From One Soul to Another
As I look around in the bubble of life that I currently find myself, I realize that other people have their individual life-bubble-containment that could be entirely different from mine. This does not make them better or worse than me, but just different. In my last published book, Has Religion Killed God,” I explained what I meant by this hypothetical bubble of life that we all live in. Each of us is encircled by a containment that separates us and makes us completely unique in our own lives. There is no one completely in that bubble beside you, your mind, and perhaps the one you consider to be God.
Imagine as you are living and having your being there is somewhat of a bubble around you that contains your usual contacts including your family, friends, associates, home, work, school, church, entertainment venues, and the like. If we could see our movement superimposed upon the planet there would be a few well-worn trails indicating our movements and our contacts with various people, places and things. If we use this hypothetical mapping in order to form our individual bubbles you would notice that our bubble would differ from others because of the various combinations of people, places and things that we engaged. This is what I am referring to as our bubbles of life.
With time and age, our bubbles could expand or remain fairly consistent. It could overlap with a few people for periods of time. For those that travel frequently for business or pleasure, it could expand across the globe looking somewhat like the airline flights on a map. As we age our bubbles tend to shrink back down to a smaller geographic area along with our numbers of contacts. It appears that we start out with a relatively small bubble and end up with a rather small bubble as well. The point is that our life bubbles are somewhat unique, intimate, and personal. Using this analogy it is almost prosperous to think that we could really understand the needs of others when we really don’t know what makes them who they are. We may know about other people but we really don’t completely know them. We haven’t walked a mile in their shoes.
Now expand this thought to over six billion people currently on this planet so the combinations of variances between people would be astronomical. Start with our personal distinctions such as age, race, sex, culture, religious beliefs, hobbies, traits, skills, talents, skills, height, size, preferences, habitats, and the like. If you calculate just one of the distinctions that I just mentioned and run it through the entire population you would probably find that each of us is slightly or even grossly different. Most bubbles would never touch each other. The bottom line is we are different because our life experiences are that different. I don’t know you and you don’t really know me.
With so many differences amongst us, it is rather incredible that we manage to live somewhat cohesively in each other’s space. Perhaps it is because we have our own place to withdraw into our bubbles if only for just a short while. There is a space where we can relax and truly be ourselves. For most people that space occurs primarily during our sleeping state where we detach from one another in order to realize that we are here alive in this present time. Even though we may not know exactly why we are here, or even where here is, we are alive and that alone means something.
Forgive me for saying this but even when some people are fully awake they are almost dead to the world they live… they haven’t a clue about the meaning of life itself. They go through the motions of being alive but they cannot see meaning and purpose other than to keep on selfishly living concentrating mostly upon themselves. With such an energy-field they would probably attract people who are similar to them. Like things tend to attract while unlike things tend to repel. That gravitational push and pull is a factor of life itself.
On the other hand, there are people who are fully conscious of their aliveness and constantly live towards achieving their divine purposes. The variances between those who are sleepwalking through life and those who are consciously chasing meaning and purpose would add multiple distinctions to the differences that I mentioned earlier as our personal categories. For example, if you take a person of every age and run it through the degree of their conscious awareness that would be a huge number. Then use their race, sex and so on along with their awareness, each distinction would factor a huge number.
Another factor of separation would be those who believe in God and those who don’t along with the degrees of their belief or unbelief. Such people would have a different perspective on life. In short most of us are just different and the degree of our differences could be that substantial, based upon so many factors of life and birth.
Another substantial variance is how we were raised or taught to think and believe. This has a huge impact on who we become and how our lives unfold. Some were even abused as children and some spoiled rotten. Some are introverts and some extroverts. Some are very short and some very tall that may add to their complex. I could go on and on naming the many differences and how that might impact our daily lives, but should all these distinctions define who we are as a human being? The one thing that we all have in common is the fact that we are human beings. Last I checked we all live on the same planet earth. We all require air, water, and food to survive. Since we all live on this one planet we all must learn to share its limited resources and also find ways to protect the planet so it can continue producing the resources we need to sustain life.
