#  Coming Out of the Closet: I’m a Warrior for Joy

     Details    Dianne Lawrence   ![logo](https://mail.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         December 22 2016      [  ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Dec-2016/103e.png)    ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/important-reads/12342-coming-out-of-the-closet-i-m-a-warrior-for-joy)

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> GUEST WORDS FOR THE SEASON--A friend wrote to me despairing of the seemingly hopeless scenario of the world today. The following poured out of me in response. I thought I’d share it with my friends this holiday season. I’m turning 55 today so consider this my BIRTHday message. I’m coming out of the closet and declaring myself … A Warrior For Joy!!
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> Starting with Nature, horrors are a natural part of this earthly experience.
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> In my opinion the greatest horrors in the human world come from our own natural enemies, hate, envy, greed, delight in cruelty, quickness to judge and retaliate, apathy, inertia, you get the picture.
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> These enemies of ours find safe harbor in our consciousness by using the weapons of fear, misinformation, isolation, constant hunger for more and constant sorrow (of which I'm guilty of all) to prevent us from experiencing our most noble and natural states of joy and Light (information, kindness, compassion, respect for and connection to ALL living beings,) liberation from our self limiting thoughts and the ability to stand up in courage and strength and justice in order to make room for these experiences within us and our community.
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> The enemies control us in so many ways with their weapons of fear and sadness and seem to always get the upper hand but in fact, in this century \[the last century\] we've seen more progress for the Light than at any other time in our written history. We have seen the liberation of consciousness for many who have been trapped and oppressed by the insane testosterone matrix that has dominated us. One century is a small dot in time but we have seen major strides in the 20th Century of the liberation of women, slaves, nations and now a growing movement for the liberation of nature, animals and environment, from our strangling grip, the liberation of gay people and hopefully soon liberation of the least able to protect themselves...children.
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> Don't despair. The Game is not over by a long shot and radical change in our history and its effects happen not over one century but two or three or more of new and radical activity. What Terrence McKenna refers to as “Novelty”. Our changes have just begun. As fast as they are happening we are still very much in the beginning.
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> That is why I really believe we need to stay out of the weapons of the enemies, fear, anxiety, hopelessness and instead nurture and support a clear vision that shifts us toward a better world by the actions we take in our everyday lives based on the vision of Joy, laughter, kindness’s, speaking our truth and sincerely considering the truth of others, taking care of ourselves and then others.
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> To know in our bones that Light always prevails and even when the enemies, Hate, Fear, Separateness think they are winning they ultimately find out they were unwitting tools of Light.
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> We win when we maintain our connection to our joy and the joy of all living people and things we meet on a daily basis when we demand our right to Joy regardless of what is happening around us, for the enemies are the thieves of this light in our Spirit. We win when we continue to uncover the ways we misinform ourselves or others and when we are ever vigilant to the places where the enemy lies within.
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> We win when we have the courage to plainly speak out against injustice especially in our everday life.
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> It’s easy to rail against injustice in another city and harder to rail against injustice practiced in your own back yard. We speak for joy when we nurture a view that allows us to see how the reality of each moment is constantly in service to the good. But mostly…we win when we learn to really face the folly of our own selves and have a good laugh about it with our friends.
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> *(Dianne V. Lawrence is the publisher/editor of [The Neighborhood News ](http://www.theneighborhoodnews.net)and an occasional contributor to CityWatch.)*
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> *-cw*

  - [  Previous Article **Don’t Write that Email Unless You Want to Read it On the Front Page of the LA Times!** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12346:don-t-write-that-email-unless-you-want-to-read-it-on-the-front-page-of-the-la-times&catid=9)
- [  Next Article **The Trumpster is Going Nuclear … ‘til World Comes to Its Senses’** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12335:the-trumpster-is-going-nuclear-til-world-comes-to-its-senses&catid=9)
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