Breaking the Cycle of Hatred

It was just another morning at our usual café—until it wasn’t.

“You don’t recruit for Bankstown Hospital, do you?”

It was meant as a joke. I said no, we don’t. That should have been the end of it. But it wasn’t.

I avoid the news like the plague because it drags me into emotions I don’t want to sit with—frustration, anger, sometimes even hate. And yet, despite my best efforts, those emotions still find a way in.

I tell myself I rise above it—love, light, perspective. But let’s be honest. No one truly does.

Lately, hatred feels like it’s in the air. Not just in headlines, but in the spaces between words, in the way people look at each other, in the tension that lingers just below the surface.

It’s easy to get swept up, to let frustration harden into something sharper. I feel it too.

Back in high school, every year, we’d go on silent and prayer retreats with the sisters. The most powerful lessons I ever learned—the one I carry with me still ($100 bucks my husband would disagree)—is this:

• There is power in silence.
• Hate begets hate.
• Love is kind.

A candidate once told me something that echoes this truth:

“The best way to win a war is not to go to war.”

That’s the real challenge, isn’t it? To recognise the pull of conflict and not get dragged into it. To hold onto perspective when it feels easier to pick a side. To see what’s happening around us without letting it change who we are.

I don’t have all the answers. But I do know this: Silence is a choice. Kindness is a choice. And right now, they matter more than ever.

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