Today's Meditation:

I always have considered myself to be separate from the rest of the world.  I've always felt that there's a great distance between me and other people, a distance that was extremely daunting and that kept me alone far more often than I wanted to be alone.  All of that distance, I've learned as I've grown older, was only a result of my imaginings, a result of my fears, and a result of the fact that nobody ever taught me otherwise.  For many years, this perspective caused me much pain and many disasters.

I truly think that independence can be a positive thing, but I also know that we often take it far too far.  The separation that we perceive in the world keeps us from asking for help, from offering our help, from becoming a true part of the communities in which we function day after day.  The people who seem to do well socially are the people who don't see the separation, who feel the kinship with their fellow human beings.

We're all on similar journeys.  We face the same physical and emotional ailments, we face similar problems and issues, and we ride similar roller coasters of life's ups and downs.  We're all of flesh and blood and spirit, and we all have great potential that is only waiting to be unlocked and developed.  As long as we see ourselves as separate from the rest of humanity, though, that potential shall stay undeveloped, for many of the secrets of our souls need the touch of another--someone who can see us objectively and who can help sincerely--to be unlocked and set free to work in the world.

We are not separate from the rest of the world.  Our lives are intertwined with the lives of the other people in our homes, our communities, our nations, and our world.  We have only to recognize that, live according to the truth, and develop our unity in order to become the people we are meant to be--and with the presence of others, the journey can be even more beautiful and rewarding, as we give to and receive from the people we touch in our lives.

Questions to consider:

What are some of the things that cause us to feel separation rather than unity?

How much of our separation from others is a matter of perspective and how much is reality?

What kinds of things might we do to foster a sense of unity in our own lives and in the lives that we touch?

For further thought:

When I speak about attention, I mean literally, "How much attention can we pay to ourselves?"  As children, sometimes we cannot hold our attention for more than a couple of seconds.  Over the years we are able to attend to more and more.  Yet, we're seldom schooled to hold life in respect, to enlarge our ability to love, take care of, and be respectfully connected with all things around us.

Brooke Medicine Eagle

More on unity and oneness.

All contents © Living Life Fully, all rights reserved.