Archive for March, 2009
How Does it Feel?
Last night I lay awake around 1am tossing and turning. I tried to breathe in deeply and relax myself to sleep only to be interrupted by allergy sneezes every 3 or so breaths. I decided to forgo deep breaths and searched for my iPhone to acoustically rock myself to sleep. I came across the song “How Does it Feel” by Avril Lavigne. Not a huge fan of hers but the lyrics in this particular song caught the attention of my meandering mind.
One line in particular…
“Suddenly – how does it feel – to be – different from me – are we the same …”
The main celebration of begin human is free will and utilizing that gift to make our decisions in life makes us who we are. That also means that no two people are ever the same. We are always different. I suddenly realized that no matter who loves me or how many “me to” moments I share with another person I will never be understood completely by one person outside myself. Even then we’re stretching it a bit.
At first that was a bit of a sobering moment of realization. I thought about how being so unique is why we crave love. Love is not understanding someone though. Love is accepting someone for who they are. Pledging to them that no matter what you will always accept and love them, even if you don’t understand. To know that no one will ever really understand me is a weird thing to realize.
What I love about this realization, however, is the excitement of constant learning and exploring that comes with it. Knowing that I will never completely understand another human being means a world of endless conversations and new ideas to explore. I’ve always been a celebrator of differences. I know a lot of people don’t enjoy conflicting views, “abnormal” situations, etc because it makes them uncomfortable. I look at them as if they were a small piece of unlabeled candy. I can’t wait to unwrap them and see what I taste, even if it makes me throw up or pucker my nose.
After all, life is defined by our experiences so go out and live. Celebrate your differences and those of others. You may not understand them but that doesn’t mean they are wrong. As Keri Smith says,”There is no correct way of understanding something.” I think that the world you see is tainted by the lens you see it through.
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