As humans we strive for contentment, we work to feel choiceful, competent, and connected in all areas of life. Ironically, we often achieve this by surrounding ourselves with the calamities of the world, admitting the tragedy of situations in an attempt to fluff up our own. We see the stomping on of autonomy, the revokement of abilities, and the lack to human attachment in the aching souls of the weak and we sympathize. Our bodies become a capsule of sorrow and shock as we expose our naive hearts to such pain. It is a method of instant gratification that enables us to think our own lives are not so bad.
We unintentionally feel selfishly for others as we unmask their wounds but fail to receive them. We realize that in going farther, in experiencing people and their sorrows any more than we have, we are opening our own selves up to a tornado of vulnerability and displaced unhappiness, and so we remove ourselves just enough. We set limits on our attachments in an attempt to protect ourselves, we sympathize rather than empathize because in taking that extra step to honestly understand a person, to feel WITH them, rather than just FOR them, we expose our heart to some of the most lethal sorrows of the world, sorrows a single soul rarely forgets.
Have you ever wondered though what it would be like if we allowed ourselves to cross that threshold, to exceed our limit of emotional attachment and just hurt with someone?
Yes, we are opening up the flood gates and potentially compromising our contentment and peace of mind, but we are also engaging in the rawest theme of humanity - limitless and inevitable uncertainty which, once acknowledged and accepted, allows for a breath of relief.
So let's relish in life's uncertainty...
Let's cry with the dying, feeling their fear, their anger;
Let's float with the dreamers, admiring their passions and heart felt intentions;
And let's sip coffee with the wise, absorbing their candidness and appreciation of what is and has been.
Let's harness our humanity by seizing the opportunity to live honestly and feel fully,
not only will your heart change, but the hearts of so many others in the process.
And let's love selflessly, not selfishly.