THE ILLUSION OF INDEPENDENCE!!

The key to our personal well-being and the peace and harmony of the world lies in awakening ourselves from imaginary independence and reconnecting with the rest of humanity and the natural environment.  This maybe difficult for some due to our ever increasing sophistication in commerce and communication.  It is so easy to shop online for almost everything we need from food to clothing to dating that we hardly ever have to leave the confines of our homes.


I bring this up because on my way home from work last Wednesday, I stopped at a fishmonger.  I purchased my eats and left.  As I was walking home I decided to take rest at a nearby park area because I was tired.  There sitting on one of the benches was an older gentleman dressed in jeans, a thick, heavy, army green sweat jacket sporting a goatee - relaxing.  So I began to express how tired I was feelilng.  I can't remember what I said to him just before I said to him, "I really should not take myself too seriously."  Well, sometimes I need to keep my big mouth shut - I thought.  All of a sudden he started on this long tirad of his whole entire life.  From being burned out of house and home due to a fire a few years ago, to working at JFK Airport, to his children, on and on he went.  At this point, I am not blatently looking at him eye-to-eye, but I would cut my gaze at him to see if his clothes looked dirty, dingy.  Nope.  They were clean and neat.  I don't know exactly what I was looking for (Okay, we won't go there). 


Many of you don't know me but I will listen, or appear to listen to almost anybody's story.  We all have one.  However, feelings of resentment kicked in as I wondered to myself why I stopped to being with.  But, as I allowed myself to really tune in to what he was saying, I began to relax and I acutally found his story interesting.  He's an avid traveler, loves his kids, started a grassroots Guardian Angel's program in the city.  All and all a genuinely friendly man. 

Since I had just bought fish, and it was pretty warm out, I needed to get it refridgerated soon.  As I got up to leave we were saying our goodbyes, to my surprise, he told me what my horoscope sign was.  I hadn't told him anything personal about myself but he told me exactly what sign I was born under.  And, guess what?  I guessed his, too.  I said you are an Aquarian.  My guess seemed totally arbitrary, whereas I felt his was more intuitive.  We said goodnight to each other and I went on my way.  As I began walking home these were my exact thoughts, "Why did I stop there?  What was my purpose for being there?  I didn't need nor want anything from this man.  What could he do for me?"  I was feeling a little arrogant, needless to say, while these thoughts passed through my head.  Thinking myself way too good for the likes of him.  And then I had my AHA! moment.  I lowered the banner of my arrogance.  It wasn't I who needed him, but he who needed me (talk about arrogance - lol!).  Maybe, just maybe he needed me to talk to.  Someone to stop and say hello, to have a conversation with.  Who knows what he could have been experiencing in his life or was feeling at that time.  I was just the perfect person to fulfill that need.  I came along at the right time at the right place to fill a need - a void.  There I was connecting with another human being in a natural environment - a park.  Cheers!!