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What does it mean to pollute something? Do we pollute more than just the water, air, and earth? Can we pollute our own souls?

Pollute is defined as contaminate (water, air, or a place) with harmful or poisonous substances; defile; corrupt. I love to define words, sometimes people can define their words differently so when I define words, I feel as if we are coming from the same understanding.

I bought a shrub from Menards in the fall that was left to die because no one had bought it. When I found it, it was marked down to $5 and all the leaves had either turned yellow or fell off, the rest fell off at my house leaving nothing but a bare branches. That shrub was polluted with neglect, denied the life-giving water it needed to thrive. I brought it home and have been nurturing it and watering it regularly.

My shrub in the present moment.

I sit here and wonder what that shrub would look like if it held on to that past injustice it went through before I found it? Would it continue to thrive even when I placed it in a nurturing environment? Probably not,  I think it would continue to pollute itself with darkness that isn’t even real in the present moment, and it would eventually die. Nature doesn’t hold on to past injustice, it only lives in the present moment, thriving when what it needs is placed before it.

I’ve noticed over the past few years a disturbing trend, instead of acknowledging the suffering of all people some want to focus on their own suffering, or the suffering of people just like them. This trend has also shown me that these types of people are very angry and bitter towards people who are not like them, almost blaming these people for the injustice even if they had nothing to do with it.

I have also seen that people who are only focused on their own suffering, judge the suffering of others, acting as if what other people go through isn’t as bad as what they went through. Isn’t this what we would call ego? The ego tells us that our suffering is worse than another persons suffering, even though we have no proof of this at all. There is no difference between being killed on a battlefield because of someone’s ego, or being killed in your bed by your own hand because of someone’s ego, the energy behind it is still the same.

This type of thinking pollutes our souls, making us spread hatred all around us, all you have to do is look at the news and you can see what internal hatred is doing to this world. I challenge you to learn from my shrub, let go of the past and thrive in the present moment no matter what your circumstances are, and just so we are on the same ground here, thriving does not mean rich, money never did and never will bring happiness, thriving means being who you were meant to be in each moment.