Today I am grateful for a reminder to look for the beauty in everything… even ourselves. I heard sprinkles of wisdom throughout this day: We matter. You matter. I matter. The moments we share together, when we feel seen and understood, can be healing moments that move gently toward healing our world… like a pebble dropped in water that creates concentric circles that get wider and wider.
The first wisdom was a quote from the author of Momastery:
“Look for the mess in others- you’ll find it. Look for the beauty in others- you’ll find it. Seek and you shall find. It’s just the rule. We need to deepen our vision, maybe. Learn to look past the surface and into the depths of people and stories. It’s often quite lovely there.” Glennon Doyle Melton
Then, I listened to Krista Tippet’s interview with Rachel Naomi-Remen. She shared a story her orthodox Jewish grandfather told her as a present for her fourth birthday. It originated in the Kabbalah Jewish tradition:
“In the beginning there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. And then, in the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. And the wholeness of the world, the light of the world was scattered into a thousand thousand fragments of light, and they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day.
“Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world. It’s a very important story for our times.
“And this task is called tikkun olam in Hebrew. It’s the restoration of the world. And this is, of course, a collective task. It involves all people who have ever been born, all people presently alive, all people yet to be born. We are all healers of the world. And that story opens a sense of possibility. It’s not about healing the world by making a huge difference. It’s about healing the world that touches you, that’s around you.
“It’s a very old story, comes from the 14th century, and it’s a different way of looking at our power. And I suspect it has a key for us in our present situation, a very important key. I’m not a person who is a political person in the usual sense of that word, but I think that we all feel that we’re not enough to make a difference, that we need to be more somehow, either wealthier or more educated or somehow or other different than the people we are. And according to this story, we are exactly what’s needed. And to just wonder about that a little, what if we were exactly what’s needed? What then? How would I live if I was exactly what’s needed to heal the world?” Rachel Naomi Remen
What if we are enough and exactly what is needed in this moment in time? What if all that matters is the person you happen to be with at any given moment?
Good food. Love. Compassion. Laughter. Tears. Touch. It matters.
Gratitude 