10
Know Yourself, Find Your Place
Open your eyes and see,
Open your mind and consider,
Open your soul to the truth and understand--
A fish that lives near the shore cannot travel to the bottom of the ocean,
Nor can an anglerfish hope to gaze upon the sun and live.
A whale may swim from the ice caps to the tropics and back again,
But if it were to try and travel over land it would never get past the beach.
An albatross on the wind may fly across continents, but never to the moon.
Though humankind has spread over all the earth and can live for many years in the shelters that they build, how long do you suppose you would survive alone in the desert beneath the burning sun, or lost in the arctic where cold winds always blow?
Do you think you would fare as well as the fox, who calls both environments home?
How much longer do you think you would live if you first studied its ways and if you learned all you could from the jackrabbit, the scorpion, the red wolf, the musk ox, the seal, and the polar bear?
At what point would you have to admit, “Though I have learned much from these creatures, I am not the same. Their place is not my place; their ways cannot sustain me, nor allow my soul to thrive?”
Open your mind and consider,
Open your soul to the truth and understand--
A fish that lives near the shore cannot travel to the bottom of the ocean,
Nor can an anglerfish hope to gaze upon the sun and live.
A whale may swim from the ice caps to the tropics and back again,
But if it were to try and travel over land it would never get past the beach.
An albatross on the wind may fly across continents, but never to the moon.
Though humankind has spread over all the earth and can live for many years in the shelters that they build, how long do you suppose you would survive alone in the desert beneath the burning sun, or lost in the arctic where cold winds always blow?
Do you think you would fare as well as the fox, who calls both environments home?
How much longer do you think you would live if you first studied its ways and if you learned all you could from the jackrabbit, the scorpion, the red wolf, the musk ox, the seal, and the polar bear?
At what point would you have to admit, “Though I have learned much from these creatures, I am not the same. Their place is not my place; their ways cannot sustain me, nor allow my soul to thrive?”
____________________
Why do you look at another and say, “I want his life. I want what was has been given to her.”
Is his place your place? Will her ways sustain you and allow your soul to thrive?
Why do you get discouraged when others say you would do well to be like them?
When you look in a mirror can you not discern a difference between yourself and them?
How much greater do you think the difference would be if the mirror could examine heart, mind, and soul?
Is their place your place? Will their ways sustain you and allow your soul to thrive?
Do not trust anyone who would try to cast you in the same mold as one-hundred others, or even ten. They lack wisdom and do not understand the way of life, no peace will be found by following their counsel.
Everything is connected, common ground exists between us all, but no one is identical or meant to occupy the same place.
Is his place your place? Will her ways sustain you and allow your soul to thrive?
Why do you get discouraged when others say you would do well to be like them?
When you look in a mirror can you not discern a difference between yourself and them?
How much greater do you think the difference would be if the mirror could examine heart, mind, and soul?
Is their place your place? Will their ways sustain you and allow your soul to thrive?
Do not trust anyone who would try to cast you in the same mold as one-hundred others, or even ten. They lack wisdom and do not understand the way of life, no peace will be found by following their counsel.
Everything is connected, common ground exists between us all, but no one is identical or meant to occupy the same place.
____________________
Why does the thief keep stealing? Because one cannot be satisfied by what does not belong to them.