Strawberry Shortcake

Does anyone remember the show “Strawberry Shortcake?”

It was this show about a girl named Strawberry Shortcake and she goes on fun adventures with friends while learning important life lessons along the way.

I always watched this show at my grandma’s house. She had the best toy room ever filled with even better rummage sale clothes.

My grandma was the ultimate rummage sale shopper!! She found the coolest things and created the most colorful childhood for all of her grandkids because of it. As a result of her compulsive rummaging, my grandma had a large chest full of gowns that she had found over the years. There were so many gowns in this chest that it could never shut properly, leaving little sequin dresses draping over the edges.

I remember those years fondly; playing dress-up for hours and eating a bowl of sherbert. It was such a simpler time.

But I wonder……….was it?

Was it really a simpler time? Or were our parents completely stressed out and worried about the state of the world constantly, like we all seem to be now.

I honestly don’t know the answer to that.

Because “back in the day” there were plenty of other horrible things going on.

For example, when JFK was shot, that was just another regular day for most people. That was just a thing people watched on TV. Similar, I imagine, to the day 9/11 happened.

9/11 was a pivotal moment in my 13-year-old mind. I remember it perfectly. I remember what I was wearing, what class I was in, and where I was sitting at. I remember some of my teachers were crying. I also remember not really knowing what was going on.

Is that how it felt when JFK died? Was it a pivotal moment as well?

Or, the Great Depression!! Did people know they were in it when they were in it, or were they just accustomed to times being tough because that’s just the way it was? Was it a slow burn, where they didn’t see it coming? Or was it like they woke up one day and everything was gone?

I always thought that those “bad times” in the past, like the Great Depression, were just that; in the past. I foolishly didn’t realize that bad times can happen again and again, and I think we are currently in one of those times now.

Does everyone feel that though? Is everyone aware of that? Or is it just some people? I just don’t know.

I’m fearful because of how divided our country is. Normally, I don’t post about political things for obvious reasons, but this one is just pouring out of me, so here we go.

What bothers me the most though is that we all seem to be against each other, when we are not the problem. Granted, it is a genius plan for “them” though, to divide us and make us all believe that we are each other’s enemy. When, of course, we are not.

Almost every person I know in my life, on both sides of the fence, just want to be happy, raise healthy children, and live in a safe world.

But, if you turn on the news, or any type of social media, that presents a much different picture.

Growing up, I remember watching the news and whole-heartedly believing everything they said. Without question. I mean, it was the News, of course it had to be true!!!! Right?

Wrong.

Now, you can hear one news story on one channel, and hear a completely different version, of the same story, on a different channel. Which has forced me to start doing a lot of my own research and digging into things quite a bit deeper.

Turns out, a lot of the media channels’ pockets are lined with political money. So, naturally, that is going to skew how they present news. And I don’t like that.

I’m quite embarrassed to admit that I did not realize that that was how this worked. I just honestly believed that if you are a news reporter, you are just an honest person reporting the truth. I have a Masters in Journalism and one of the main things they talked about was journalistic integrity.

And now we are witnessing how much that is not true anymore. There isn’t a whole lot of that integrity anymore. There’s just a lot of BS and nonsense, on both sides. And it’s unfair to our people.

The thing I hate most about thinking about all this is how small I feel. Thinking about these humongous issues makes me feel incredibly small and unfit to do anything to help.

Then, I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes… “Find the helpers. And if you can’t find any, be one”. I can’t remember who said that (I think Mr. Rogers?) but it still reigns true. Be a helper.

So, what does that look like? How can I be a helper in this crisis?

Most of the time I don’t have an answer to that, which I hate, but then I lean on Christ. And I’m reminded of all of his love.

To start helping, I started looking around at my neighbors, friends, people around me, and realized that they are all doing things to make this world a little bit better; growing their own food, sharing it with their neighbors, offering to pick up your kids after school, inviting you over for dinners, having play dates, helping each other through rough times, and so on.

I know so many wonderful, incredible people that are working hard to make this world a better place every day. So, I decided to turn off the news and political social media posts, and continue to look at my neighbors, and be more like them.

That’s how we start helping. By helping our neighbors. By being kind. By understanding that everyone is walking a different life and has a different perspective. It doesn’t make any of us right or wrong, it makes us human. And that is what we all have in common.

Regardless of your beliefs, we are all human. We are all trying to survive, pay our bills, love our families, and be happy. And this constant state of fear and crime and hatred and all the other things has just gotten out of hand. And I feel like we’ve lost sight of the fact that we are all just humans trying to do life.

Granted, I know this may not apply to everyone, and I am definitely not opening up a political discussion, but I am trying to remind myself that even if someone has a different view than me, that doesn’t make them wrong. Or me wrong. We’re just different. We have different life experiences that have shaped our beliefs and led us on the paths we are all on. Again, we are all only human.

And humans need love. That is a universal truth. We all need love. And if you are struggling to find that, what a good time to look in the mirror and start being the one to give it.

Just love your neighbor. It doesn’t mean that we have to agree, but we could all stand to be a little kinder, especially now.

The only way to get rid of darkness, is with light. And you lose nothing by using your light to light another candle, but you gain everything by doing that.

Sometimes just a simple act of kindness can change someone’s life. That’s all it can take, is one simple moment of pure kindness towards humanity to change the entire course of someone’s life.

Think about that. Think about how much power we all hold if we view life like that. We all have the power to spread kindness and love. That is in everyone of us.

I was reminded of that when I saw an old ad for that silly show, Strawberry Shortcake; to have fun, to live a simpler life and to spread kindness. What a powerful reminder that I needed for myself and I decided to share with all of you.

I am not perfect and I am only one person. So even though I feel small, I am reminded again of Strawberry Shortcake’s words, “Even though we're bitty, we can do big things!”

So, I am going to try and do big things just by starting small and remembering to love thy neighbor.

We all could use a little more love.

Happy Trails,

Em