For today’s message, I have a request for each of you. Today, the message is interactive. I ask you to find a coin, any coin, before reading any further. Go ahead, I’ll wait for you.
Welcome back. Here we go…
During a recent morning phone chat with a friend, we lamented what feels like a great divide among people. In our families, our communities, our places of business, there seems to have grown an intolerance of allowing a variety of opinions to harmoniously co-exist. We agreed that social media has a tendency to embolden people to speak in more carefree ways than we would speak in person with a group of treasured friends. We also agreed that families seem to be arguing their point of view until the cherished bond of family is bruised or broken.
How sad it feels that much of the divide we have noticed is by political party line. We both felt distressed by the name-calling and judgmental labeling of “the other”. Be it a person’s choice to continue a pregnancy, to carry a gun, or the hot topics of whether to vax or not to vax and to mask or not to mask, it feels as though we as people are growing more and more intolerant. As we spoke about our heart’s desire to be present to all perspectives, we agreed that although we may not change our own opinion, tolerance of “many opinions” is how we truly wish to be in the world at this particular time. We have both read a variety of news articles about the realness or fakeness of Covid 19 and the risks and benefits of vaccinating and masking. We agreed that there a deep heaviness is felt between one another when our perspectives and opinions differ on any of these tender subjects.
It struck me that this phenomenon is like “two sides of the same coin”. Take the coin you have chosen and look at face side of the coin. Notice the features of the presidential image and the words inscribed on the coin. Feel the texture, the places that rise from the flat surface of the coin. When you’re ready, turn the coin over and notice how different or how similar the details are on this side of the coin compared to the first side. I noticed that there is nothing similar to the first side of the coin. Each side holds its words and characteristics. Indeed, it is one coin, yet both sides are strikingly different from each other. Now, set the coin on its edge as if you were going to roll it. Notice how thin the line is. Notice now how both sides of the coin touch this thin line. In fact, this is the space that joins the two individual sides of the coin together.
This is the space that joins us together as one humanity. This is the space where truth resides between what may appear as opposites. This is the space that unifies both sides of the coin as one. This is the space where, when we allow it, the commonality of people rests. This is the space that binds us together in the power of Divine Love. I now extend an invitation to each of you: I invite you to carry your coin with you and to hold it frequently on this thin edge that holds the truth for all of us. Hold in your heart the Namaste’ / Namaskar spirit:
My soul honors your soul.
I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides.
I honor the light, love, truth, beauty, and peace in you because it is also within me.
In sharing these things, we are united we are the same, we are one.
My soul honors your soul!
Love and blessings,
Rev. Karen