I had the extraordinary opportunity to spend a few days in the natural splendor of Switzerland’s Alpine range; the “Top of Europe,” as it is declared on billboards. I felt my heart fill with equal amounts joy and sadness; hope and despair. I was awestruck by both the natural and manmade wonders here – that there is this beautiful, reliable train system, trails, and systematic, integrated efforts that give the average jane and joe relatively easy access to this astonishing corner of the Earth.
Simultaneously I felt sick witnessing how we humans tromp here: carelessly leaving trash behind, harassing the cows like paparazzi for selfies, and pushing one another out of the way to be the first to board the train. The cows here, although they appear to be roaming free, are in essence providing the experience for us of an open-air zoo; the massive bells attached to their necks converging in an improv symphony that fills the mountain air for miles. It is such a universally enchanting sound; visitors purchase bells of their own in souvenir shops scattered among the mountain villages, to cherish the memory; and to annoy fellow bystanders at U-12 soccer games at home.
When I lie on the ground, and my eyes are soothed with natural light and panorama – be it under the moon or blue sky, gazing upon sea or mountain range, my lungs re-inflate with the freshest air still available on this planet, and my cells and nervous system seem to re-organize into some order that, thankfully, does not feel like urgency and anxiety, if for just a few precious moments.
I was talking recently (messaging, actually), with a friend about “oversharing.” Something we agreed we both have an embarrassing tendency to do. I was thinking about my silliness in thinking that anyone even cares what’s in my heart, lol, amid their own constant stream of judgments, triumphs and tragedies – except to perhaps size me up and decide if they can trust me or not. Funny how we are constantly doing that to one another when in truth, we are often not even able to trust ourselves to be true to ourselves - owing to chronic overconsumption of techno-pseudo-information that overburdens our human nervous systems each day.
In defense of oversharing, I have noticed this phenomenon: People, situations, experiences to whom I reveal my heart, should I cause them to feel uncomfortable, dislike me, find me negative or woowoo, or not aligned with their brand of thinking (in the case that they have no tolerance for ways other than their own), seem to very organically find their way to the exit door of my life. I’m learning not to take this personally – as nothing is personal at the end of the day - and it effectively makes way for people and situations to emerge that are perfectly in sync with the world I wish to create.
I am now back to the land of screens and technology, where sadly too much of my time is spent these days, and ridiculous ideas like excluding this person or that person from one’s life are encouraged every day. In response, this rant surges from deep in my heart: Can we please stop with the idea of excluding and dismissing other humans from our lives!!!? For the sake of our own well-being, we self-righteously condemn “negative” people, “toxic” people, unenlightened people; conservatives, snowflakes, fascists, violent people, feminists, white men, brown people, black people, religious people, addicted people, rich assholes and anti-vaxxers. Can we please see that these are all constituents of the same divisive soundbite gibberish that has effectively gotten under our skin and into our tense, nature-deprived (lack of) consciousness to keep us angry, confused, sick, tired and dangerously divided?
At least a thousand times in this lifetime I have been shitty, self-serving and judgmental; a compulsive over-sharer, too negative, too opinionated, too narrow in my thinking, too ignorant, or __________ (fill in the blank).
Haven’t you?
Perhaps if we take a moment to stop calling one another out on our shitty, ignorant behaviors we can instead drink tea together and discover how this “other” life; other perspective; other person’s trauma, can guide us toward expanding our perception and ultimately our consciousness. It seems to me that by rotely judging and excluding, as we do so carelessly in virtual reality, one’s vision and experience can only grow more narrow.
If you are still here, thank you for witnessing my joy, hopes, passions, awkwardness, opinions, misperceptions, devastations, embarassments, aha moments, and oversharing – and staying in the room. You are a gem and I love that you are in my life. If you have wandered out of my life, know that I am curious about how you see the world - what fills you with joy and wonder – as well as what fills you with angst and weighs heavily on your heart. You are welcome back anytime.
Let’s meet in a meadow, gaze skywards, and share from THAT place.
