Last week, in a movie I watched at school and then discussed with a group of students, a poor, racist, and crass white man and a rich, educated, and elegant black man saw through their own discrimination to the love-worthiness of the other. All they needed was to be willing to see through their learned beliefs about each other.
I heard a story of a white man in South Africa who stood up in a workshop and took responsibility for apartheid. His freedom, clarity, and transformation was a result of his willingness to see parallels between his ways of being in life (with his friends, family, and colleagues) and apartheid itself.
People around the world know of Albert Einstein. Most of us don’t know what exactly he’s famous for, but we all consider him an epitome of genius. What led to Einstein’s breakthroughs in Physics was his willingness to see things differently from everyone else before him.
We each experience life from a point of view. There's no inherent problem with this, but we mostly forget that we have a point of view.
Despite forgetting that we live from our own point of view, we are often good at noticing other people’s point of view - especially when their point of view conflicts with ours. (Politics is a good example of this: “my side is right and your side is wrong” is another way of saying “I see reality while you see only your point of view.”)
Many of us think that Russia's aggression and violence in Ukraine is wrong and selfish, yet we daily annihilate the people in our lives with our point of view.
We not only forget that we have a point of view, but most of us never learn that our point of view is changeable. In Physics we call this changing our frame of reference. (Einstein did this better than anyone before him, hence his theories being theories of relativity.)
Changing our point of view begins with a willingness to be wrong and explore other perspectives.
Insight begins with a willingness to see something new.
Love begins with a willingness to be patient, compassionate, and generous.
Transformation begins with a willingness to be authentic, vulnerable, and honest.
Responsibility begins with a willingness to stand as The Source of our experience of life.
Enjoyment begins with a willingness to be in love with this moment.
Ease begins with a willingness to relax and allow our inner genius to take over.
Changing the world for the better begins with a willingness to stand in a commitment with compassion, love, action, and understanding.
Willingness is an openness to hearing something new, to seeing someone differently, to maybe being wrong and changing our point of view. We don't need to go all-in, we just need to be willing to consider. Willingness begins with "leaving the door cracked" just a little bit.
What’s something you’ve been feeling challenged by? Where have you been unwilling in this area? How might being willing open new opportunities and avenues for action and experience?
Thank you for looking for ways you can let a little more compassion, generosity, and love into your life, and thanks so much for reading. ❤️
Comments