Connections
Mar. 13th, 2011 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cedar_groveFrom The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.
It seems that we humans have always been drawn to find ourselves in the life about us. But too often, in doing so we break everything down until everything resembles us. Too often, though we seldom mean to, we take in life the way we do food, chewing it into unrecognizable bits that need to be swallowed. But the kind of food that living offers must be taken in whole, as it is, or it loses its wisdom and power and grace.
Is it human arrogance that makes this all happen... or universal-child self-centeredness? Or is it just a matter of focus, and an inability to step away, just embrace the pain of living and revel in its beauty.
Take for example when we have something 'going on' in our lives. We turn on the radio, and every song we hear is about us/what's going on. We turn on the TV and every show we see is about us/what's going on...
I've been there myself. I'm not immune. Wouldn't claim to be better than anyone and able to do what we all, at times, cannot.
We do this for others too: this whole notion of 'we hate in others what we despise in ourselves.' We notice far more the negative traits in people that we either consciously or unconsciously know is a 'fault' in ourselves.
I do that too. For example: can't multi-task, and hate that I can't, because it means that there's so much that I can never get done or catch up on... because I'm took conscious that I'll be keeping other people waiting while I - say - finish editing a sentence or putting down a graphic... or upgrading a building in my city in a game that I'm playing. But where that differs slightly is that I hate it in myself because it causes conflict if I try to do it... whereas, in others I'll give forgive - or tollerate and wait. Only when I'm castigated for doing what others have been doing to me does my universal-child stamp her foot and cry "IT'S NOT FAIR."
I don't ever say anything though... for reasons wherein hang another tale.
Sometimes I wonder to myself which is better - to bend like a reed in the wind, or to stand up to the wind like a mighty oak?
Everything in the Universe is interconnected.
Within each it is reflected.
-Lourdes Pita
It seems that we humans have always been drawn to find ourselves in the life about us. But too often, in doing so we break everything down until everything resembles us. Too often, though we seldom mean to, we take in life the way we do food, chewing it into unrecognizable bits that need to be swallowed. But the kind of food that living offers must be taken in whole, as it is, or it loses its wisdom and power and grace.
Is it human arrogance that makes this all happen... or universal-child self-centeredness? Or is it just a matter of focus, and an inability to step away, just embrace the pain of living and revel in its beauty.
Take for example when we have something 'going on' in our lives. We turn on the radio, and every song we hear is about us/what's going on. We turn on the TV and every show we see is about us/what's going on...
I've been there myself. I'm not immune. Wouldn't claim to be better than anyone and able to do what we all, at times, cannot.
We do this for others too: this whole notion of 'we hate in others what we despise in ourselves.' We notice far more the negative traits in people that we either consciously or unconsciously know is a 'fault' in ourselves.
I do that too. For example: can't multi-task, and hate that I can't, because it means that there's so much that I can never get done or catch up on... because I'm took conscious that I'll be keeping other people waiting while I - say - finish editing a sentence or putting down a graphic... or upgrading a building in my city in a game that I'm playing. But where that differs slightly is that I hate it in myself because it causes conflict if I try to do it... whereas, in others I'll give forgive - or tollerate and wait. Only when I'm castigated for doing what others have been doing to me does my universal-child stamp her foot and cry "IT'S NOT FAIR."
I don't ever say anything though... for reasons wherein hang another tale.
Sometimes I wonder to myself which is better - to bend like a reed in the wind, or to stand up to the wind like a mighty oak?
