After Colin’s presentation last week, there were some unresolved feelings towards the style of telling and content of his story. Though I am welcome to and grateful for Colin’s sharing of his experience, I had to keep re-framing what he was saying again and again for the content to fit my paradigm. I am not a child of God in my view, but a child of the universe. A product of the energy and transformation our spirit and history has provided each and every being in existence. Now, Barry Lopez’s article offers an approach I had not considered. Eden as a Conversation gives the opportunity to realize that the language we are using, though different, speaks to similar lessons and concepts. Though for a bit of the presentation I was lost in translation, the possibility of utilizing his own lessons as they are fit for me become a simple matter of recognizing their differences, as well as their similarities.
Lopez’s statement that “We need to prefer being in love to being in power” accompanies this idea. It does not matter whose faith is more prevalent, but that we utilize our spirituality to heal, to come to terms with one another, and to build those relationships that are so integral to inhabiting this planet together. Building, and maintaining these relationships: to ourselves, each other, and this beautiful planet enables our ability to join the conversations of sustainability, peace, and happiness.
So well said, Kerstyn. It really is a love of power – a love of being RIGHT – that has us stumbling on the words that we use to discuss the divine. It’s difficult that those systems of power have so thoroughly appropriated the language of spirit that it restricts us from connecting on that deep and meaningful level with one another. Of course, this feeds the deficit – the emptiness and loneliness – that keeps us entrenched in the system. When we see this as a translation issue, we can shift into the language that we understand and come to a common ground where communion is possible.