SOUL JOURNEY
A monthly feature by Mary Ellen Merrigan

The theme of my day today is people
Just thinking about people makes me smile
There are so many ways to classify

Tall
Short
Dark
Light
Big
Small

People judgment has been a habit for me for eons
The new challenge has been looking at what
Could be going on with people
And not judging
No emotion
Have you tried that one
It seems that we are molded to judge
From children up

Good girls
Bad boys
Nice
Naughty

Everything has been classified in black or white
What a crock
That’s the easy way of looking at life
Right or wrong
People who don’t subscribe to the same values that we have
Are typically judged harshly
By us
It’s much easier to be accepting and loving of those
That share out views
Experiment
Check your reactions
Look at the credibility of a friend
Versus the intolerance you feel for someone unknown
People are getting vocal right now
Voicing their thoughts about their daily encounters
There is little tolerance
For anything
It seems as if there is so much gray in daily life
That the average person wants more black and white

Clarity

Small wonder
We’re bombarded with images
And imaging opportunities
And impressions
And everything

Through it all
We sort through that which is meaningful to our life
The most amazing thing happened to me this week
Someone that I had not talked with in seven years
Called me
And asked for an apology
Apparently I had offended this person seven years ago
I could hardly recall the incident
But I recognized the pain
Wouldn’t it be terrible to hold that fast to the past
And yet we do

All of us have some trigger
That forces us to be different people
Than that which we believe we are
Perception versus reality sometimes
It’s a fact that our view colors our sense of what’s happening
Thank goodness

Without that color
There’d be no personality
Without that color
I wouldn’t be me
(and you, thee)…

So, here’s to color
Not just black and white.

M. E. Merrigan