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Today's
Meditation:
How often do we get caught up in the idea that other
people should be doing "our thing"? Why do
we feel that other people should see the world as we see
it and do things just as we would do them? If we
were asked about it, we would say that we didn't feel
others should be copies of us, but what about the
disappointment we feel when someone doesn't follow our
advice? And what about the judgment we pass when
someone else does something that we deem as
"wrong"?
Other people aren't in this world to live up to our
expectations-- it's as simple as that. Unfortunately,
though, we often think that if someone isn't living up to
what we expect of them, they're somehow failing, somehow
disappointing us, when the fact of the matter is that the
disappointment is something that we're doing to
ourselves. While most of us would claim to believe
in the concept of "live and let live," how many
of us would qualify that statement with, "as long as.
. . ."?
Many parents are disappointed when their children choose
not to go to college, yet many of those children go on to
live happy, fulfilling lives even without a diploma in a
frame. Many people are disappointed in their friends
because of decisions they make, but isn't it their
lives that they're leading, and isn't it their right--
their responsibility-- to make the decisions that
feel right to them?
Diversity on this planet is one of the few givens.
Diversity is visible, as in race and gender, but it's also
invisible and shown in the ways that we make decisions,
the ways that we do things, the ways that we show our
love, and in many other ways. One of our most
important tasks in life is to stop trying to run the show
and not just allow others to be different, but to
celebrate those differences and to take advantage of all
that those differences offer us.
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