∞
The vastness of life is beyond sight
Is it possible for us, not to differ from one another?
Our differences are proof of life beyond our own
And our unity is proof of understanding
∞
A couple weeks ago, one of my best friends called me a weirdo. He’s been my friend since middle school, so I’ve heard him call me everything you can think of. However, when he said weirdo, there was not a drop of mockery in it. Through all our experiences (shared and separate) we have come to the unspoken understanding that our friendship is one of growth, and void of non-sense. In the spiritual sense, A True Brother.
He may have called me a weirdo, but what he meant was: “you think Different”. I embraced the message as he meant it, a compliment. My body got that pulse one gets when they feel pride surge through their being; I had to quickly humble myself. I reminded myself that my mind is a gift given to me, and I must protect and cultivate it to the best of my ability. It’s being is not because of me. So, I took the compliment and stored it in my mind for further review.
When I was a kid, his words may have struck me as a negative, because I’m sure his meaning would have been a jab at my sensitive idea of self. The more I look at it, the more I realize that I have always been different- As are many of you. Even when I was a kid, I never quite fit in with the people around me. Either my skin color was different, and I was reminded of it, or my experiences were different. These things never dwelled on my consciousness for too long, and I made the most of my time getting along with people. I was never ashamed of being different; lonely at times, but never ashamed. There was always something I could have shared that may have helped someone else, or something they could have shared with me to help me on my journey through life. However, the largest obstacle was fear.
While I was never ashamed of being different, fear bubbled in my heart since a young age. The imagination is wonderful and terrifying place for people who build a life there. One can do everything and nothing at the same time. When the real world collides with the universe the imagination has built, that sense of fear arises. That fear, often bottled up my words and kept the world at great distances. So, any knowledge I could have shared often went unheard. Likewise, any help I could have asked for never manifested itself into a question. At some point, I realized that imagination and reality are a tandem, and fear is to be challenged, if one is to grow. For beyond fear lies truth.
I hope you find compliments in how different you all are from each other, and share those differences; that we all may grow. I hope that beyond the fear of differences, we can all see the unity in understanding. There is nothing weird about that.
