Just Visiting

The thought that came to me in my meditation this New Year’s morning…

What would the world be like if we all considered ourselves visitors? Rather than owners?

I then remembered the excitement upon seeing the sign “Welcome Center 2 miles.” Remember that? Whenever I was on a road trip, I would look forward to crossing another state line — an indication of movement, of progress, of excitement of things to come.

I wish excitement for the things to come for all of us in 2021. There was so much dis-ease in 2020: literal disease in the form of racism, politics, viruses of all sorts. Dis-ease generates fear. Fear and excitement can feel the same in the body. Go ahead…imagine being afraid and then imagine being excited…notice the similarities, the differences.

Let’s lean into excitement and turn away from fear, accepting that fear is part of the human condition.

What is there to be excited about? We are visitors.

We are visitors on this planet, visitors to this ground on which we walk. The land will be here long after we are gone. Fear of death is believed to be the primary cause of all neuroses. What if we saw our lives as something not to be clung to but a visit to be fully experienced?

All visits have their ups and downs.

There’s all the preparation, the packing, the lines, the following of directions, the confusion, the expectations, the disappointments, the memories. But what is it — this visit here on this planet — all about?

For those of Christian faith, one might say to love God and neighbor as oneself. Hmmm…a journey of love. That sounds pretty good…and hard.

For those of Buddhist tradition, life is embraced as endless, and ever changing with the goal to become more and more enlightened as our Spirit finds a new body and a new life again and again.

For those of Jewish tradition, life is to be well-lived, to embody Torah, the living word of the living “God made real” in the world.

For those of Hindi tradition, we are visitors invited to find liberation through self-realization and self-knowledge.

In many Native American traditions, we are visitors who are invited to be thankful and humble, realizing that we all have value and that Everything has been given to us by the Creator.

In all these traditions, we are invited to life/Life and we are visitors.

What would the world be like if we all considered and remembered we are visitors? Rather than owners?

Perhaps we might have

~ less sin…less “missing of the mark” — less missing the point of loving,

~ less Dukka, or suffering, by holding onto that which is impermanent,

~ more justice and compassion,

~ more Enlightenment, and

~ more gratitude and humility

If we can remember we are only visitors, perhaps we might be kind to our fellow travelers and truly embrace the Journey.

Welcome to the Welcome Center 😉

Blessings,

Sherri

#compassionatetogether