What if you fly?

boozebrain

February 11

Indeed

I've seen this quote before. In them past, I've looked at such words and thought…meh! Empty, meaningless sayings with no substance.

Today, I read this and went…oh yeah. what if?

Drinking made me cynical. Without knowing, it hardened me to the joys and beauty of the world.

Drinking drew out the 'I, Me, My,' approach to living. My daily existence became all about me. My experiences, my emotions, my thoughts, my opinions. Geez…in hindsight, it was so boring. So predictable. So selfish.

I keep enticing my own children to embrace a much bigger story. To see the ageless patterns. To take the broader view. I feel, rightly or wrongly, that my kids are bombarded with messages about the significance of 'I, Me, My.' I think much of childhood and youth is. However many of my clients are in their 30's and 40's and I'm still hearing those same, restrictive, tiny stories. 'My career, my needs, my success, my gender, my sexual preferences, my experiences.'

I'm not saying they don't matter…of course they do. They are the inevitable starting point for us all. However, it seems many people never move beyond that way of thinking. That way of seeing the world can only take you so far. There's so much more beyond that.

I feel that's part of our challenge - to enable people to connect the dots. To embrace a much larger narrative. To see patterns and themes that have existed for millennia. A world beyond the small self.

Such as?

How to build and sustain small communities - especially with people we don't always agree with. To learn how to forgive - both ourselves and others. To face mortality. To see Death, not as something terrifying, but as an inevitable part of the human condition and to learn its many crucial lessons. To work on our own learning. Our awareness. To see the Divine, to see hope and love in others. Particularly those we don't like or are afraid of. To embrace the other. To work for non violence, for social justice. To counter our species insatiable greed, militarism, all the 'isms' that cause so much grief - racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia and so on.

One example right now is what's happening in Gaza. It appears all our governments are so full of fear, hatred, ignorance, that we are just burying our heads, while a genocide of the Palestinian people is taking place right in front of us.

This is the madness of addiction. Of obsessing about 'my little world', while major events of history are unfolding, and we can't even see it. Or choose not to see it, for whatever reasons.

So let's keep the 'what if I fall' mindset in check. Let us consciously work on 'what if we fly.' What if, as a species, we choose to help each other to fly. Even for a few moments each and every day.

Boozebrain