I grew up in Gilroy, California — a town famously known for the Gilroy Garlic Festival and garlic ice cream among other interesting foods you can find at the fest.

Gilroy is a small town just south of San Jose AKA Silicon Valley. It’s one of those towns where everyone seems to know each other, but come the end of July Gilroy shifts to a tourist destination hotbed.

This year’s Garlic Fest (G Fest as the locals call it) came to a shocking and utterly horrific conclusion.

You never really think “it’s going to happen to you”. In this specific situation, I’m referring to MASS SHOOTINGS.
On the third and final day of the 2019 Garlic Festival (41st annual), a shooter open fired on attendees.

This is beyond disgusting and completely unimaginable when something of this magnitude hits home with you. As of the morning after the shooting; it was reported that three people’s lives were taken and another 12 were wounded.

It’s Time for a Change

I’m not talking politics here. It’s not my intention to get into the political beliefs of “the right to bear arms”. What I do what to address is our social norms and specifically attention to mental health.

Why have there been so many mass shootings in America over the past few years?

Where are we failing?

Some are quick to point to the gun laws, although I believe it’s bigger than just laws.

If you’ve been following my blog (or journey in general), you’ll notice there is a common theme of addressing mental health issues, a need for meditation, an issue with our materialistic lifestyle that drives us crazy as we “keep up with the Jones’” and finally a need to wake up.

Something Isn’t Right

Really, what are we doing wrong? How far back does this start?

Is it our parenting? Is it our education system? Is it the pressure we put on ourselves to be able to purchase things to make us happy? Is it the current political state that’s driving people mad?

Here’s what I do know, too many of us are not living in the present moment. We are not breathing. We are not consciously thinking. We are allowing our minds to race with the chaotic plugged in nature of our society.

What Can WE do about this?

We all can play a part to help and there isn’t a role that’s too small. Talking to our friends and loved ones is a terrific way to begin living more consciously.

Don’t just talk though. See, that’s the problem. Most of our conversations are so surface level it’s almost as if we’re just sleeping and moving as robots.

Think about the majority of your conversations (and I’m guilty of this as well)… What are the topics?

How was your day? Did you catch the game?

AND when we’re really being lazy we resort to weather. These of course are just extremely basic examples.

So, how can we have a deeper conversation anyway?

Get below the surface. Ask the tough questions. The stuff “recovering bro’s” like myself have issues with… emotions. Get below the bullshit surface level topics we normally fall back to. We want to get to the core. How do you really feel?

What did you do today that made you smile?

Did you take a moment to thank yourself for something today?

How did you do something to impact someone else’s life.

Spread the Message.

I challenge you to ask tough question to the very next person you interact with after reading this blog.

Then check-in with yourself. How did it make you feel? How did it make them feel?

How can you improve on this and do one small thing to awaken our collective consciousness daily?

If this resonates with you, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE share this article with a friend. We desperately need to work on this together as a community.

We are one. Let’s start acting like it.

To Being the Light,
Sam

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