I will never forget years ago, after a rerun of my Shark Tank episode, receiving an email from a woman named Susan from the UK. She wrote to me the following… “I just finished watching you on Shark Tank and needed to tell you that you disgust me. You are pathetic saying how you have struggled in life. You know nothing about suffering. I hope you don’t make a single dime because you don’t deserve it.” Um excuse me? At first I felt like I had been punched in the gut and then I became angry. My mind started plotting my reply… “F*&%K you Susan! Who asked for your opinion? Why don’t you go and pound sand!!” So I typed and erased and typed more and erased and typed a whole lot more and then I paused and just sat for a minute. Out of nowhere I heard the voice of one of my favorite spiritual teachers, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and he said, “Send love in response to hate”. What I thought? To this woman? You have to be crazy, Did you not hear what she said to me? “Don’t forget the 3 hardest things in life Shelly.1. To admit when you are wrong. 2. To defend the absent 3. To send love in response to hate.” Ughh. I knew he was right but I still wanted to tell Susan where she could go. So I sat in stillness and imagined sending her love. When I did, I started to see her differently. What kind of person sends that kind of message? Not a happy person. Someone in pain. When I saw her as someone in pain, I was able to find compassion for her and I replied… “Susan, I am so sorry for whatever it is you are going through. I send you love.” When I hit send, every cell in my being told me it was the right thing to do. I never heard back from her and I’m sure that wouldn’t have been the case if I went with my first draft. Sending hate in response to hate only perpetuates hate. Who wins? No one. The only answer is to send love. Love is always the answer! You feel so much better when you send love and unfortunately it’s so rare. There’s so much hate in the world right now and we are responding with more hate. Only love dissolves hate so let’s get to work people! It’s time to be love, share love and serve love. The world needs us!!
