YAY TEAM!!!!

YAY TEAM!!!!

We are one.

We are one.

I am you and you are me and we are one.

And in this unity,

We can live in harmony.

And peace will come, because we are one.

I am gravely concerned with the conditions that I see escalating in today’s world.  The intractable refusal of elected officials to work together for a greater cause is unacceptable. The lack of civility and respect in the political arena by our leaders gives me very little confidence in the future.  I see unapologetic hatred being spread like deadly venom through the system of the world population.  Something has to be done to change this before it is too late; the flames of insurrection are being fanned. 

Just as the messages of callous disdain for fellow human beings are being communicated at a very high frequency, those of us who care about each other need to begin to broadcast a message of solidarity.  Our message must be of oneness, of equality and understanding.   

I have quoted the song ”We Are One”, because I believe that if we can embody this idea of oneness it will replace and clear away the confusion of the rampant fear being disseminated that leads us to feel enmity toward those that we must live with together in this world.

Since I have moved to beautiful downtown Hemet, California, I have found that there is not a lot to do here; I now fill my time as a fan of every sport that my grandchildren are involved in.  Who could have guessed that I would become a soccer grandma?  My many hours at the soccer field have given me an insight into teamwork that I feel can be adapted to the way that we relate to our fellow man.

Here are the things that I have learned: In observing the winning and losing teams, I can usually detect if the team members are working as collaboration, or if individuals are focused on being the outstanding player, ignoring the fact that there are other participants who have skills to offer.  The teams with the ball-hogs seldom win. The drive to win as an individual, even to the detriment of their own team, often brings about the loss. It is those who play with the concept of valuing the contributions of others who always seem to gain the upper hand.  A good team has great communication skills with their leader and each other.   The players communicate with each other on the field, so that they know where to pass the ball to the player with the greatest advantage to make the goal.  Everyone participates to the best of the teams ability.

These observations have caused me to look at the world in a new way.  As the words of the song of, “We are one”, I began to see how to translate these methods to the interactions between all people, places and things.   I could see that it is a necessity for our survival to communicate our needs trusting that other people have our back for the sake of the larger game of life.  We must recognize our connection with everything and everyone.  For instance, the seed when planted becomes partners with the nutrients in the soil, and the water and the sun, waiting for it to bloom.  The seed does not, and cannot do it alone.   Non-competitive teamwork, performed with the best possible outcome in mind, allows each contributor to perform its specialty to the maximum. It is the same with the human body, which is made up of millions of cells, each specializing as organs, tissue and limbs, communicating with one another to assure that the body operate with optimum performance.  We humans are the cells of the greater body of humanity and must learn to work in cooperation, doing our part for the greater good of each other and our planet. One cell cannot do it alone.

When I think about the relationships that I most admire and deem to be successful, they are relationships consisting of those who realize that in order to evolve they must allow each participant to shine in equal brilliance.  One can recognize the presence of this success factor not only in marriages, families, and communities, but in corporations and countries as well. 

I find it curious that the people of this world have not noticed that the cancerous division is not working, and that they are not recognizing that unification is the only course that can ultimately lead to peace.

Although we have moved rapidly in technology, we have not moved past our primitive emotional fight or flight beginnings and still believe that we are surrounded with, and hotly pursued by saber tooth tigers and mastodons.  But, even our predecessors eventually came together as clans living a communal life, and realized that it was more advantageous to work together as a group.   Because we believe that we live in an adversarial world and that we are surrounded by enemies, we have developed the way of thinking that everyone, and even inanimate objects, are always resisting us.   The general philosophy is that we must stand alone and fight for everything. We have not yet realized that we must learn to cooperate (form a coalition) with all things.  Since we don’t live in that belief, there is great strife and the world is becoming more torn and damaged.  We are like conjoined twins fighting each other and neither twin wins.

We are endowed with a great power that we do not yet know how to consciously direct for the positive outcomes that we desire in our lives.  Our supreme power is our ability to connect in visible and in invisible ways, to coalesce with others to move ahead with the unlimited resources of cooperative energy.  This power is not here and ours to use to express supremacy, but rather to fuel a greater equality.  Because of our lack of understanding we wrongly believe that is to be used to dominate and overwhelm others. 

When I see the strife being caused by those who cling to the old paradigm of divide and conquer through racism, religion, economics, sexism, politics, etcetera, I realize that we are not getting along, because we have not yet learned how to come together.  We must train ourselves to communicate with those that we feel are different, and be willing to see who they are and honor their individuality.  Only when we can present ourselves openly and honestly can we have a conversation that will erase the feelings of separation.

My vision for this world is that one wonderful morning; we will awaken and see what has been invisible to the eye; the unbreakable ties we have to one another.  We will see our healthy and natural dependency on one another and realize that like the seed and the human cell, we do not and can not do it alone.  We will recognize that we live in a user-friendly world, with everything, and every one wanting to help us, and know that actually nothing has the ability to resist us. 

Each of us has something to give. However, we have been holding ourselves back because of a fear of rejection. It is time to offer your authentic self and your unique talents to the world. Your specialty is needed to create a cooperative oneness.  We must learn to ask for what we want in this life.  We must own the full expectancy that there is someone whose whole purpose is to fulfill your needs, by virtue of their individuality, just as you are equipped to fulfill the needs of others.

I am reminded of a story that you may have heard, but it goes like this:

“A man wants to know the difference between heaven and hell.

(Neither of which I believe in, but for the sake of the moral of the story, I will continue).

The man is taken to a room where there is a sumptuous banquet set before the guests.  Every delicious food that you could ever imagine was there.  He noticed that the only utensils provided were forks that were 36 inches long.  He was overwhelmed by the heavy feeling of sadness in this room which was also overflowing with enough bounty to satisfy every human appetite. The reason for this despair was that when the diners tried to feed themselves, because of the awkward length of the forks, they could not reach their mouths.  He noticed that they were all starving, and would quite possibly be in this state for all of eternity.

When the man entered the second room, he found a duplicate feast, and this time, the participants were also using the same awkward 36-inch forks, but they were not struggling to feed themselves, but rather were reaching across the table to feed each other.  The room was filled with laughter and joy as they fulfilled the needs of others, while each was getting fed.  They were all happy, healthy and satisfied.”

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We keep waiting for someone or something else to solve the problems of the world, but you are the solution. I am the solution. So let us all grow up, grab our forks and then we can heal the world by feeding each other.  We nourish each other with love and encouragement, not by beating each other down.  We can do this with a willingness to understand others and by offering a helping hand when we see that it is needed.

Remember that we are part of a planetary partnership; it is our individual responsibility to ensure the health of the cells and the cooperation of our team. We can only do well individually when everyone is operating at their maximum best together.

‘And peace will come, because we are one’.