We never really know another human being on this plane. We know people based on their words and their actions, but when you give humans a chance, they will surprise you. The cruelest person in the world can perform an amazing act of kindness. And the kindest person you know can step out of character and perform an act of cruelty.
I try not to judge people. I try not to play the victim when they do things because none of them are doing things to me. But the things they do affect me, as it does with all of us. It’s like the butterfly effect. You know—a butterfly flaps his wings in South America and disrupts the weather patterns and before you know it, we have a typhoon in Hong Kong. Human emotions and actions are like that. We are in each other’s energy field. We affect each other.
But how many people actually do something and think about how it will affect the rest of us?
None of us really. I mean, when I get into my car to drive to the store for beer, I don’t think about how any of that is affecting anyone. I don’t think about the emissions my car is blowing into the air, how I am wearing down the roads or how I am stirring up the air around me. I don’t think about how I am helping the economy by buying local or helping out that NC microbrew with my $8 purchase. I don’t think about how I am projecting my own depression when the clerk asks me how I am doing and I lie by saying I am fine.
I don’t often take responsibility for my attitude or my actions. This week, a friend and I had a short conversation about being responsible for our own energy. Often times when things—life—get’s us down, we tend to sit and mope. But we don’t think about how our energy affects the people around us. We don’t think about how we project our own emotions onto others by asking simple questions about their own actions or not being honest about how we feel about things.
This year has been the toughest year I have ever had. I have been faced with many emotions and situations that have left me paralyzed for days on my couch. And although I know that I need to sit with the emotions and process and heal, I haven’t really thought about how I am affecting others. But when your roommate comes home and the first thing she does is light a stick of incense, you know what you are bringing in.
This morning, my Message from the Universe went something like this: “Just look around, Shelley. In your office, your neighborhood, down the street. You have 7 billion very special friends.
Yet every single one of them have upcoming forks in the road of their life that will take them, at least temporarily, out of your sight and beyond your reach.
Although for now, they're so incredibly near, you have so much in common, and they're in your life because you love them and they love you.
Treasure every beautiful second.”
I resolve today to take responsibility for my energy. I resolve today to treasure every beautiful second I spend in someones presence and do my best to spread something positive into the world. And although I know that as a human being I will have my ups and downs, and I will experience bliss and grief, I will do everything that I can to make sure that what I project in this world is for the good of all of us, because I do love all of you. <3
