I have been told I have an unusual mind, a unique way of looking at the world. In fact, I get told this often. At times some have been less than encouraging in their descriptiveness about my apparent unique or unusual take on things. At first it wasn’t always so, but these days I don’t blame them at all anymore. Actually, I feel very much the same – about myself and about most others around me. It’s not an easy thing to gradually come to this understanding but I think it is a good thing, even a most wonderful thing.
There’s this passage in the Psalms that goes something like blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. A song I have heard often sung exchanges ‘pilgrimage’ with ‘always moving on.’ I like that. It sounds more practical to me. Blessed are those who have found strength in who made them and how they have been made and because of that are always moving on.
I have found that the more honest I can be the more I am at peace with myself and the more I can be a positive contribution to my environment. However, I have also found that the more I am honest the less at peace I can be within myself and my environment. A lot of the time the longer I hang around or ‘overstay my welcome’ the more trouble seems to start settling in – for me and my environment.
So, after decades of bashing my own head and having others kindly return the favour it seems good to me to always try to keep my mind focused on moving on. And this surprisingly is not a bad thing at all. In fact it’s quite sensible and very rewarding all round.
Sometimes this may mean a physical move and other times it means a less physical move. Believe it or not I have found that the attitudinal or less physical shifts are by far the most difficult – mainly perhaps because it usually means staying in the same context and consciously shifting within myself. And this is usually an extremely difficult thing to do (well, at least for me it is).
My unusual or unique angle on this; I think we all have a unique way of looking at things. Also that perhaps it is those who consciously or unconsciously choose to forsake and align their unique perspective to those around them who are ‘unusual’ in the less encouraging understanding of that word? One cannot be two or more people at the same time (some would even go so far as to classify this as a form of insanity).
However, mostly we all tend to seek a safe place for ourselves and often this requires us fitting in with what others think and feel. We can even feel like this is the best way and a way that gives us the most peace. We have learned this from our environment and from our parents to our peers to our politicians, the majority by far even stress the importance of conformity. Personally I have found the opposite to be true. To add to this I am also aware that we are firmly encouraged not to conform to the patterns around us but to be transformed in the renewal of our own minds.
Perhaps if our individual strength is really in the one who created us and watches over us, the one who caused us to be unique in so many ways, if not every way – from our fingerprints to our DNA to the way we perceive all things – we would have less need to find our strength in those around us? Perhaps we would then be more relaxed with ourselves and our environment and more in tune with our unique role in this experience we call life.
And that’s it for me so far I suppose. I have come to realise for myself that perhaps the secret of it all is that we must somehow come to really try to understand who we are personally and then as best we can, assess our realistic impact on our immediate environment. We need to soberly assess both the positive and the negative part we play in the world around us.
I have also found that if we set up camp anywhere, in our thinking, our culture, our theology, even our understanding about ourselves and others around us, things can slowly become quite toxic. On top of this if we set up camp in any way we obviously stop moving. We cannot please everyone all the time and we ourselves cannot be pleased all the time by others.
But we can give each other space. Space to be themselves. Space to express their own unique, unusual perspective. We can also give ourselves space. Space to move, to grow and to explore.
Agreement is very important. But harmony is never the same note played together in unison. Harmony is different notes sounding at the same time and in the same space which collectively make a rich chord. Many chords make up a symphony.
Many unique, unusual sounds make up a soothing waterfall. …. but the water droplets need to keep moving on for the waterfall to be a reality.
