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How do we transcend
our differences?
by Cathy Combs
Personally and professionally, this question thrills me from head to toe, and yet
it stops me dead in my tracks, because it so perfectly captures and frames the underlying
instinctual fears of our animal nature, and the equally invigorating yearnings of
our spiritual and social human nature.
This question of accepting each person as a gift transformatively moves me along
those primal edges of fear and excitement, calls me to move out beyond my instinctual
fears that are meant to ensure my human survival and moves me into the radiant, joyful
aliveness of appreciation for the humanity and dignity that I share with all of life.
ThatÍs a lot for one question to accomplish. ThatÍs why this question is so very
important to me.
This question powerfully calls me out into the realization that difference does not
always equate to danger! This question calls me out into my conscious life and asks
me to answer for how I use my powers of discernment. In doing so, I come face-to-face
with the Truth as reflected in a poster I have that I truly love, ñDifference is
often a beautiful thing.î Sadly I havenÍt always believed that statement.
As a child, I unwittingly took in the fear-based messages of our society that so
painfully punish us all for being different. As an adult, I have reworked much of
that early training and I now lovingly know that difference is often a beautiful
thing! I know that our healing as a society comes as we value our sameness and our
difference. I am grateful that I have moved to a place in my life where I truly do
value how I am different and how I am the same as others. I truly feel the energizing
comfort and strength of this Truth that each person is a gift.
I have many friends from different races, different walks of life, different spiritualities,
different orientations of every kind. I canÍt imagine my life without any one of
them. They are all such precious gifts and they all bring such joy and love and fullheartedness
to my life. I would be so much smaller in consciousness without any one of them.
This whole process underscores for me, yet again, the one spiritual Truth that I
can never hear too often. Love is enough! Love may not change the other person. Love
will most certainly change my relationship with that person and that is where the
healing often occurs!
There is yet another spiritual Truth underlying this whole process. Love is not a
passive process. Acceptance is not a passive process. As a matter of fact, love and
acceptance are both very confrontational processes. Truly loving and accepting everyone
and everything as a gift moves me and all of us headlong into confronting our blindspots.
It may seem to be a very uncomfortable process and yet it is a very freeing process.
As we love and accept ourselves and each other as gifts, we free up all the energy
we have used to keep ourselves spiritually blind and emotionally closed. As we open
to this Truth of what love and acceptance can do for us and for all others, we literally
become new people. A new radiance shines in and through us.
An understanding of this process is one of the reasons I so greatly treasure the
Cultural Creatives movement. On every level, this movement speaks to the spiritual
and social imperatives that I so greatly value. One of these spiritual and social
imperatives is that every person and every thing has value! Every single thing has
value. ItÍs not just a matter of money, race, gender or profession. ItÍs simply a
matter of love and dignity based in our inextricably interwoven connectedness. We
all share one planet, one universe. How we use it or abuse it affects the entirety
of our existence. We may miss the connection in the moment but it is there!
We can check our attunement to this principle by asking ourselves some bubble bursting
questions like: Do I love myself today? Do I feel alienated? When did I last experience
the simple joy of smelling a beautiful flower or witness the indescribable beauty
of a colorful sunrise or sunset? When did I last think of someone besides myself?
When did I last do the simplest thing to bring joy into someone elseÍs life?
These questions often change my attitude and my focus and my feelings and my perspective.
Suddenly, the world seems a whole lot brighter and lighter. Suddenly, laughter enters
into my life again. Suddenly, tears of release bring a sense of relaxation and peace
that I didnÍt even know was missing. ThatÍs a bittersweet realization, but nonetheless
true!
My point in asking these questions is not to induce guilt, but rather to invoke a
compassionate self-awareness that reminds me to move from fear into love. This movement
from fear to love is the very essence of transformative change. It is where I feel
we are going now as a collective world consciousness. WeÍre going back to the basics
of love, back to our essence, back to our true nature as loving human beings united
under the colorful banner of truly cherishing diversity, recognizing our oneness
as we simultaneously celebrate the interconnected spiral of our amazingly beautiful
uniqueness. I believe our very survival on this planet rests in embracing our need
to deeply understand and appreciate the necessity of all expressions of diversity!
In this time and place of an ñadvancedî technological age, we can so easily remove
ourselves from our humanity if we allow ourselves to be swept up in the ñrace to
compare ourselves to others,î instead of comparing ourselves to the inner barometer
of ñAm I a better person than I was yesterday?î ThatÍs the real barometer that will
heal our fractured worldview and our fractured selves. ThatÍs the barometer that
will heal all wounds, calm all fears! ThatÍs the barometer that I want to use when
IÍm evaluating my progress in life! ThatÍs the barometer that will call me into a
conscious relationship with myself so that I can truly accept each person, each thing,
each moment as a gift in my life! Blessings to you, treasured gift!
Cathy Combs lives in Kansas City, Mo. Visit www.cathycombs.com. Contact her at
(816) 561-5719 or e-mail ccombs20112@aol.com
Copyright © 2005 Cathy Combs. All rights reserved. |
| May 2005 |
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