So, I have learned that I am NOT different from others as I have suspected all these years.  Well, let's say I am learning that.

I am not different because we are all one, and of one piece.  Our Source is the same.  If I dishonor my brother, I dishonor myself.  If I dishonor myself, I dishonor my brother.  To love myself or my brother is to heal the world.

I am not different because not only do I have the same divine capacities as my fellow travelers, but I have the same human capacities.  I can choose ugly thoughts and selfish and destructive behaviors.  I can choose God's thoughts and selfless, god-reflective behaviors.  I have it all in me.

I used to think I was so different in thought and in deed.  But I'm not.  I'm the same as anyone else.

And I look on it all with indiferent love and relinquishment.  Acceptance and hope for both immersion and transcendence.

(Even as I write this, I remember a 5th grade class where the teacher was trying to make a point about our uniqueness, I think.  She asked the "obvious" question to the class:  "If a being from outerspace were to ask you to describe humans, would you say that we are all different or all the same?"  I sat at my little desk and pondered the question.  I decided that the right answer was "all the same."  Ha.  I was surprised that according to the teacher, the other answer was the right one!)

Sometimes I'm plowed like a field, furrow after furrow through my heart.

Sometimes I'm mowed like a field, swath after swath of tall growth felled, then gathered into swirls and bales to feed the life around me.

I feel so rich because -

we have a truck AND a car, and another for our college daughter.

I am running the dishwasher at the same time as the washing machine - we have BOTH! and we have plenty of water.

I get to see deer AND horses every day as I come and go and an overabundance of beauty every hour... sunset through rhododendron petals through my church window, weeping cherry blossoms and glowing daffodils framed through my stained glass front door.

I have a desk.  Gil has a desk.  Seattle has a desk.  Mary has a desk.  HOW do we rate that each of us has a place for work and solitude and writing??

I have a church community and a family and friend community.

I have a summer quilt AND a winter quilt for my bed. 

I have a good bed.

I have a garage.

I have aching muscles because I had the leisure time to trim trees and dig weeds this weekend.

I can invite my family and friends to Massanutten Resort for relaxation.

I have a teak table coming tomorrow.

My children LOVE me.  My husband LOVES me.

I have a faithful, handsome dog.

I am surrounded by color and I can see it all.

I have a joyful heart and a healthy mind and body.

I just feel SO so RICH.

And I am grateful for it all.