Being one...

I have read bunches of spiritual books. In fact, behind me at this very moment is my woo-woo bookcase just bulging with them. It has been an interest of mine for more years that I have been sober, actually, beginning with Shakti Gawain's Creative Visualizations, which caught my eye mostly because I wanted more than anything to create my own universe. I had spent so many years tossed around because of the expectations of the cruel world. Poor me. Later, I read Love is Letting Go of Fear, which sent me on a long journey of studying The Course in Miracles, not a worthless pursuit by any means. At least it helped me stay out of my self-pity for a while. And then The Road Less Travelled gave me a new and better perspective of love and life in general. Eventually, I read The Tao of Physics and The Dancing Wu-Li Masters, books that draw the interesting conclusion that Eastern thought and Western physics have landed us all in the same place, that there is only one thing happening here. The stars are made of the same stuff we are made of, it is all energy delightfully arranged in many different shapes. So I know under all the picayune crap that happens every day around me, I am really one with all these people, even the ones that cut me off on the freeway, even the ones that drive monster trucks with tires taller than me, even the ones who pilot a shopping cart piled with everything they own into the library on a rainy day. Now, that's challenging, to realize that some of what I am one with smells bad, and isn't very attractive. And it is humbling, too. And empowering. I am not a spare part, after all, a leftover without form or function. Somewhere in this web of humanity, I am connected and have a place. Today, I am practicing being a part of the world. Not sure what that will look like, but here I go! One.