Dehumanization.
So much suffering goes unnoticed or is marginalized. I watch as violence rises within humanity whose moral compass has been challenged by wounds past and present. Bearing witness to our own challenges, not to mention those around us, has become all about survival of the fittest.
Who do we reward the emotionally and spiritually strong and berate those we see as weak?
Why is there a need for separation?
A wound can leave a sense of depersonalization that all of us struggle with.
Who are we without our wounds?
How do we identify with the world around us?
We tend to isolate in times of weakness but present ourselves when we feel brave.
I see so much separation with our individual and shared suffering. It has an element of dehumanizing us because somewhere in that separation, our unworthiness motivates us to continue to separate even further from ourselves, from each other. Bearing witness for many carries shame, as though a wound becomes a trademark for our life story and survival is a means by which we attach our deepest insecurities to life itself instead of receiving life as a gift.
It takes a lot of inner work to truly see life as a gift and not a race to thrive and rise above suffering.
This competition we have created so that we may live evokes such an emotional and spiritual death, the dehumanization of humanity.
The us vs. them mentality will not help us rise above, but will only compel us to fold inward.
I respect your suffering.
I respect my suffering.
May a beautiful friendship grow from that space.