Threads of People
“An invisible thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break.” - Ancient Chinese Proverb
NOTE: I wrote this about four years ago, in a time I focused a lot of attention on my own personal growth. I came across it as I was cleaning up my documents on my laptop and wanted to share. It's most definitely a yogic contemplation. I find contemplations to be soothing and productive to become a better person. Living a good life is a constant inquiry into oneself. The questions are always there - it's the answers we aren't always impressed with. And I find it turning up on my mat each and every time. Embrace it!
__________________________________________________________________________
After returning from my soul's home on Bali, a smile crossed my face in awe of the people I met on this last visit. It allowed me to contemplate how my own personality, mood and energy attracted people into my life. These people that show up, if even only for a moment, change us, no matter what the interaction. They leave their mark on us, as we do on them as well.
I used to be someone who always needed to find the lesson in why people cross our paths and wander into our lives for a reason at a specific point in time. I was ever seeking the lesson in life's details. I don't believe that anymore. I now believe life is simply an ebb and flow of energy through interactions all based upon the cause and effect of what came before it. But I do believe we meet great people and we me shitty people. We find people to fall in love with on a regular basis and someone to ruin us each and every day. Our reception of what happens is our own doing. Our interactions are what make us or break us in the sense of finding a sign or reason to meet them.
This year I have had my heart broken...shattered really. But my surprise was more the quickness in which I got over what I thought was the love of my life. It was the relationship itself I missed. It was the interactions that stayed with me, that shaped how I felt about moving on. The person, I realized, played a very minor role in how I actually felt. My memory only finds those moments I profoundly felt my partner's love, tenderness, anger, resentment and confusion.
Having one's heart broken does many things. For me, it shattered a trust I felt so deeply in connections with other's and it put fear inside me of an inability to care about someone else so deeply. But strangely, one week after I was served divorce papers, now on the other side of the planet with my soul sisters by my side and a spiritual guide standing in front of me, I was given nothing to mend or fix. It was shared with me through Bahasa translation that I was a bright light and now able to shine. My first reaction was disappointment because I wanted so badly for something to be broken inside me that needed fixing and then maybe I would feel like myself again. How could I not have something horribly wrong with me that needed mending for this to happen? What was the lesson in meeting someone, having a wonderful life and watching it shatter due to elements out of my control and not even in my peripheral?
But then, amazing things started happening. The very next day, after a complete stranger told me I was whole, I felt it. Tears turned to laughter. I met incredible people in amazing circumstances and realized that this one soul who I thought crushed me, didn't. There was no lesson. (I could argue I suppose that this is the lesson.) It simply happened and I was able to move on. Cause and effect.
Some people enter our lives and we can't imagine a day without them. Other's say no more than a sentence to us in a language we cannot understand and mighty tides turn. I can't say my heartache disappeared in this immediately. But it was no longer my burden or my effect. There is energy all around us. Actual, measurable energy. The stuff you put out there should be good and have good intentions. But bad stuff happens to good people all the time. Good stuff happens to not so good people. It's just circumstantial cause and effect. However, when the energy is clear, it's easier to tell the two apart. And I guess, that was my contemplation.
How have the people in your own life changed you? Have they allowed you to create, expand and illuminate the nature of your true self or have you allowed them to cause you to shrink, contract and dim your light? Have you made eye contact with the grocery clerk? Did you wave at your nosy neighbor? And did you actually stopped to sincerely thank your barista for that caffeine infusion each morning and truly meant it? We all deserve to shine.
Do an assessment of your friendships, business associates and romantic partners to see how each person fits into your life. Feel the ends of your mouth curl up reminiscing about meeting your best friend, partner or new child for the first time. How do we embody these feelings each day in each interaction, even the not so pleasant ones? Can you feel the threads of those momentary interactions that have changed you?