I was a child tonight

I sat in the back row.

This was a religious event. A celebration of the divine. A celebration of life and love. I didn’t understand all the words spoken and chanted but I understood the message nonetheless.

I stood when everyone rose and sat when all did. I didn’t force myself, I did it out of respect for the essence of what all around me believed in.

Was this a synagogue? A church? A mosque? A temple? It didn’t really matter. Even if it were the flat barren earth, it didn’t matter.

We connect with each other, as human beings, at a very deep and unspoken level. All too often, we underestimate the immense power of that connection. We get fooled into thinking and believing that our connection is only based on the color of our skin, the tongue we speak, or the God we believe in. Children know better. And we, as adults, get to experience that when we face death or fall on hard times. When we’re momentarily stripped of our ego and social conditioning. Then, we get an awakening and see other human beings as us and make that powerful connection.

I wasn’t facing death. And I haven’t fallen on hard times. But I was a child tonight. Stripped of conditioning, I was all heart and all human.

Shawn