Happy Friday! This is my first Five Minute Friday post from America in a while. I’m still a bit jet lagged from my summer in England, but I love getting up and joining in with this community on Friday mornings so here I am! This week our prompt is Together.

There’s enough division in these times. We have politics, socioeconomic status, race, religion, etc. dividing us and placing us in to categories with sloppy labels slapped right across our faces. We exclude, oppress, and ignore whole margins of society to inflate our own sense of worth.

How have we so quickly forgotten the strength of everyone working together?

During 2020, 2021, and parts of 2022, our world experienced a pandemic together. All edges of this world felt the changes that Covid forced upon us. At times, we worked together to slow the spread. We shut the doors and we stayed in our bubbles and we lived life a little more simply for a time. And we sacrificed to protect everyone because we were all facing Covid together.

Hurricane Katrina devastated America’s coastal states in 2005. For YEARS people flocked to the region from all over the world to provide aide and to serve in the area’s rebuild. Individuals and organizations worked together to restore the Gulf states and to meet the needs of those suffering the effects of storm damage, flooding, and loss.

In 2001, America was victim to an unthinkable act of terrorism. Afterwards, the country banded together to tighten security, to build our national defense, and to meet the needs of those mourning the loss of jobs, homes, and loved ones.

Worldwide pandemics, natural disasters, and national tragedies are all out of our control; however, it is in these times that we lay aside our differences and work together to survive and rebuild.

When things seem to be going well around us we find ways to inflate ourselves by excluding or shaming others. In those times, we forget about our indestructable strength together and we try to knock down any person who stands in our way. Arguments like, “Who is blame for rising gas prices?” destroy the united front that our world so desperately needs. We inflate our own egos by poking holes in others’.

The truth is we don’t get to decide who is “in” or “out”. The control over this world is not ours and it’s futile to continue living like we believe it is. In the hardest moments, we remember this truth, but it shouldn’t take tragedy to remind us that we are all in this together. It’s okay to disagree–healthy even. It’s okay to celebrate differences. It’s okay to express ourselves in our truest forms without putting others down. We are strongest when we remember that we live on this planet together. May we put down our weapons of words and violence and live together in peace and strength.

The Ameri Brit Mom