We all have love. We love our kids, our pets, our world, or maybe just the skirt we bought last week. We know what it is to like things and we know how to not like things as well. We were brought into the world for one thing: to learn. When we begin our journey as children we are open to the possibilities of all that could be. We take in what is around us for the first time, not judging or criticizing anything or anyone. We grow older and hear others opinions about what they like and don't like. Sometimes we find ourselves "liking" something only because they do or even disliking something because someone told us we should or we want to just fit in. Maybe we've heard it on the news and bought into it, or even maybe we've heard it from a very prominent figure in society.
Our concepts become distorted. The once innocent view of our world is tarnished from the viewpoints of others and we begin to see the world through the eyes of others instead of our own. Our minds become a whirlwind of the he said, she said scenario and now we are confused on exactly what we believe and who to believe. The skirt I bought last week I thought I liked, but Ruth at work tells me it's the wrong length and my girlfriend Cathy just told me that the color is last years. Really, what is a girl to do!
I once saw my neighbor and her child at the mall. Her little girl was about eight years old at the time and was wearing her pajama bottoms and a cute bright pink blouse. My neighbor explained that it was something she thought was really cute to wear and that she, her mother, thought it best to "choose" her battles. Her daughter was expressing herself.
If I chose to wear those same pajama bottoms and a bright pink top it would not be acceptable. Adults are seen as people who should "fit in" to society and if they don't, they are frowned upon and ostracized or better yet, ridiculed. Somewhere and somehow we have an unspoken set of rules in every nation and country of what a normal, "conditioned" adult should look and act like. If you don't believe me, test it yourself.
As you go through the weekend notice the amount of time you are judging people around you. You might think seeing a nun means she is spiritual and pure. I once had a nun give me the finger. Sometimes the cover on the book doesn't tell the whole story.
That's why looking at people, places and things like children; as if you are seeing it or them for the first time allows you to see it or them for what they are. Not for what we were taught they stand for, what we've been told, but your own true perception of the world. We might notice that we begin to see our differences as something beautiful, for even the leaves on the trees and the trees themselves are all different. Yet the delight they show as their leaves glisten in the sun, all standing in the same field, never reveals a bit of hatred, anger or disdain for the one tree among them that is old and dying. Their very branches seem to hover over it, protecting it from further damage and embracing it in love.
If we are constant in this measure of being, always checking in with the open minded child within, we'll begin to see the world differently. Our constancy in life will always lead us to better things. When we are open and honest with ourselves and others, we can only find our own happiness in the light we were once created in; love.
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