Breaking the Shallows

I was doing some laundry yesterday morning.  Where we live we have a laundry room which is convenient to use, but I’d rather take a walk down the street a ways to use the Laundromat to be out and about among people so they can see me and I can see them… to interact, to observe, to learn, to possibly help, to hear, to be heard; to experience Life. 

We’re currently renting and have downsized by alleviating ourselves of most of our possessions, so the pedestrian lifestyle is one I am becoming accustomed to ( I never grew up like this; I went from house to car to destination and back again ).  I now ride a bicycle, walk at great lengths and sometimes take the public transit system of bus and train.  And it is an adventure every time!  The pedestrian romp is quite different from the mobile journey.

This world is full of beautiful people.  Beautiful in the manner in which they interact with one another and beautiful in what is said when one actually listens to a stranger.  The world is also full of broken people.  Broken people whom you may think look “obviously” broken by their exterior appearance, but sometimes broken by what is spoken when they open their mouths.  Some look perfectly put together while nothing but dead bones fall out of their mouths when they express themselves.  Others look broken by their exterior appearance, yet when you listen to them, they are not broken at all ( perhaps an illusion or a lesson, or both, or something else ).  Yet truly I believe, we all have been or are currently being put together after being broken… and what specifically “broke” me may be different from what “broke” you.

I’ve been broken quite a few times over my 38 year journey.  Although not a single bone in my body has been physically broken to-date, I’ve felt the pain of something breaking inside myself.  At times it was my heart.  At times it was my mind.  At times it was my ego.  At times it was my conscience.  I’ve also been the perpetrator of breaking someone else.  Not in the physical sense, but surely I have been guilty of breaking them in the manner I mentioned of myself being broken. 

The only exterior time(s) I was broken was financial.  Yet I wonder if this type of brokenness qualifies despite hearing the repetitive cliché “you’re broke.”   

I see a beautiful world.  I also see a broken world.  I see beautiful people.  I also see broken people.  But I wonder if the broken people are broken because far too many of them believe the exterior material world has any say as to their interior self.  Could they truly believe their exterior possessions to be a reflection of their inner worth?  I identify that some people value themselves by their possessions, or their achievements, or what others say about them… or their title among an organization, but is this a real metric to measure value?  There was a time I had a taste of material wealth while I was absolutely broken and unconscious to my brokenness ( numb, not immune ). 

The further I have removed myself from the daily habit / routine we in the ‘modern’ society have been conditioned to fawn after ( secular and religious pursuits combined ), the more resilient the mending of my broken pieces became… and the more resilient I am Today to new breaks and tears of the fabric of my heart, mind and soul.  I see the value of people and the role people have in the world more than ever before… and also identify the teaching that teaches things in the world to be more valuable than people… and a person’s worth or value is measured by what they can do or have done.  But this I’ve found to be erroneous; a popular opinion accepted as truth but is a mere fiction.

For example, if _______ ( enter your favorite famous, religious or rich person here ) and a homeless-looking person were to both be walking down the street and both were to experience a bad fall at the same time and equal distance from you, which would you run to help first?  What determined one person’s rescue to be of greater importance than the other person’s? 
 
If only others were as fortunate to have been broken as I have been so they may realize how strong and well built they truly are!   If only others will be as fortunate as I am to be brought through so much in order to realize the greater things in Life. 

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