Blog 2237 – 12.04.2021
Considering A Different Perspective
A year or so ago I lost a heart shaped coin that I liked to carry in my pocked as a kind of reminder or identification I.D tag really. It read on one side, “Thank you for this day, Spirit.” and on the other, “I am Holy, I am Whole.”
Before a friend ordered three more and sent me one, keeping the two in reserve in the likely event that I end up losing this one as well, I found a similar heart shaped coin on-line that had on one side a small outline of a heart and on the other the words “Open Your” and a larger heart shaped outline. When I received my replacement heart shaped coin I gave the Open Your Heart coin to my wife for a “good luck” piece.
I incorporated both heart shaped coins into the beginning lines of my daily mantra:
“My heart and my mind are open. My arms and my hands are open. My mouth, nose, ears and eyes are open, to all the Universe has for me. Thank you for this day, Spirit. I am Holy, I am Whole.”
Who am I? Who are you? Spoiler alert: Three Bible verses speak to the identity question for those mature enough to consider other perspectives.
1. The answer of God from the burning bush to Moses question, “Whom shall I say is sending me to Pharaoh?” God’s reply, “I am.”
2. Peter’s answer to Jesus question, “Who do you say I am?” Peter’s reply, “You are the anointed child of God.”
3. And Jesus’ words to the twelve, but also to us all, “As I am so are you in this world.”
Even Popeye admittedly not the brightest cartoon hero bulb on the tree knew who he was and often said, “I am what I am.” That is God’s name, our name. So we can all speak with authority and therefore deserve to be heard.
I think it is an admirable trait, being and acting young at heart, for the most part. But with age and maturity should come knowledge and wisdom, also experience and patience should improve our listening skills. As a young man I used to tease my twenty six year older father that his mantra must have been: “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up.”
Dad, like too many of us, could be pretty closed-minded on a lot if not all subjects that he had already closed the book on and felt no longer open for argument, debate, or even considering different perspectives. It is extremely immature to believe that any subject is a completely closed and settled issue.
I believe it was a Saturday Night Live comedy skit years ago that had a Japanese soldier who had survived many years alone on an island in the South Pacific, having been left there before World War Two ended, saying to those who found him and that were trying to bring him up to speed, “You so smart, you think you won the war.” We in the West, of course, do think we did. But, at the time the Japanese solder was found the two strongest economies in the world were the Japanese and the Germany economies. No one ever really wins a war, some just lose more than others. The country who lost the biggest and the most during WW2 was one of the supposed “biggest winners” the U.S.S.R. racking up by far the largest military and civilian death tolls and suffering the most destruction of their lands and properties.
My God, man/woman, it is high time we all remember Who and Whose we truly are and start listening to one another. We are all pieces of that puzzle that was a big picture of the world on one side and a person on the other that the dad frustratedly gave up trying to put together and left incomplete on the dining room table. When he came home he found it all completed and asked his young daughter, “How did you do it? She replied, “It was easy, daddy, when you put the man on the back side together, the world just comes together. Sometimes maturity has less to do with age than maintaining an open heart and mind to new and different perspectives.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
Young At Heart
theencouragingword 