Interconnectedness - otherwise known as the web of life

OK... I admit... this is a very childish drawing... but it is to explain something a child could understand... and that we tend to forget... as adults... stuck in our ego...

As human being, we have a tendency to use the "I" or "my" a lot... I am a writer, I am a yogi, I own a computer, I own a cat, my kids, my cat, my computer, my book, my kitchen...  you get it! We tend to see the world as if everything revolved around us...  will all the emotions this brings...  my feelings... right?

Well this surely doesn't help with gratitude does it? because if everything revolve around "me", why should I be grateful for stuff ?  shouldn't "they" be grateful for "me"?

See where I am going with this?

Now when I started practicing gratitude, it felt "forced" at first... I had to really look hard to be grateful for something... because I took stuff and people for granted... because they were there for "me"! But as you practice, and you can't always come up with grateful for the sun, my son, my husband (here we go again with the "my")... you have to dig deeper... and think about what has an impact on your life... what had an impact on your life... you have to phrase your gratitude without "my" or "I"... and it gets hard... at least it did to me! But I am getting there...

Now what this all brought me to realise is the web of life...  the interconnectedness of everything and everyone...  like the butterfly effect... Now let's go back to my childish drawing...

You need the sun to grow grass and trees.
You need to trees to provide oxygen
You need the trees to provide food - apples for ex
You need water to drink
You need the sun to evaporate the water
You need the cloud to bring back the water in the form or rain
You need the rain to grow the trees
You need the oxygen, the sun, the water, the apple to feed animals and humans
You need parents to have a kid
You need a kid to have parents
see... all these are interrelated... and one could not exist without the other...

You need what you like to make you happy... but you also need what you do not like to be alive and happy...  we just do not think of it! For example, if you do not like the rain so much but love flowers and apples, how can you get what you love (flowers and apples) without the rain?  It's just not possible...

Of course I am using simple images...  because if not this post could go on forever...
Think about your life...  you must enjoy certain aspect of it and maybe less others... but they are related...  and without the ones you do not love, you would not have the ones you do love!

A more mature example... if you ever were unemployed for a period of time.. you may not have liked the financial troubles... but you probably did enjoy the freedom.
If you ever suffer from a serious illness...  you may not have enjoyed the pain and treatments... but you probably enjoyed the time to yourself, the care and the attention you got.

Now this is bringing me even deeper...

Now in the drawing above, everything is related... but nothing is permanent!

It does not always rain
It does not always shine

So is your life... you have rain and shine... never one without the other... and one will never be permanent...  so if you feel like you're in a storm... the sun will come out eventually... and if you feel like you're in a bright sunny place, the storm will come back eventually! There is no other way!

You need to learn from the storm and enjoy the bright sunny days!

Same goes for people around you... they come and go.... with time... some bring the sun when they come and others when they leave... Enjoy both! (same for the storm)

Everything is related
Nothing is permanent

Be here and now... acknowledge and let go.

There's really nothing else you can do!

love&peace,
nath
xox
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