Before the sun rises, as most folks remain buried in pillows, I am often walking. It’s peaceful … with few distractions, and I think as I step.
This morning my thoughts turned to Ho’opoponopono, putting it all in motion with someone who came to mind … when another thought entered in.
How often do we think we have someone “figured?” How often do we pin a label on someone … as clumsy, mean-spirited, selfish, or even spiritual … and after an appropriate period of “building our case,” sometimes with the help of others, the label sticks, and that is who they are from then on. I have a hunch we’re usually missing the mark … if indeed we should be aiming at all. That isn’t who they are. Indeed, there was something leading us to our impressions, but how misguided might they be? And then comes the most saddening part of it all … that whenever we cross paths with that person again, they are seldom, if ever, “seen” again outside the shadow of the label.
But that’s not where the thought ended. It ended with me. What if I was the one who had created and pinned a label on someone. In so doing, through those intimate, focused churnings of my mind … have I connected in some strange way to this other person? If, when I see them, the first thought coming to mind is tethered to who they’ve become to me, is it easier for them to play that role? Is it possible I could “help” someone get stuck? Granted, we do each have our leanings and some are not very attractive … but could it be I could actually reinforce behavior, thereby making it even more difficult for the person to be otherwise?
I’m certainly not sure about you, but this intrigues me. In Dr. Len’s technique, one person accepts responsibility for his play in another life. Dr. Len didn’t know the patients at the mental ward where he worked … but he could have still carried stereotypes about them … about how they would act, andwhat potential they had for living a “normal life.”
As it stands, he carried on his practice:
I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.
Little by little, patients began to change. The purpose of the practice was actually focused within Dr. Len. He was reconciling something within himself … something intimately connected to these patients … and they began to heal. It was it he recognized the link he had with them, and then made the conscious choice to sever it.
I wonder if, when we next encounter someone … where a stereotype may leap forth … or perhaps it is someone we know and recognize we have them pegged … that we take a moment (through the practice if desired), step back, and release them from any expectation they be a certain way. The catch is … it begins within us. Indeed, they may well have troubles they are working through, but our point of control is our own mind. It is there we may well have encouraged a bondage this person experiences … to an expectation they be a certain way. As a side note, it is also beneficial to consider how we have impacted another person even more through our “sharing” with other folks. Hmmmm … humbling, wouldn’t you say?
As such the mindful meanderings of this sojourner can be on any given morning, walking in and through the shadowed streets of the West End. Few conclusions are reached during the steps taken … but I welcome the thoughts Spirit ushers in. They are brought for me first. Inevitably, that is where I must begin …
