Live EVERYTHING!

 May 3, 2026

In some ways, I don’t have a true religion… I have my own personal religion. I appreciate the rituals of the Catholic Church but consider myself a very open-minded Catholic. I like being a searcher of truth… I read many things and learn about the beliefs of many people (Jews, Christians, Vedanta practitioners, Buddhists, Sikhs, Gurus, So-Called Spiritual Gurus, etc.). I reflect on what I read and only believe it if it sounds right to me, as long as it is inclusive, life-affirming, celebrating and uplifting our fellow human beings. I am my own person! I don’t like people that try to brainwash others and that have bad intentions. In many ways, I don’t trust a lot of people (politicians, religious leaders, greedy and superficial people), especially people that only care about themselves.

It’s a good thing to use our critical thinking skills. No one has a monopoly on the truth! But I dislike liars, disingenuous and hypocritical persons tremendously — anyone with bad intentions. Yes, I dislike con-artists, pretenders and people that only think about themselves... people that don’t care about other human beings: narcissists, and selfish and egocentric persons.

I firmly believe that we are in this world to somehow be of service to others. To love and respect other human beings — our fellow men and women. To learn to be kind and compassionate. To be a healing presence to others. And in the process, and in life, we have to learn to love ourselves, because only then, like Leo Buscaglia once said, can we learn to love others better. I understand that a person that has never been truly loved, or that never felt loved, will indeed have a harder time loving others. Anyone with anger and resentment in his/her heart may not have empathy towards others, and many people just want to hurt others because they themselves are in pain (because they have been hurt) and sadly, some actually enjoy causing real pain to others and cannot acknowledge their issues of anger and mistrust. They haven’t learned to forgive, to let go. I personally choose not to be near persons like that. It’s easy for them to hurt us. We need to protect ourselves, our emotional wellbeing, our energy, as best as we can. We are here to be happy and don’t need miserable (toxic) persons to dim our lights. Besides, it feels good to be a “good person.”

Let us try our best to be good humans! Let us continue our journey by listening and discerning the needs of our world, by being patient with the unknown and the uncertainties, by living our questions, like Rilke suggested (“and the point is to live everything”), and by listening gently to our desires and fears, our angers and anxieties... We need to support and love one another and not allow hatred to fester in our hearts.

Let us walk where there are no paths, to enjoy the wilderness and to remind ourselves of our common task: to be there for each other and build community. Let us be peacemakers... and, like I learned from the Medical Mission Sisters, “to discover in ourselves and in our communities the strength we need to really see how great is the hope to which we are called, and to be bearers of light to our world in whole new ways.” Let us create a future that is life-giving to ALL, with an open heart and an open mind, because everything is interconnected, and our thoughts, our choices, and our actions matter! 

“We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

“Our challenge today is to trust the power of love at the heart of life, to let ourselves be seized by love, to create and invent ways for love to evolve into a global wholeness of unity, compassion, justice, and peacemaking.” 

― Ilia Delio