International Holocaust Remembrance Day - Jan 27, 2025

Hi Seasters,

In light of recent events, I wanted to take a few moments to write about and honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

What is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day?

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is the day (Jan 27) the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated in 1945. It is a day to honor the victims of the holocaust lest we forget the atrocities that were brought on to a select group a individuals. 

Read more in the wiki article here.

Why am I writing about the Holocaust?

I recently learned that there are people who don't believe the Holocaust was real or actually happened, and that boggled my mind. But then I thought, I was blessed. In middle school, I had the descendant of a Holocaust survivor come to my school and talk for a full day to my class about the Holocaust and his grandmother's experience. We saw their photos and listened to the stories of human beings being yanked from their homes and packed way too tightly into trains. 

We, as a class, reenacted what it was like to have been waiting in line with your families at a concentration camp, and having those not deemed physically fit enough to serve or become whores, sent to the gas chambers. We were shown photos of the concentration camps along with the stories of the working conditions. We got to see and hold the objects and the articles of clothing that the victims wore. We ALL felt the weight of history that day. 

There is no denying it once you see and feel it. 

Where am I going with this?

I'm seeing a lot of news and fears about the current US presidency and administration moving towards another Holocaust, but instead of targeting primarily Jews, they are targeting really anyone who is not a straight, white, US born and raised (and even then there are some questions) citizen. 

This cannot stand. 

We as a nation, and as a global community, cannot tolerate this. We are so much better than this. We are so much more loving and compassionate than this. 

It is the seeds of fear and hatred that a select few are able to plant and water in so many. But just as seeds of fear and hatred can be planted and sowed, so can the seeds of Love and Hope. 

We all have both seeds in us. It is up to us to decide which seed we want to water and nurture. 

Speaking from personal experience, I lived in fear, anger, hatred, and sadness for years! Hell, I did grow up thinking that "gays" were bad, black people were unsafe, and Mexican's were meant to do the crappy labor jobs. That is the culture I was raised in -- what I saw on TV, the news being played in the spaces I was in, the messages being relayed in the movies I was watching. That was the information I was "programmed" to believe, so I did, for quite some time. 

The thing about "programming" is, software fails, programs can become outdated, and new updates need to be made. Just as you need to approve updates to the apps or internet browsers on your phones and computers, you need to approve making updates to your own operating system [your brain and how you think]. 

Where do you start?

Well you start with Intellectual Humility. (I wrote a whole blog post on it here). You start to question whether your set of programming is up to date? You start to question whether or not your programming fosters joy, connection, love, and growth OR if it fosters fear, anger, hatred, and pain? You start to question where your programming came from and if it provides you with the information you need to be the person you genuinely, in your heart, want to be and not who are you being told to be. You start to question where you have been a sheep following other's beliefs and where you have made the conscious decisions to act on your own accord.

You start by getting curious about your mind. 

Why?

Our minds are powerful. Our minds are neuroplastic which means they can form new pathways and new connections with new information. AKA our brains can literally learn and be programmed for hatred and pain AND they can change to be programmed for LOVE and JOY. It just takes making a conscious choice to try and to repeat the new thoughts you want to keep thinking. 

A belief is just a thought you keep thinking. 

The other funny thing about beliefs, our minds, and the way the universe works is the law of attraction. In physics, that term means that like charges repel. In the work of our minds and energy, that terms means that when you think positive thoughts, you start to build up momentum for more positive thoughts and energy and vice versa for negative thoughts and energy. So the more positive, loving, and joyful things you start to think and notice, the more you will start to think and notice. (It is really quite a magical way of living). 

I did it, so can you

I mentioned earlier how I used to be an angry, fearful, and a hate-filled person towards people who were not like me. I suffered greatly. My body was in pain all of the time. I was afraid to go out into the world. Life was dark, and that honestly felt like Hell on Earth. I got tired of it. I got tired of the pain, the fears, the negativity. All of it. I was fed up with myself and being in a place of suffering. It wasn't getting me anywhere but more pain and more suffering and more diagnoses from the stress living in my body. 

So if you are in that place, please know that you can get out. You can find joy. You can find Love. And YOU can find Happiness within yourself, and with those who aren't like you.

It all starts with you. 

It all starts with you making a choice today, and everyday, to try to be a better version of you. Do it for you, first and foremost. But if you don't want to do it for you, do it for your loved ones, your children, your parents, your country and your world. And if that doesn't motivate you, do it for your animal companion(s) -- they deserve to see you joyful and happy too. And if you don't do it for any of those reason, that is okay too. It is ultimately your choice.

(If you are interested and want more resources on where to start, here is a link to my free talk on Living Beyond Survival.)

I'll end with this -- I was once in a very dark place. (My about page shares more of what I went through). I am walking proof that it is possible to get to a better place. I am walking proof that the things I am sharing work. I'm walking proof that no one is beyond saving. 

We are all deserving of and capable of so much love, joy, and pleasure. 

It all starts with you.

Choose Joy. Choose Love. Choose Compassion.

 

With Love and Light, 

Lady Lighthouse ✨💜