This is not the email I planned to send this week. The one that flowed out of me last weekend will have to wait. Because the world is crying in pain.

I’ve tried to avoid the news. The shootings in Orlando, the campus rapes, the angry political rhetoric, all drain me.

And I have my own sh*t to deal with! Childhood wounds to heal, generational beliefs to shift.

Yep… lots of negative places where I can put attention.

Then, I made a quick trip to the grocery store. And a voice on the radio said, “Love is the only real response.”

Or maybe she said something else. But that is what I heard.

“Love is the only real response.”

Love is the only thing that will make a difference. More hate, more fighting, more oppression won’t change the world. Only love can do that.

Don’t get me wrong. There will still be pain. Butwe can love in our pain. There will still be healing that needs to happen. And we can practice love in our healing. There will still be soap boxes to stand on, stakes to be placed in the ground, lines to be drawn on the sand.

All done in love.

I get to choose. You get to choose.

Today I am choosing to forgive. Because it is what love dictates.

I won’t forget. I won’t just let it go. But I won’t carry anger. I won’t carry resentment. I won’t carry revenge.

I forgive the patriarchal society that burned powerful women at the stake and treated us as commodities. I forgive my father who believed that the right thing was to “raise my boys to get along in the world, and my girls to be taken care of.” I forgive my starter husband who shoved and threatened me to get his way. I forgive the perpetrators of violence in the world.

I forgive myself for all of the ways that I’ve dishonored and abused myself.

When I forgive, I shift into the energy of love. In love, I can create change. As a beacon of love, I make a ripple effect.

Maybe I can cause another to choose love. And they will ripple.

And more will choose love.

And at some point, all these ripples of love will create a tipping point. The world will choose love.

The dictators, the oppressors, the fearful angry aggressors will feel this love. And they will change.

This is not easy. I know that I will need to forgive again. I know I will forget that love is the only response that truly makes sense.

And a voice will reflect it back to me, again… as often as I need it.

I will choose love again.

I will create my life and my business on the bedrock of love.

I invite you to choose love in this moment. Right now, just love.

And as often as you can, choose love.

Together we will right the world.