Dear friends,
A comment from a listener to one of my existing meditations here on Insight Timer has reminded me that it is time for another meditation on how we should celebrate difference.
There are now some 8 billion of us living out our lives and sharing our experience on this wonderful planet Earth.
Looking around we see a huge variety of life forms.
Creatures of land,
Sea and air,
Not to mention vegetation of every description,
Arising on land and under the sea,
Surviving even in the most inhospitable places.
Blessed as we are to be surrounded by this stunning variety of life on Earth,
How can it be that we might ever be afraid to celebrate the diversity which,
On and under the surface,
Goes to make up our human race?
What a dull world it would be if we were all like peas in a pod,
All looking the same,
Believing the same,
Thinking and acting the same.
How would progress be possible?
Would we not all die of boredom?
Instead look around,
Notice the magic,
Notice the difference,
Even on the surface we can all look different.
We come from a selection of places with distinctive climates,
We have all manner of skin tones,
Differing shapes and sizes,
We are people of varying abilities and we can find ourselves challenged by an assortment of disabilities and obstacles.
All of these differences go to make up the wonderful extraordinary community of human life on Earth.
And the dissimilarities can be under the skin as well as on the surface.
We can all look different,
We can all look different,
We can all look different,
Contrasting interests,
Different likes and dislikes,
We can be gay or straight or somewhere in between,
With varying religious and political ideas,
And our views can change over time thanks to the sharing of ideas and the interaction of people one with another.
This is the magic of diversity and it needs to be celebrated.
If you were to take the 8 billion of us and examine us,
You would find no two of us,
Even with similar life experiences,
Still having an absolute match of ideas and views.
Enjoying all the differences that go to make up our human family,
Can we learn to work together using all our thoughts,
All our experiences and all our unique angles of approach to make this world a better place.
This is a project that we need to begin and now.
Learning from the problems of the past and the challenges of the present,
We can and we must cooperate to meet the opportunities of the future.
This blue and white ball circling our life-giving sun is the rock on which humanity must make it stand.
We are all part of one interconnected web of life.
We stand and we fall together.
And now some closing thoughts.
How beautiful it is when we work to build acceptance,
Understanding and community.
How beautiful it is when people feel the urge to be in the world.
How beautiful it is when people feel the urge to non-violently make a stand against injustice.
We recall with gratitude the example of the apostles of peace,
Jesus Christ,
Candy,
Martin Luther King Jr and so many others who worked and gave their lives that we might enjoy and that we might be able to live in a better place.
We give thanks for people in public life who work for the acceptance of difference and the elimination of injustice.
May their actions inspire us to follow their good example.
How beautiful it is when people look beyond the surface,
When they look beneath the surface we all share.
We give thanks for community leaders and all those who reach out to those who seem to be different or belong to the other side.
How beautiful it is when people are prepared to respect the views and beliefs of those who hold different views.
When people are prepared to speak their truth quietly and with respect and to listen with respect to hear other people's truths.
May we show our respect for difference in the words we use,
In the tone of our voices and in our willingness to listen to others and to make changes in ourselves.
We give thanks when people apologise for past wrongs,
When they seek forgiveness and work for the restoration of broken relationships.
Reverend Emmanuel Cleaver is a United Methodist Pastor.
He has been a member of the Catholic Church for over 30 years.
He has been a member of the Catholic Church for over 30 years.
He is a United Methodist Pastor.
He leaves us with this quote which he used when talking about diversity in the United States of America.
God did not burden the United States with the diversity of backgrounds,
Ideals and religions.
God blessed America with them and we in our diversity and differences are all in this together.
Each of us can use this message regardless of our location on this earth.
By accepting that God did not burden our world with the diversity of backgrounds,
Ideals and religions,
God blessed our world with them and we in our diversity and differences are all in this together.
May we never be blinded by the arguments of those who see difference as something to be feared,
Who see the other person as inferior,
Someone to be the object of discrimination.
Let us instead follow the advice of Albert Einstein when he said,
Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty.
May it be so and may it be soon.
Namaste.
You
