Nothing But Net

One of the most basic concepts which many struggle with is the acceptance that as individuals our stories are very unique. Granted, we might share in similar circumstances and events but how we relate to each and everything that comes our way is vastly different from how anyone else relates. For that purpose alone there is a lesson for each of us that is meaningless to anyone else.

One thing that has become increasingly apparent to me over the years and more so in the last few, is the realization that the way our lives intertwine is truly remarkable. I imagine that if I take myself and any individual who has ever crossed my path and put them on something, it would look similar to a fishing net. I won't get into quantum physics here (mainly because I barely understand it) but I will do my best in trying to convey how I view this.

When you look at a net you might see the squares or you might see the strings that make up the pattern. Imagine if you will that one string is you and that every other string represents someone who has come into your life at any given time. Each person is free to travel that string in any way that works for them. They can go straight, make left or right turns, retreat etc. When you look at it this way you might come to see that people who enter our lives do so in a very specific way so that we can understand why they are there. Sometimes they travel parallel with us until they need to go in a different direction. Sometimes they are going where we just came from. Sometimes they turn with us and sometimes, they turn in the opposite direction. Which ever way they are traveling they are doing so on their own unique journey on their own net, it just happens to criscross ours when the time is right.

The mistake that people make is that they forget that each person has their own path to follow. Instead of looking at whatever gift that person is bringing to us in our own understanding of who we are, we might assume that the experience will last forever. It doesn't. Nothing lasts forever. Everything that happens, people who come in and out of our lives, are there for very specific reasons and many times we have no idea what those reasons are until much much later.

When we live our lives as if the only thing that really counts is what is happening now and appreciating what we are doing and who we are with, instead of trying to figure out what this means for some future point in time, then maybe it will allow us to be able to enjoy the experience. The future, which does not really exist (but that is a conversation about time which is too complicated to get into here and can most assuredly be found on some other site in great detail) will take care of itself.

If you think back to a past time frame, we'll say two years, how many of us now are living the lives we thought we'd be living two years ago? I, for one, am not. Not even remotely close to anything I thought I'd be doing. There in lies this thing called life.

As my mind imagines the matrix that makes up my journey, I see the many people who's paths have intersected with mine. Those who have walked with me for a distance and those I've yet to meet.

To truly appreciate the essence of another human being, is to understand that each person has a 'net' of their own in this wonderful complex system of human interaction.