“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this day, we celebrate one of the most courageous souls, Dr. King, who was a champion for peace, love and oneness. I write this in honor of him, for he knew long ago what some of us are only beginning to fully realize and put into practice, and what many still can’t comprehend; love is the only answer to hate.

“But they are wrong!” you say, “Look at what they are doing! Someone has to stop them!” I hear you. And you will never stop them by joining them in their energy of fighting, labeling and blaming.

To combat hate with hate only breeds more hate. Fighting only creates more fighting. Judging and blaming and making someone wrong only creates more separation, more wounds, more of the same. If you match their energetic frequency (even if you are on the “right” side), you are only allowing and promoting more of exactly what you are fighting. You are joining them in hate and allowing the cycle to continue.  There is no “right side” of hate, it’s still hate.

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Many would say that a person spewing hate and causing harm does not deserve love. I say, show me a person full of hate and I will show you a person full of pain. I will show you a person that is so deeply wounded that they have built an armor of hate to cover and mask their pain, but somewhere deep within, behind all of the hurt, is still love, and they are still worthy of love, just as we all are.

“There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

The reason this is so difficult to comprehend, so counter-intuitive, so far beyond our current level of collective consciousness and so hard to put into action is because it goes against our natural human instincts of fight or flight. When we are faced with a fight, a threat, we are naturally wired in our human-animal brain to flee or to fight. In order to respond with love, we need to go against our body’s basic reactive instinct and instead connect with our true self (our highest self, our source self), which is love. But for many, their true self is buried deep beneath layers of pain, unhealed wounds and unfelt emotions, so love is difficult to access when triggered, and instead they respond from a place of pain.

Most of us carry a core wound of separation and unworthiness that creates the “us vs them” and “wrong vs right” dynamic. We feel on a deep level that we are not worthy, that some part of us is not lovable, and this is too great a pain to bear, so we bury it, mask it and deflect. This separation allows the pain and the ego to find solace in the “us” and the “right”. It’s the brain and fear’s way of creating worthiness when we don’t feel truly worthy deep within, when we aren’t connected to our true divine nature.  It’s creating worthiness by making someone else unworthy. It’s creating “right” by making someone else “wrong”. But this is not true worthiness, it’s based on fear, wounds and ego, which is why it must fight, defend and attack. Only wounds will fight, only pain will attack. Love is fierce but it does not battle, it does not fight.

We are triggered by that which needs to be healed within ourselves. When we are upset by those that are intolerant, we need to look at where in our lives we are intolerant.  When we are angered and enraged by hate, we need to look at where in ourselves we are being hateful.  Where are we judging, blaming and creating separation?

Separation, judgement, hate, and blame are all a defense. Making someone else wrong and making someone else the problem is a way to avoid looking at yourself. It’s a way to avoid the painful truth that lives deep within, that you are hating, judging and blaming yourself. That on some deep level you do not feel worthy of love or you feel that some part of you is unlovable. But this is a false fear, an untruth. It’s simply a deep core wound, a fragmented part of yourself, a shadow aspect, that needs to be seen and felt and loved.  And when you do this, when you realize that you are innately worthy and begin to heal and love yourself – every part of yourself – you find that you are able to love the world. You find that when you heal your own wounds, you are not pulled into a response from your pain, but instead can rise up and respond from a place of love.

This is a holographic universe and everyone contains a piece of the other – we are one. We all have shadow aspects and darkness, and some carry this for all to see and shout it out for all to hear. But deep within is still love. Deep within is still a divine connection to all and a representation of what lives within all of us. I heal you by healing me. I love you by loving me.

If there is hate in the world it’s because there is hate deep within each of us. Our only job is to find this fragmented, wounded, dark part of ourselves and shine our love light upon it, and then shine light upon all of the darkness that we see.

So I will continue to do my “work”, to heal my wounds and love myself fully and wholly so that I can love you. I will love every aspect of myself so much that I can love every aspect of you. I will make my life a declaration of love.  For everyone.

I love you Trump and Trump supporters.  I love you racists, even as you shout obscenities at my mixed race family. I love you bigots, even as you scream that my loved ones are going to burn in hell because of who they choose to love. I love all of you, because love is the only answer to any question and the solution to every problem. Love always wins, and in the end, we will all return to love, so let’s start now.