Let's Change Our World

I traveled to Seattle this week on a business trip. It's been a while since I've had reason to travel for business or personal reasons. Having two small businesses sort of keeps you close to home. It was a good trip - very productive - but it was very short, only two days, and therefore, quite tiring. It was really only my third time to the west coast and the previous trips were a bit longer so I didn't have as much of an issue with the odd, 3 hour time change. If you've ever traveled to the west coast, you know what I mean. It messes with you to say the least.

I am very grateful that it happened. It was one of those experiences I won't forget. Not because Seattle is so amazing (it's a nice city but it's just another big city in my opinion) but because of the state of mind that I happened to be in and because it was exactly where I needed to be at that moment in time to further my spiritual development. I will explain.

On my way there, I began to notice, or even feel, the familiarity of the entire experience. I don't know a better way to really express that. It was a general sense of noticing that, beyond us all being human, we all share something more than that. Something deeper that exposes itself in our faces and in our expression.

Anyway, when I got there I pretty much went straight to work. One of the gentlemen I was meeting with seemed oddly familiar. Familiar in a way that made me feel as if I'd met him before. I don't think I have but there was a chance based on our shared histories so I didn't think too much more of it at the time. But it was a continuation of that feeling that had begun at the airport that morning.

After that afternoon meeting, I had time to walk around the city a bit. I was staying only a few blocks from Seattle Center which is where the Needle is located. I walked over because of course, I had to go to the top of the Needle and as luck would have it, there was a private event going on in the tower so I was not able to go to the top. This is about when my realization (for lack of a better word) began. I took this fact in stride. I was not necessarily happy about the fact but it did not upset me, I kind of viewed as a part of the experience.

I went to Starbucks because it was relatively cold out (no, it doesn't taste better there) and got a decaf latte. While placing the order I observed that the young woman taking my order seemed VERY familiar. There was no way I had ever met her but it was almost like deja vu but wasn't that at all. I then proceeded to simply walk around the surrounding blocks.

What then began to crystallize for me was why all of these things had been feeling so familiar. It's not necessarily profound I think unless you happen to be able to experience it in the way that I did. And what's so interesting to me personally about this is that it's the exact reason that I started writing in this space. That being that ultimately we are all the same, we are all one, we are all connected by more than just our common experience in this physical life. I don't know how else to put it other than to say we share the same energy. And in my mind, that energy is the energy of the Universe from which we all came. It includes love and hate and passion and disgust and all the other emotions but it's more than all of those things put together.

It's a difficult spiritual journey to describe with words but after having that "realization" and then looking around with this new filter on at the familiarity of where I was and the people that were walking around, I realized the power that we all have in that connection - the power that lies somewhat dormant most of the time because this life makes us forget. We get distracted by the physical temptations and necessities and we forget what we can do when we strengthen that connection and grow that connection together.

Just imagine what we could do if we all focused our collective and connected energy on any one thing. We could definitely change that one thing, we could definitely change the world.

In my past, I have tended to be introverted and somewhat socially awkward. I don't know why, I just know that has been a part of my experience. People (especially when I was younger) often mistook these personality traits as arrogance or egotism. As a result, for a long time in my life, I allowed myself to become quite judgmental and somewhat jaded. It's only been in the last several years that I've allowed myself to begin to see the light that is what I am describing in this post. That light that each of us shares and carries in our heart. Instead of judging as I did out of habit in the past, I now search for the reasons why behind the people and circumstances that I experience. After all, your light is my light and if I shine my light on you, I am just sharing with you the same thoughts and feelings that you hold in your heart.

I took Dolly's class yesterday morning and it confirmed for me that this was a real experience. God, in his mysterious Way, solidified all of this for me during that class. Dolly read a quote from a book that was something along the lines of "Who would you be if you were not worried about making an impression?" To me, that sort of sums it up nicely.

I just reread this and wonder now if it makes sense to anyone reading it but have decided that I don't really care. It makes sense to me more with feelings than with anything else and this is my form of worship so that is all that Matters. I hope that if you are reading this, it makes some sort of sense to you as well.

P.S. Namaste means "I honor that place in you where the whole Universe resides. And when I am in that place in me and you are in that place in you, there is only one of us." I think I now truly understand that.

Namaste.