Have you ever looked at another person and thought, “Psh.  Well that’s ridiculous.  They are SO wrong.  They are so clueless.  I need to try to get them to believe how I believe.”

Have you ever judged another person because you were certain they were “wrong” and you just knew that they had no idea what they’re talking about?

I have.  I am sorry to say that I spent many years of my life doing this.

Have you ever put yourself in another’s shoes and looked at their perspective to SEE what they are about?

Have you ever thought to look at each new person you meet as an OPPORTUNITY to learn something new or see a different perspective?

So many of us spend so much of our existence trying to feel right, which means that in order to be right we have to spend thought and effort trying prove others wrong.

When we do this we miss the point of life completely.  The point is not to be right so others are wrong, it is to love each other no matter what (this is and always will be the MOST important thing) and to see what we can learn from every different perspective.

If I thought life could be only boiled down to my limited individual experience I am fooling myself.  That’s crazy!  Life is so much more than me … it is ALL of us as a unified human experience.  That means every experience is valuable, necessary, and can teach me something.  Every. Single. One.

I love this poem and how it so perfectly illustrates this truth: 

John Godfrey Saxe’s ( 1816-1887) version of the famous Indian legend,

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approach’d the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -“Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”

The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he,
“‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

MORAL.

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!

Perspective is everything!  And when we fail to look at another’s perspective and we try to fit what they’re doing and seeing into OUR unique perspective we miss an opportunity to learn and to love.

How much more healing and peace would there be in the world if we, instead of insisting that everyone we meet somehow fit into our paradigm, just loved everyone.  If we just looked at each person as valuable and saw each different perspective as an opportunity to learn something new, to offer love, to give of ourselves just because.

There are, of course, perspectives in this world that are broken and poison and horrible terrible not healthy ways of thinking.  But do you think you can get another person to change their mind through trying to prove them wrong?  It doesn’t work that way.

The best way to change the world is to spread love and as we do that, the love and the light that we put out into the world influences each person for good.  And as each person is influenced by love and light and healing, they are then able to follow the inspiration that comes to them individually.  Which may very well look completely different than the way you’re inspired to live … but that’s exactly as it should be.

Everyone will not have the same experience.  Each person will have a unique beautiful perspective that the world needs.  Someone must be the one who tells us what the tusks feel like, and someone must be the one to show us how the ears hear, and another must be the one to explain the tail, and another the trunk … there are different perspectives for a reason.  Each of us has a valuable point of view.  Each of us has a story to tell the world and as we look to others for their unique story we gain something.

We gain unity.  We gain an opportunity to love.  We gain a different way to see the world from a unique perspective that “rounds out” our way of thinking to be bigger and more whole than our individual experiences can possibly show us.  It is MEANT to be this way … this unity is the goal!  We’re all one, after all … one human family and that means that each of us is in the place we’re in for a reason and we have an opportunity in this place to heal and to love and to understand.

Start today to see the world as a whole.  One thing.  Not a bunch of different people and beings fighting against each other to try to prove who’s right and who’s wrong, but a whole unit needing to be joined together in love.  As we each change our perspective to include all, we bring healing and peace to the world.  It is SO needed.  It is essential to ALL of us to stop the fighting, to stop the separation, to stop the belief that you must be right and that means everyone who doesn’t look or sound or talk or live like you must be wrong … that isn’t the case.

Choose to see the things in all of us that are the same.  We all have a body.  We all have blood running through a heart that beats and feels and loves.  Each of us, all of nature and existence are connected in energy.  What happens to me happens to you.  What happens to a woman in the middle east happens to you.  What happens to a child in Haiti happens to all of us.  What happens to a teen in Chicago happens to you too.  We are all so inseparably connected that the only way to bring peace into the world is to think in unity with all.  All people, all life, all energy … all one.

World peace is possible … love and healing is the way.  To bring it about let’s begin to see each person as an opportunity to love another and to learn a story and to help and heal if we’re able.  I am going to do this.  I hope you’ll join me.