ME = WE

One of my inspirations to write daily for one year, comes from Mark Nepo's "The Book of Awakening." Structured by dates on the Gregorian calendar, with 365 entries of his own spiritual thoughts and messages on being present to the life you have. Today's passage, "Not Two," was a reminder of a message I received a few years back during my own spiritual practice in contemplation on the false separateness of people. What flashed through my minds-eye was the word "ME," followed by the letter "M" doing a 180° dance into the letter "W," coming to conclusion with this short and concise statement: ME = WE. T-Shirts, coffee mugs and bumper stickers were immediately being pressed-off in the back corner of my creative cortex, quickly squelched by a whispered voice, "You tried that once, remember?" "Let's just use this as a personal mantra." My mind and angels negotiating the use of the divine gift inside this message. We are all connected, we are reflections of each other (whether we like it or not) and equal in every way. However, this concept can be challenging especially in the face of adversity or annoying people. Of course, I'm never one of them! I have another T-Shirt idea that reads, "Human: Work in Progress."

I saw the "M" as the symbol of the closed-off separate self, a stoically grounded singular entity, becoming the realization of the truth and naturalness of it's opposite. The "W" with it's open-arms toward the sky as an empty vessel, and a mirror of the "M." How with the simple rotation of only one letter in a word—or a single shift in thought can bring about change. Even if it only starts as that, the change in perception ultimately would transform our world condition, if and when put into action. If we, as humans, actually operated with a ME = WE philosophy, there would be an end to discrimination, judgement, violence, greed, geographic boundaries and war. To name only a few of our human atrocities; feel free to insert your own list here.

ME = WE™, maybe I will make that T-Shirt afterall.