Hello,
My name is Peter.
Thank you for joining me for this quick exploration and reset.
It's my hope that out of this session,
You get more questions than answers.
Questions that you can take to further meditations,
Questions you can take to explore in your journal,
Questions you can take to the people you're close to.
Most importantly,
Questions that can sit and germinate and bring forth fruit and flower over time as answers emerge at their own speed and at their own pace.
No matter where we end up in life as adults,
We started from the same place,
Brought into this world deeply and profoundly dependent on our mothers for life,
On our families for support,
On our communities.
On the wider world,
No one of us as babies can make it on our own.
We are entirely dependent.
As we grow into toddlers and young children,
A blossom of independence begins to bloom.
We want to do that thing for ourselves.
We'll get our own juice.
We'll draw our own picture.
We'll tie our own shoes.
The novelty and power of the feeling that comes from knowing we can do something ourselves instead of needing someone to do it for us is an exhilarating rush.
And that rush can inspire us to seek further independence from those we used to depend on.
Independence is a beautiful thing,
As is dependence in its way and in its time.
The move from dependence to independence is largely seen in our culture as a linear journey.
I was dependent.
I leave that behind and now I'm independent.
I can get my own job.
I can live in my own home.
I can start my own family.
We are independent of those caregivers that were so present and necessary at the beginning of our lives.
Sometimes this independence can get a bit carried away.
It does not leave space for a further progression into interdependence.
Interdependence recognizes the sense that I am not alone in this world.
I cannot do all things for myself.
Not only am I dependent on others in ways I don't normally perceive,
But others are dependent on me.
I cannot cut my own hair.
I cannot massage my own back.
But I can massage the back of another.
Interdependence is not weakness.
It does not mean prison.
It does not mean giving up our independence.
It is the combination or integration of dependence and independence.
If it feels good to you,
Take a moment to pause.
Sit or lie down comfortably.
Feel the ground supporting you.
Take a breath.
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
Imagine in your mind a pendulum.
A pendulum with a string as long as the universe.
This pendulum is swinging gently back and forth.
No sudden movements.
A very steady oscillation.
Over and over.
Back and forth.
On one side of this pendulum is a swing towards dependence.
And on another is a swing towards independence.
When we come into this world,
This pendulum is pulled far to the side of dependence.
And it stays there for some time until it is released.
Slowly picks up speed.
Moving towards the bottom of its arc.
And continuing its path onwards to the other side.
Independence.
But as is the nature of a pendulum,
It does not stay on that other side.
It swings back.
Over time,
Losing some of its energy and gently finding a balance.
Moving back and forth between the two sides.
While the destinations or the starting points on either side are dependence and independence,
The movement between these two spaces is interdependence.
A flow of energy.
Of state change.
Of shifting actions and shifting thoughts and shifting energies.
Dancing between dependence and independence.
Interdependence means recognizing that I of myself can do nothing alone.
When I wake up in the morning,
I can give thanks and gratitude for the people that worked in the factory that made my blanket.
I can give thanks and awareness to the people working in the electrical grid to allow the light in my room to turn on.
For the designers who conceptualized my home.
The architects who rendered it.
The contractors who built it.
And the families that came before me in the decades since my house was built.
Who made it their home and took care of it and left it as a place where I could raise my family.
Where our family could grow together as our children moved themselves from dependence to independence.
And in their own way,
Found interdependence.
A reliance on themselves at times and a comfortable reliance on others.
While fiercely independent in their schoolwork as teenagers,
Dependent on me to drive them to visit their friends at times.
So it is as adults.
And how often we forget.
Consider these journaling prompts.
What areas of my life do I believe that I am dependent on others?
What areas of my life do I believe I am independent from others?
And finally,
What areas of my life do I recognize the interdependence between myself and others?
Please pause the recording to take time to write these down.
I invite you over the day and the next day,
The following week,
To return to these lists and explore them from the following perspective.
When I look at the list of beliefs for dependence,
How true is that?
Is there more independence in these items than I realize?
Is there more space for choice and preference and action?
Am I truly dependent?
And likewise,
For the list of things where I believe I am independent,
Am I truly on my own?
Are there some elements of dependence that may not be immediately obvious?
And finally,
Interdependence.
In this list,
What is the nature of these items that causes them to appear here rather than in the other two lists?
As you work through this exercise,
Consider the possibility of this becoming a practice.
For many people,
A gratitude meditation is an integral part of their meditative practice.
It's often a core component of manifestation practices around financial abundance,
That first we must be in recognition and gratitude of that with which we've been given before more is able to come into our lives.
Gratitude is in a way a recognition of the interdependence of all things.
For me to receive that which allows me to be independent,
I must recognize that upon which I depend.
The roads that I drive on to get to work.
The people who clean the streets.
Construction workers who fix potholes.
Teachers who educate.
And on and on and on the list goes.
And so it is that as we recognize interdependence and our part in a very large tapestry,
That we open the doors of possibility to a deeper sense of connectedness with those around us,
Of gratitude for that which has come our way through ground laying efforts of those who came before us.
And from that place,
A greater eagerness to give back.
To support those who could benefit from our help.
To be interdependent and in community with those close to us,
Far from us,
And those we may never meet.
Thank you for joining me and I look forward to working with you in our next session.
