live LOVE bE*

I've been exploring spirituality in some way, shape or form since the age of 8-years, when I asked my Sunday School teacher where the Pagans came from and was chastised for -- I never quite understood what it was I was chastised for. Thus the quest.
When I was 10-years old, my mother asked me what I thought happened when we die. I told her, "It all depends on what you believe. We make it all or we break it all. It's in our hands." She thought that was funny -- not in a bad way, it was strange information to hear from a child, she reacted as any human being would. But it hurt me. This information meant something to me, but it did not to her, or so it seemed. She was my world, this is why I remember it so vividly.

Maybe it is my Aries Moon, but I have always felt very intensely that it is important to live Righteously. Now understand what I mean here -- Living to the truest intent of my heart, NEVER buying into something only because others did it and always leery of any situation where mass numbers of people fall in line quickly. ALWAYS taking time to assess whether the premise to follow was in line with my deepest knowing of what is right and fair -- not just for me but for all, as we are all connected in this life.
Because this was pivotal in my life and because I did not feel it was my place to decide these things for any other person, I have always been very careful about what I lend my voice to, while also showing care when addressing others' beliefs. I learned very clearly through a few careless experiences in my younger years that attacking beliefs contrary to my own serves NO ONE -- not me, not them.

And so, any sign of a bandwagon and ppfft! I was out of there -- Cut and Run, as Christopher would say;). Anybody I love going a direction I just can't put my heart behind; pffft! "Love you, sorry, got places to be, things to do…" and I was gone. Needless to say, at 41 I live a fairly "Monkish" existence.
I work from home, I talk very seldom to family and it's been years since I had any real interaction with friends that wasn't online. Other than my husband and in-laws, my son, dogs and cat, the extent really of my social interaction, is right here.

I saw an exorbitant number of posts yesterday with infinite explanations as to why this or that change is taking place. This is something I have noticed in particular for about the past 13 years that seems to have come to or is coming to some culmination. This led me to ponder the above and these are the thoughts that it led me to.

No matter what your individual beliefs may be, no matter what your particular circumstance leading up to this point in time have been, there are some very profound changes taking place in our shared experience now that have the potential to be Made or Broken.
We all live very unique, very individual lives. We share experience with each other, but we only ever experience through the first person. There is no other person alive with YOUR PERSPECTIVE, whole and true with all the experience that led you to this point in time. We cannot begin to understand what circumstances and experience have led another individual to this point in their life, any more than they can be expected to fully understand ours.

I ask now that we all remember this as we see the many reasons each of us believes that we are here at this point in time and why. For my own part, I will LOVE every single one of you regardless of whether or where your belief is similar or not to mine. I will follow my heart and remember that we are all in this together. We are all connected in this universe, whether some remember or not.

It is not my intent to attack with this email, though If I have made you think, I confess, this is partially my intent.  More than anything else, I very much want to convey that love knows no boundaries. Be LOVE.

Have your own voice!  Hell, scream it from the mountain tops, YOU SHOULD! But remember to always love.  We are not enemies, we are family, each searching in our own way.

Much love to each and every one of you,
Erica