The concept of right relationship has always been important to me, but feels particularly significant in these turbulent times.
photo: Creative Commons, rachel tiriga's photostream
It can be applied so broadly: art and music are based on right relationship between colours, lines, notes, rhythms and textures. Skilled designers take careful consideration of the kinds of relationships they establish between what is being created and the viewer, audience or participant.
Governments have many relationships to consider, and if they can’t successfully manage these, especially between themselves and their citizens, they fall, as has been evident in world affairs lately.
Nature is all about right relationship. Ants constitute twice the biomass of people on the planet, but they don’t create a problem because everything they do benefits the ecosystem. If we’re so smart, why haven’t we figured out how to do that? Maybe right relationship with our planet is the final frontier!
Right relationship with the people in our lives has the potential to create meaning, trust and constructive action. It can generate comfort and support when we need it, and can bring out our most noble traits. Seeking to deeply understand each other before trying to persuade others clears channels of communication and develops compassion.
It also offers us the opportunity to learn. We all have assumptions that spring from places within that are unconscious and hidden, and we base our actions on these. When we listen carefully to someone with a different point of view, we can hold our assumptions up to the light and examine them: Are they really true? I’m grateful for the many times I’ve learned about different ways of looking at the world, and had my mind changed.
photo: Creative Commons, my camera and me's photostream
I have renewed my commitment to right relationship with the people in my life, to my community, to our planet and and to myself. In these crazy times, it feels like the only sensible thing to do.
[...] try only to live in harmony with that realm, others in my life, the planet and myself; to live in right relationship. And I love anything that helps me do that more deeply, truly and meaningfully. Beyond that, I [...]
[...] in right relationship with everyone in your life. Trusting, respectful relationships create the emotional safety needed [...]