Chapter 6 We Are Enough We are constantly comparing ourselves to other people and looking for something to do or something to consume that will cover up our uncomfortable emotions and make us feel like we have enough,
Like we are enough.
We always want more and can never seem to remember that we're perfect exactly as we are.
We tend to be blinded by our desire for achievements and acquisitions and forget that even without these things,
We are enough.
We can perhaps see this more clearly if we consider a baby.
We wouldn't judge a baby's worth based on her possessions or surroundings.
Even if a child had been born into poverty with parents who were neglectful,
She would be of no less worth than the child of caring,
Wealthy parents.
Regardless of their situations,
You'd hopefully agree that they were both of the same value,
Equally able to give and receive love.
But all too often we do judge people,
Even children,
Based on their appearances or their economic situations.
It's almost as if we don't want their hard luck to rub off on us,
As if we'd rather push them away and stay in our self-concocted bubble of superiority and imagined perfection.
We tend to overlook the value that we all have simply because we are alive.
We think that we always have to have more and that we have to be more,
That we're never good enough or pretty enough or smart enough.
We forget that there is nothing ugly or inferior that's born of nature.
Only something that falls upon man's eyes gets classified as pretty or prestigious.
Only humans are trapped in a world of dualism,
A world of right and wrong,
Happy and sad,
Good and bad.
Do we think that a goldfish or a frog or a leaf on a tree can do anything bad?
All that they can do is be,
And all that they can be is what they are,
Nothing more and nothing less.
And they never feel awkward or out of place,
Unless we cage them and stare at them,
Unless we take them out of being and try to put them into doing.
Nice show dog,
Nice train bearer,
Nice tiger jumping through a hoop so that we can get money and fame and impress people and feel like the strongest animal and forget that we're equal to all living things.
Oh yes,
How superior we are with all of the high-tech,
Entertaining products that we create and consume and discard.
But can any of our inventions rival the simple complexities of a single delicate flower moving in the wind,
Opening and closing as it knows it should?
Are we able to comprehend the magnitude and the wonder and the inconceivable richness of the world around us?
Can we stand in amazement at a single blade of grass that knows somehow when spring is here and when it's time once again to sprout anew and grow again,
Reaching for the sun and the clouds that give it life so that it may in turn give life?
And it is within all of this mystery that we find ourselves,
Thinking that we're better than the plants and the animals because we're smarter than them and can kill them and eat them,
And unless we're unlucky,
They can't do the same to us.
And we think,
Perhaps,
That they're simpler than us and that they have to obey our commands because we said so and we want to have things our way.
We want to always feel strong,
And yet,
Still we feel weak,
And still we feel afraid.
And still God sees us like everything else,
All beautiful and all precious,
All unique and all the same.
And still we see ourselves as competitors and countries,
As consumers and carpenters,
As builders of our destiny and an ever more perfect life.
