Aspects of Being
I'm one of those - if I get a new gadget, gizmo, or appliance, I read the instructions - because I want to know everything there is to know about it! If I have to clean it, maintain it, or worse yet - dust it - it had better be worth having around... What if we got instructions to Life! How many would say, "Instructions? I don't need no stinkin' instructions!". For this is what we often do anyway. We fight all the way, to gain our own ground, our own perspective, our own space... Not that this ideal is not worthy, because granted, some of the ideas and directions we receive along the way can often be skewed, and may indeed be better left alone. But what is it inside of us that dismisses much of it all in one fell swoop? With the first "NO!" that forms on our lips as toddlers, we embark on a journey of refusal to the arbitrary entry of the world - whether it's spinach or sharing, and later on, others' differing viewpoints. Perhaps its an innate sense of standing on one's own feet that we practice from that day forward. But perhaps the True Journey, like any good paradox, is about learning when to say "Yes". When you draw your line in the sand, when you know what you don't want, it is indeed easier to define what is acceptable. Yet if we've been so busy saying no all of the time, it becomes an uphill climb towards any kind of acceptance, and is usually given up - because we need to be right. Maybe...maybe we lose some of our treasured supposed autonomy if 'yes' becomes a habit in our lives. We struggle so against it! Maybe acceptance comes from making peace with the toddler inside, who's initial instincts may have been worthy, but who hasn't had all the experience to consider what there is to gain with a cautious and inquisitive 'maybe'. They manage it in all else - their curiosity satisfied - for the moment. Perhaps it is better to be surer of our motives, rather than our opinions... ~ "Maybe" - Twice as sweet as 'No'; Half as good as 'Yes'*
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