Layers of Love

People are similar to onions. We all have many layers and there is not one simple trait or characteristic that will be the determining factor as to who or what I am. When we peel back the first layer you will find the physicality that attracts us all. It may be our shape, height, hair or eye color that draws people to us. But we must realize that this is a temporary fixation, eventually there must be more. For us to decide that what we see… is all that matters would be a sad truth. After all how can a physical feature tell you what kind of person I am? There is nothing about my eye color that will give you information about what kind of intelligence or spirit that I have. I didn’t stand in the line for eyes and request a specific color. It was chosen for me, at birth. Now on the opposite side of the spectrum, every week I can go to the pharmacy and choose from hundreds of boxes of dye which will alter the color of my hair; just as I can readily change my eye color. These changes however do not change that which I really am. It just makes me feel more appealing to myself or others; nothing about any of these parts of me will give you any insight as to me, as a person. If you are caught up in the curve of my spine or the way light shines on my face…you will be missing out on the many facets of me.  The contents of my heart and depths of my soul have been growing and evolving since the day of my birth…this is where my Creator lives; and therefore is the most important part of me. Unless you are willing to peel back the layers of what makes me…me. The essence of who I am may very well get lost. How many people do we over look, daily…simply because they do not have the “look” we are comfortable with? We will glance at them and decide, based on some ill advised judgment that they are not for us. What a shame it would be to miss out on the experience of another because we have narrowed our perceptions of people based on what we have grown accustomed to. Some of the greatest messages ever conveyed have come from the most unlikely sources. How disappointing it would be to not be aware when your message is coming to you. A specific hair color and tone of skin does not define the contents of our hearts and when we believe that it does…we become the losers in the scenario. The experiences of others can be like road maps for us. They can relay the traumas of their lives and we can learn from them so that we may never have to know the pain first hand. Who is to say what venue will be used to relay the message of God to us?
  Does the home I live in tell you who I am? It may tell you something about my income bracket or about my taste in décor…but is that all you want to know? There is some information that you can get from my home…such as my social preferences; rural locales over urban neighborhoods, mountains as opposed to the ocean, a gated community over a cabin in the woods, a bus line over a skyline. You may see what brings me peace or what is important in my life…for example I may prefer the sight of basketball courts over the sight of horses grazing in a grassy field. You may be able to tell if I have an eye or wallet for high end architecture…or maybe you can just tell what was important to me at the time that I moved in. I, however, will go out on a limb and tell you that all you learned…was my address. And what if my address was a homeless shelter or a park bench? What would you know about who I really am by that discovery? Perhaps if all you were searching for was information to use to degrade me or demean me…you will leave satisfied; but even that is only a portion of a story and if you are content with that…maybe you weren’t ready to know me anyway.
  If you had knowledge of my religious affiliation does that tell you who I am; I can understand how you may think that it might…but I will gladly show you how that is not enough information. It is never enough to know how or even if someone prays or worships because we have preconceived notions and ideas about religious or spiritual people. For instance, if I tell you that I am Jewish and on Tuesdays…I only eat pancakes…you may think that ALL Jewish people only pancakes on Tuesdays, but is that true? Of course it isn’t. But we tend to think that all groups of people are exactly the same. But all Christians aren’t the same, some are more devout than others and some don’t even believe the same…this is true of most people and most religions and philosophies.
  We are not the same and while we use our differences to separate us…it is how we were created so it is also makes us the same. We are as alike and dissimilar as snowflakes. Snowflakes are the same…they are, after all, snow. But snowflakes, when closely examined are completely different from one another. Do the differences of snowflakes separate them? Do we not still make snowballs and fall to the earth making snow angels with those very different snowflakes? So with that example we can say that even though they are different…they serve the same purpose. We are exactly like snowflakes. God made us with the same elements…love and peace; and while we have similarities…bones, blood, and skin, we are still different. Does that make one better than the other? Of course not, the only difference is that snowflakes do not spend their existence pointing out the “faults” in other snowflakes…and we do.
  Do yourself a favor…the next time you are tempted to point out how different someone is from you…or you them…count your similarities too. We all have our own journeys to take and the one constant of truth in that statement is that our path will forever be illuminated by God.

Imagine

Imagine

  Imagine what it would be like if we could love without borders. We weren’t separated by boundaries, or titles. All of our countries were nameless…our eyes oblivious to colors and hues of one another’s skin tones. The color and textures…styles and length of out hair was just thought of as a way to further beautify ourselves…and not used to identify our differences. Our accents could change depending on who we were speaking to…and every one thought that it was cool to be able to look and sound differently at a moments notice. Wouldn’t it be nice if religions had no control over how we treat each other? Or if we did not use our religions as reasons not to be kind or loving towards one another? Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived in a world that taught its children to love EVERYONE, no matter who they were or what they looked like? Imagine that we never had to live in fear…that we could just love each other openly…without judgment. We could just concentrate on being kind and peaceful towards one another…without any ulterior motives.

  I know this seems like a crazy fantasy to you…unrealistic. It’s okay for you to say it…often I have been told that my ideas of what mankind is supposed to be is a childish fantasy…something to be laughed at.

  But I have seen children, of different race, creeds and religion…just playing together. Not asking who or what they are…not shying from one or the other out of some unfounded fear. I watched them for hours before…listened to them giggling and swinging, climbing on playground equipment and going down slides, playing jump rope or four-square…doing nothing but being children. It made me think how they can do something that their adult counterparts have not learned how to do. And at that time a young girl , about 5 years old wearing a blue t-shirt and a pair of blue jean shorts with straight blonde hair pulled back in pony tails tied with blue ribbons came up to me and asked if I could help untangle the jump rope for her and her friend. I, of course, said I would be glad to…and asked which one was her friend. The little bright eyed beauty said the little girl with her hair in braids…the one wearing the red shirt. I told her that I still couldn’t see her…as there were a few children with that description. And she laughed and said…she’s the one wearing the leather sandals and is jumping up and down. It was at that moment I realized everything that I needed to know. The reason these children were able to live in harmony was because they didn’t realize their differences. That little blonde hair girl never once said to me that her friend was the little African-American girl with the braids, or the little Asian girl with the red shirt on…she was just a little girl with her hair in braids with a red shirt and sandals that was so excited about me fixing the jump rope that she kept jumping up and down. And how you might ask were these children able to play in harmony without racial discord, or religious indifference? They were able to do so, not because they were different than many of us were, at that tender age…but because they hadn’t yet realized that society doesn’t want them to love each other. The young minds hadn’t yet experienced hate due to race, religious views or geographic location. They didn’t think anything was wrong with playing with children who spoke with accents unlike their own…and there was even a child there who was unable to speak at all. And yet they still managed to communicate with one another…without frustration or biased views. They didn’t hold one another responsible for their parents not working…or for some terrorist attack…or because they had to go to bed at a certain time. They simply enjoyed each others company. They played and held hands…the chased each other, and if one accidentally fell, the others rushed to help them get up. It was simply not just the most perfect day I had experienced in a while…but it was enlightening. Enlightening because they showed me that the people who tell me that my vision for mankind…was NOT an unrealistic fantasy. These people had simply not experienced these young highly evolved beings…whose greatest fear was to be called away from play…to go home.

  The beautiful things that we need to know are all around us…we just need to remember to open our eyes…and my hope is that we do it before it is too late.