One Interconnected Living Creation

I want to lift you up out of your ordinary, everyday perception for a few minutes and give you a view of life that will open you into a more spacious experience of yourself and of life.

You are not an isolated individual! You are a unique and necessary part of a river of creativity that has been going on long before you showed up on earth and will continue long after you go.

To open yourself into a more spacious and respect filled view of yourself, realize that your existence depends on all the innovation that has happened on this planet.

What do I mean by that? At one time there were no eyes on this planet and then life wanted to see itself and your ability to read these words is dependent upon all the vast experimentation life has done with eyes. Also, at one time there were no hands. There were fins and hooves and paws, but life finally figured out the kind of hand that is so helpful in your life. This creation of an opposing thumb and fingers allowed life to begin to pick itself up and explore.

It’s so easy to forget that you are a part of an unfolding process and that your ability to walk, to see, to hear, to digest, to hold, to think and to taste are dependent on all the creativity that has happened since the beginning of our planet.

When you see that you are a part of a process rather than an isolated individual, something very wondrous begins to happen. You begin to realize that you have value even though your conditioning may say this is not true. Life brought you forth because it needed to express itself as you!  And the more you respect the unique expression of your existence, the more you respect all living beings.

Chief Sealth, who my hometown of Seattle was named after, speaks directly to what we are exploring here when he said:

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

In this time of crisis where divisiveness seems to be the norm, where millions of people are being displaced by war, where our environment is trembling under the weight of our unconsciousness, it has never been more important that we take to heart what Chief Sealth said – that we are connected – that we share our existence with all living things and whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves. The melting of our polar ice caps is demanding that we take his message to heart.

So here in Seattle we have been one of the leaders in recycling, in lessening our carbon footprint, and caring for our forests and our seas and all the beings that live there.

There is also another form of pollution that human beings are beginning to be responsible for. And that is our inner pollution. Our minds see people that are not like us as ‘other’ and we judge them, putting them out of our hearts. But if you see that life is an interconnected web, you will begin to see there is no other! We are all in this together, living on a tiny jewel of a planet that is floating through the vast oceans of space.

To realize your oneness with the universe and the miracle of your own life allows you to see that every human being is a participant in this grand unfolding called life and each and every one has value whether they have a different color of skin, or a different religion, or different sexuality or different political beliefs. They too have been chosen by life. When you see that every living being is your kin you become a healing presence in the world because your actions come from respect and care, honoring the rights that every single being deserves.

Will this shift from us and them to there is just us – one interconnected living creation that includes everything from ladybugs and dolphins to ancient sequoias and human beings – happen overnight? No. But know you can truly make a difference in this shift of perception that is happening on this planet! As you begin to see and interact with your world through the inclusion of your heart rather than the exclusion of your mind, your become a part of the healing that is happening.

The actions of one human being may not seem like much – just one person moving beyond us and them– but Teilhard de Chardin, French philosopher and Jesuit priest said,

“…if the truth appears once, in one single mind, that is enough to ensure that nothing can ever prevent it from spreading to everything and setting it ablaze.”

I invite you, as you interact with people today in your home, your work, a store, a park, an elevator, to see that everyone and everything is a necessary part of life, a unique expression that will never be seen again in that way. See them beyond any concept about who they are. Really see them and know in that moment you are setting the world ablaze!