Pure Sunshine - Grasshopper

I wonder if you've ever had this thought about yourself or someone else: You're a ray of sunshine.

I hope so, because it's such an uplifting thought . . . and one we probably don't entertain often enough.

Think about it for a moment. We're all rays of sunshine. And in this metaphor, we all come from the same source . . . the sun.

We're not separate from that source. We're expressions of it. So we're not just the ray . . . we're also the sun.

And so is everybody else.

When you stop and consider that for a moment, you might realize that you're not alone . . . and you're not off beam.

The hermit and the socialite are the same at their core. Different lives, different personalities, yet connected at a much deeper level.

Imagine a sunbeam that doesn't believe it's connected to the sun. And it thinks it's somehow different from every other ray.

If you're like most people, you probably don't have to imagine very hard. You may recognize a little of yourself in that sunbeam.

We tend to think we end at the edge of our skin . . . and that's where everybody else begins.

That's the myth of separation.

Beneath all our outward differences is something we share . . . the spirit that animates you, me, and every other person on the planet.

The Renaissance man Buckminster Fuller used the phrase Spaceship Earth to describe our planet as a spaceship with a shared crew.

And that makes sense to me. So if you try to blow up another passenger, we're all going down in flames.

This is my humble attempt to bring us back to the idea that we're all one and the same . . . just with a different name.

And maybe, if we kept that idea in mind, we'd treat one another with a little more respect.

After all, every person you encounter is dealing with the challenges of life, just like you are.

And they could probably use a little more sunshine in their life.

Maybe . . . just maybe . . . you can be that ray today.

All the best,