"A mind that is stretched by new experience can never go back to its old dimensions." -Oliver Wendell Holmes JR.
Let me start off by saying that I in no
way purport to be one of the 'people who get it'. This blog is a
personal experiment/journey into talking with those people who I feel
may have 'got' one thing or another that I would like to 'get' too, and
perhaps in doing so I can provide a few ideas worth thinking about for
my fellow seekers of answers.
Let’s face it, sometimes life can be tough - really, really
tough. When things are good you feel
like you might have it all figured out, but when things go wrong it can
feel like the old adage “the older you get, the less you know.” Not exactly a comforting thought.
At some point in my life I noticed there were some everyday people I
met who seemed to ‘just get it’. They weren't necessarily yogis, CEO's, or the old & wise. So what
is 'it' about these people? I’m not exactly sure,
but I’m desperate to. If
someone appears to have even a
singular quality that suggests an ease with themselves and the world
around them I feel immediately eager to figure them out. I will
sometimes ask them so many questions that I feel like the curious, yet
annoying little kid who wants to know "why?", "how come the sky is
blue?", "does hkjnkjbkj spell something?".
I
imagine the reason for this is that I have
spent so much of my own life trying to figure out who I am, what I’m
supposed
to do, and what this whole world is about (on an ethereal level, science
is fascinating, but it's never been my bag). When I stumble upon these
people, I feel like maybe if they would just tell me what it is that
they know, perhaps I
could somehow be relieved of the seemingly relentless burdens of being human. I’m not sure that I will, but even if I can’t I’m confident that
there are things to be known and ways to grow tucked away in their minds &
spirit.
So what is ‘it’? That is a
question that seems to elude me. Have you ever had an experience you felt deeply, but when you try to describe it to someone your words fail you? As far as I can tell, the people who seem to have ‘it’ do not all fit a
single archetype, lifestyle, religion, personality, background, or spiritual
belief system. All I know is that in
their presence you feel their calm & ease without them doing or saying much
of anything, they just have it. This
doesn’t mean they are perfect, or that they have perfect lives, but they have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’.
I have always wondered what it is that they know. How did they get that way? Can it be shared or learned; or do some just
possess it, while the rest of us meander our way through life without a
compass? Maybe I'll discover they're a lot like you and I & give myself a break. This blog is an attempt to find out.
