Sunday, May 15, 2011

Friend

DSCN9781 by springknitter

As always, I very much enjoy the things that happen in life that are a surprise or a "coincidence" or things that happen in threes, or things that seem to happen just at the right time... After writing my last post about learning about other cultures, hearing their views on life topics, and loving them for who they are, I got a last minute invite to go see the Dalai Lama speak at the University of Arkansas. Coincidence??? No way!

As expected, he shared many enlightening words. Words that were already inside of me but I was unable to formulate on my own. When he spoke them aloud, I smiled with the obvious yet insightful nature of his thought process. I smiled at the irony of the simplicity of what he was saying, yet the difficulty in which we practice these concepts. It is this basic: 'If we just take the time to listen,' he said cupping his hand to his ear 'and really talk to one another we will have more peace and love in the world.' Why is this so hard to follow sometimes? Why are we so angry with each other over silly things? The Dalai Lama suggested that it is based on fear and a lack of understanding of what seems different from us. Because ultimately who we are fear, are not our friends.


I suggest it's time to make some new friends. 

While sitting in that auditorium it sort of felt like I had hundreds of new friends. I hadn't taken the time to meet everyone or even speak to them. But we were all in there, albeit very different, spending time together on a similar mission. And isn't that a form of friendship? Coming together in some way to promote something positive?


My eyes were suddenly open to the fact that there is a whole movement out there devoted to promoting a non-violent world. A place where people aren't murdered even for murdering others as their crime. A world where we don't continue to plant seeds of hate that spiral and self perpetuate. A world where everyone is friends. 

With this new inspiration from such incredible people from all walks of life, I was inspired again to start communicating with people from different backgrounds. I've been continuing my search for artists, writers and bloggers from Afghanistan. I was finding incredible stories, groups of peacemakers, bloggers who have opinions and people to feel connected to. But until now I hadn't gotten any written responses back from anyone. I didn't want to just read what they wrote and paraphrase/quote/reference the articles on my blog, I wanted to connect with someone!!


Finally, this weekend I had some luck! I was connected with a woman who works for the blog Our Journey to a Smile (http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog/) and ultimately she connected me with a writer who wrote an article about violence in Afghanistan. We have had some e mail contact now and he is willing to take part in the blog! He's going to be answering some questions for me so my next post will be focused on that.


I got a little anxious today and wanted to post some of what has been on my mind since my experience seeing the Dalai Lama. Friends have been an incredible blessing in my life and as I understand a deeper meaning behind the words, I realize that we are never alone. Lets take the time to learn about someone new today and make a friend. This week I will introduce you to my new friend R in my interview. 


Thanks for staying tuned on this journey with me. I'm more excited than I have been in a long time and I'm really happy to take my readers with me. 


BPositive BAFriend!


Love, 
B


2 comments:

  1. I love this post Becca and I am excited to read your future posts with people from around the world. As you know, I too am trying to change my way of thinking, and hopefully along the way, change people's attitudes that are around me also. You read my post about my yoga practice not too long ago and unfortunately do to a bad rotator cuff, I have not been able to practice my physical portion of yoga lately. However, I have found that this has just given me more opportunity to practice the emotional, mental and spiritual side instead. Amazingly enough, I have found that a more positive attitude appears to be contagious. When I am at work and co-workers start to talk trash about other co-workers, I have found that if I keep my mouth shut and just focus on positive thoughts and an open heart, others start to notice that I am not participating in their trash talk, and they start to stop or apologize for what they are saying. This just shows me that hate and violence is a contagious, nasty bug that can easily be squelched out if people care enough to stop it. Now I know that what happens at my work or in day to day living is a small drop in the bucket compared to world affairs and issues, but couldn't it all be handled the same. We are all human beings with what I hope to believe is an inherent desire to be loved, to give love, to feel safe and to live happily amongst other people. Possibly someday it will be that simple to everyone and the world just may change. In the mean time, let's keep doing our little part to make it a better place for the people that we can.

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  2. How exciting! What a wonderful experience it must have been - being with the Dalai Lama as well as tracking down and finding new friends.

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