Gazing in the Mirror

January 18 - Consequentially Meriting Attention

Since we're all interdependent,
nothing is small, trivial, or inconsequential.
Not even a string of beads.
Not even one bullet — or one word.
~ Bernie Glassman

We cannot afford to hold personal
animosities or enmities against the
world or individual members of society.
Love alone can beget love.
~ Ernest Holmes

Every person who seeks to gain the attention of another person by communicating is seeking greater closeness. There are rewards and costs to any relationship we seek to engage in and it is human nature to maximize rewards and minimize costs. When we feel that each person who comes into our sphere of awareness matters, then we will often accept some higher degree of cost because we value human beings as expressions of the same Life energy.

I believe that it is important to learn how to interact with other people in social situations and a prolonged exposure to an online community can give us many varied opportunities – teaching us how to remain genuine and authentic while at the same time giving to us opportunities to become more aware of how we impact other people's emotions. Being in such a community also gives us opportunities to express caring concern about the overall well-being of each of the people we become better acquainted with.

Some people cause us unnecessary work or impede our progress by consuming our productive time. One of the most difficult things to master in harmonious living is the patient acceptance that if we are going to have relationships – either online or in our skin-lives – there will be times that the needs of that relationship seem to have more cost than reward. If by expending that effort some good is enabled then we have the satisfaction of having made some difference in another person's life. We do not always know that is the outcome of the time we have expended but to my own heart a willingness to be available is an important maturing of my own self away from simple self-absorption.

Having choice means there are usually alternatives and the quality of the alternatives available to us may influence how much of our time we are willing to give to an effort that seems to carry a definite certainty of cost and the unlikelihood of any reward. These efforts often come under the category of service. In truth there is nothing we can actually "do" to "serve" our Creator or Life itself. However we are endowed with certain life-affirming qualities – love, joy, peace and creativity. The practice of expressing such qualities in dealings with others is our own ability to bring spiritual love into physical life.

I never give up on people. I may weary of the effort of being "in relationship" with them. Recently I met an acquaintance approximately my age who has been wheelchair bound by a car accident he suffered in his youth. Previously I have been involved in local politically-influenced affairs related to the handicapped people of our community. Unfortunately at levels that manage such efforts the welfare of the people served is not the most significant circumstance occurring. So my husband and I made a decision to no longer participate in that regard. My acquaintance wanted to talk about such issues that I really no longer have good and accurate insights into. While I listened politely for some time, eventually there arose the need to remove myself politely from that conversation as it was not accomplishing any good.

There are many aspects of life which I have an interest in, and will inform myself to the degree readily available to me, that I am not going to have any meaningful influence on nor any possibility of action available to me personally. We each have gifts and limits of time and resources to give. In giving we often do receive personally satisfying understandings and intangible rewards. We each must choose where what we do has some relative value to some part of Life that we care about. But no one and nothing that I have ever been aware of has been inconsequential to my heart. To all undertakings I bring the best, most thoughtful, most loving self that I have found within me to date. No more can I ever offer.

~ perspective

It may seem surprising that allowing
one's self to be loved by others is
a gift that often goes unrecognized.
How well can I walk through whatever
fire ? – that is what actually matters
afterwards.
Do I have enough love within me to
love and not expect to be loved
in return ? – or am I needy, greedy
and hording of my good as though
I could lose the love that I am ?
Doing what I am doing intentionally
with purpose will always be a stronger
expression than doing whatever because
I lack the control not to.
I will always be happy to lighten a
burden for another person by a little
extra effort or to let someone know that
they matter to me simply by the gift of
some of my attention.

#attention #authenticity #caring #communication #emotion #harmony #intimacy #love #maturity #relationships