Jeanne O'Connor...
Jeanne O'Connor is a lifelong Student of the Ageless Wisdom and a Friend of Higher Ground
WE ARE ONE
If we would but realize that our apparent differences in race, religion, and color, create one humanity, perhaps then we could each contribute to the whole of mankind rather than compete for supremacy. Developing a greater awareness will help us to realize we are one and technology will help us along the way.
What appear to be great differences and great distances are but reflections of our perceptions depending on our awareness. If we are in the foothills of a mountain it appears that all there is, is our small village. If we are perched on a cliff at the top of the mountain we can perceive many villages. If we are airborne above the mountain we can see many villages surrounding the mountain.
At forty thousand feet in the air on a jet liner I could see the coastline of the proverbial sandy white beach clearly visible to my right, as the state of Florida rolled behind me. Canals, like sidewinders, snaked their way through the state. The great round bed of water passing beneath us had to be that massive hole in the state of Florida, Lake Okeechobee. One moment I could see the NASA Space Center clearly and the next it faded into the distance. Soon what was unmistakably Orlando and Lake Buena Vista came into view and quickly disappeared. The Orlando airport runways, clearly visible one minute were gone the next. The coastline still visible off to my right, miles and miles of square miles of undeveloped marshland and everglades disappeared beneath the clouds. A myriad of shapes natural and manmade, geographical varieties from dry sand to water soaked everglades, from trees to ocean, all make up one state. Each aspect contributes to the whole. Like the blanket of white cotton I use for my Christmas village, clouds stretched clear to my horizon of pastel blue, which feathered into deep rich indigo. In the matter of an hour we had crossed the entire length of Florida, a distance that would have taken days by horse in the 1800’s, seven hours drive time and less than two minutes in a space ship. This brief, yet certainly non-dramatic experience gave me a microscopic taste of what our astronauts must experience. The more inclusive our awareness becomes, the smaller our planet becomes and the less important our differences.
As technology improves, people visit other countries with speed and comfort. More communities become inter racial and more and more inter racial unions take place. Children born of those unions are multiracial and will bear multiracial children. As an increasing number of multiracial human beings present themselves the physical barriers that separate brother from brother will disappear. Humanity will become one family, under God, Our Father, as He intended it to be.
Science and technology are doing their part to bring mankind together, but their efforts only have value based on our willingness to accept one another as brother and sister. It must begin in our own minds and we must be willing to consciously accept the fact that we are one. Physically we appear to be separate. Mentally and spiritually WE ARE ONE. I refer again to this beautiful and graphic anonymous verse reads,
As the wave is part of the sea,
And the sea is all of the wave,
I am part of God,
And God is all of me.
Anonymous
If we are all part of God and God is all of us, how can we be separate? Clearly, we are one and the same. Are the clusters of homes I see from the air separated or connected by the woodlands and meadows? Are people separated or connected by the space that exists between them? I posit for your consideration the idea that the homes are connected by the woodlands that exist between them, that people are connected mentally, emotionally and spiritually by their by their similarities, and that our differences can make interesting allies if we can become more secure in ourselves and less paranoid about our neighbor.
Jesus said of the Father, it is He “in whom we live and move and have our being.” If we live and move and have our being in Him, in God, in The Mover Unmoved, in Universal energy, then we are one.
John Dunne, renowned English poet reminds us:
“No man is an island, entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
Jesus taught that “if you do this to the least of these you do this unto me.”
And so it is with all the world religions. Our very blood unites us. The blood used in a transfusion doesn’t care if it came from a Jew and is infused into a Christian. The blood doesn’t care if it came from a black man and flows through a white man. It just gives life. It is our attitudes that create a problem.
Children like to play. Women like to love. Men like to be strong. Mankind likes to succeed, to grow, to learn, to be comfortable, to eat, and to create. Evidence of this is all over the world, in every civilization back to antiquity. We are one. If we could just get through the surface differences and the fear and insecurity, we would know that.
Meditation/Seed Thought
I breathe the same air as my brother in Pakistan and Africa. I see the same moon as my sister in India. I am warmed by the same sun as my fellow man in Europe. I have the same feelings of love and pain as my counterparts in Asia and the Latin countries. I am a citizen of the universe and all peoples are my brothers and sisters.
Evening Review:
What happened today that showed me that I share the same feelings of fear and love as my family member, neighbor or coworker?
What opportunity did I have to express care and concern for my brother today?
Did I use it? If not, why not?
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