things we were told we needed separated us from family, leaving friends a thing of the past. However this was not enough, the appetite for more was unsatiable. Children and loved ones were given over to institutions in the name of convenience. We began to see ourselves more and more as individuals. No longer concerned or even aware of the collective. With the playing field set, the monsters were ready. Just like a lion separates one from many in order to devour it.

Through the eyes of fear, we began to see other individuals as harmful to our own continuance. Wrong religion, wrong color, wrong sex, wrong geography! This in itself caused an underlying discomfort between us, but because of our basic human need to live peacefully, we did our best to ignore the wrongs. Commenting only in the confines of safety provided my social media.

Soon words themselves became tangible weapons that needed to be wrangled in by those assumed to have our best interest at heart. Truths were lost in an attempt to curb idle threats and hurt feelings. People stopped communicating for fear of being misinterpreted. Or that their personal opinions could cost them their livelihood. It just seemed safer to remain quiet. We slowly moved further and further away of what it meant to be part of the human race.

An uncomfortable anger began to take up residence in the hearts of men. An underlying blame no one was to blame for haunted us. With no identifiable culprit to place the blame upon, we mistakenly assigned it to one another . Smiles soon became a thing of the past. Everyone seem to be wearing the same mask. A mask created out of loss. Loss of what? No one really knew. No one could place a finger on it. Let me just say, monster are not always growling, slobbering goons hiding behind dark corners. The dangerous ones are quiet, waiting patiently for one to lose their way.

Depression ensued, descending upon the souls of man like a deep, black storm cloud coming down from the horizon. And although many raged and touted on their lives mattering more than another’s, suicide rates became insurmountable. Leaving even the most optimistic ravaged and left in a state of sarcastic pessimism.

We quickly forgot that flowers still grew, and butterflies with magical wings frolicked in the fields they blanketed after breaking free of the long trial of metamorphosis. No longer were we able to appreciate the light, healing touch of a cool breeze against our skin. Even in the light of a new day, we saw ourselves standing amid an intangible darkness. All that made being human beautiful was now gone. No more children, no more grandmas and grandpas. No more friendships or light conversation. No “good day” from a stranger. No polite gestures, like the simplicity of holding a door for someone. It was all gone. And we were miserable.

The monsters no longer need wait. They moved quickly, devouring the small threads of anything left that might produce hope. Convincing us it was no longer safe to be in the presence of another. Willingly, we withdrew ourselves, quarantined for our own safety. Then the snows came.

The unexpected drop in temperatures created a frozen world. Climate diversity ceased to exist. Not a place on earth was left untouched by the deep freeze than ensued it. The world around us took on the physical form of the metaphoric hearts beating in our chests. Nothing moved, nothing grew. Everything imprisoned under a blanket of ice.

I was one of the smart ones. A prepper if you will. I stayed quiet. Laid low. But even I didn’t see the freeze coming. We were told to prepare for overwhelming heat, rising waters, global warming! Instead, time simply stopped, frozen deep within the frigid existence of this new reality.

People never meant much to me. Never had anyone special in my life. I liked it better that way. I believed them to be more trouble than they were worth. Now, as I sit in my self-made isolation, just hearing someone say hello would send me into a state of bliss.

I have enough food down here to last me three lifetimes, yet no one to share it with. I kept my distance from others, seeing plainly where they were headed and not wanting them to take me with them. I saved myself. For what?

If you find this journal, that is if there is anyone left to find it. I want you to know what I have come to realize. I want you to keep it as a compass. Use it to identify lies that lead to wrong paths and truths leading to the right ones. Don’t let anyone tell you that one is better than another. Don’t be afraid to find your tribe. Respect that not all will agree with you, but just as you have the right to believe what you will, so do they. Beliefs are not crimes. A crime is only committable if it hurts another living being. The world belongs to everyone. There is enough for each to claim a space. One cannot do all, that is why two is better than one.

We have no promise of tomorrow. Stay out of the way and let each have their day in the way they see fit. We as humans have the potential to make each other sick, but an even stronger potential to aide another in healing. Love is all. There is no wrong in it. If you are to error, let it be on the side of love.

We need each other. What other reason makes life more worth living than someone you want to live for? Loneliness sucks! Somedays I wonder if I’m really alive at all. The feeling of living is produced by all those who have life. Without the bustle of life in others we have no rhythm of life in ourselves. We’ve spent so much time fearing and hating, we’ve driven the essence of life from our own awareness. And in doing so, scorned the greatest gift of all.

The memory of humanity lays and waits. Like a fish in a cryonic state, suspended beneath a frozen pond. It lays and waits for the healing rays of the sun to shine again. Bringing life giving warmth back to our frozen hearts. Remember reader, when that day comes, guard yourself from the plague of fear the monsters spread with their bared teeth and guttural growls.

Division, separation, intolerance, and fear are the greatest enemies to humanity. We have no innate systems to guard from their damage once infected by them except love, and love requires reciprocation for its continued growth.