Understanding this commonality we actually need each other to a certain degree. Although we do not consciously think of things such as oxygen, sunlight, water, trees, food to be limited in supply, the fact is… they do have a specific limit. With time and further destruction of the planet, such things will become further limited if we continue on the same path we are currently headed. What we are doing today will have an impact upon the people that will follow us hundreds of years in the future after we are all dead. Should that matter to each of us as an individual steward of the planet? To some, it matters greatly and some just don’t care. Yes, selfishness is another one of those individual distinctions among human beings. Thank God we also have those amongst us who are the givers and sharers. It appears to be a sufficient amount of people that genuinely care about our planet and are currently working on making a difference.
As one of the over six billion inhabitants of this great planet of ours, I certainly hope and pray that there is someone carrying my dead weight for not doing my share of protecting our planet. I hope there are enough kind and decent people amongst us to offset the really mean and despicable ones we see on the evening news daily. What purpose do I serve to my human race? What can I do to assist in protecting our planet and its limited resources so my heir’s hundreds of years down the line will say, great job pop! On the other hand, if I am counting on others to do the things I know I should be doing right now and not actually doing my share, then what does that say about me? Yes, I owe you the best of what I have to give but that is not how most people live their lives.
At this stage of life, I am older and hopefully a bit wiser than the days of my youth. I tend to care more about things now that did not even register in my conscious awareness years ago. I care about treating others fairly: Being kind to strangers and helping anyone that I can when I see the need and have the resources to share: I understand that there are so many people with so many differences that live in their own unique bubble of life: Just because others see life different from me that does not make them my adversary. I would rather instead to send out loving vibes to others even if I hate what they do because I have not walked a mile in their shoes and I do not know what makes them do what they do. Perhaps love might have a way of dampening their hate? At a minimum, it does not add fuel to the fire that is already burning so incredibly hot.
From one soul to another there is much more we can do if we desire to be helpful, be kind, love one another, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It would be nice if God stood between us but that would be another of those major differences that have caused more wars and killed more human beings than any other single cause over the history of our existence. Why we allow the one source that we have in common to divide us? No matter what you believe… you did not create yourself. And, there is a Creator of all things that exist. Something started this entire ball rolling that has expanded into life itself. If more would wake up they would see life sparkling all around them and millions of divine possibilities that could help or save, feed or share, or dare I say, pour divine love into the cup of one another.
I realize how corny this might sound to many of you. When I was a young man I would have felt the same way. I guess that is why it is said that youth is wasted on the young. By the time we figure out life, it is nearly time to leave it behind for others to enjoy… or not! Maybe this essay could be my little contribution to encourage just a few of you. As bad as things might appear for now… there is hope. People can still wake up!
There could be a grand awakening of mankind just around the bend. Imagine suddenly people all around the planet began to open their eyes and start caring about such things as I have mentioned here. If you are not carrying your share of the weight of holding up this planet… then that means others have to carry double their share.
You don’t need to do something really, really big to make a difference. Just a single act of loving kindness to another person in need would be sufficient. Imagine if over six billion people did that? Well, how about half… three billion? Would you settle for one billion? Dare I ask if you and a couple of your friends join me? After about another hundred years or so we might be able to form a human chain circling the entire planet with one act of loving-kindness at a time. From one to another is how love works.
If I might add one final thing from one to another, believing in something that you cannot see, hear, touch, smell, feel or taste is perhaps one of the toughest things to do in life. We are human with five senses that we use to navigate through life. The world around us is a physical structure that requires the use of five senses plus a few more that we use without knowing that we have them. On the other hand, the world that we cannot see is the spiritual realm that interacts with us through means that are not physical. We are able to communicate into that realm using substances such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, brotherly love, compassion, gentleness, generosity, sharing, caring, and the like. When we use such things we open a vortex into the abode of God. Such things open the doors for miracles, abundance, and overflow… it is like having a key to God’s heart releasing things unimaginable even here on earth as it exists in heaven. From one to another let those who have ears to hear feel the message.
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer. Psalms 19:14 NIV
